Before hubby and I said goodbye to 2016, we took a quick weekend trip to Telluride, Colorado, for my birthday. Although I’ve never had any big, eventful birthday celebrations to compare this one to, I would still have to say that this was the most wonderful and awesome birthday celebration. Freakin’ ever!
Those that know me know that I loooOoove snow, and if snow is what you crave, Telluride is the place to be! Hubby and I have only been to Telluride together twice in the summer months, so it was a treat to finally visit Telluride during its quintessential time of year. Truth be told, we would have gotten married in Telluride if it weren’t for the hefty price tag!
Throwback to 2011 when Pie and I were first dating and visited Telluride for the first time.
A nice winter storm was set to come through Colorado for the weekend of our trip, but it had barely begun snowing when we arrived in Telluride on Friday night. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t get my birthday wish of snow, but luckily I woke up the next day, my birthday, to this:
View from our hotel balcony in Telluride.
Yassss!!! Snow!!! Although this excited me to no end, the dachshunds were less than thrilled. As snow continued to fall from the vintage-y white sky, we grabbed the dachshunds and took a trip to Mountain Village, a town that is right next to Telluride, via the town’s free gondola ride.
It didn’t take long before the dachshunds reminded us that they are certainly not hearty Bernese Mountain dogs that bathe in snow for fun and they are indeed the wimpy, spoiled, indoor dachshunds that we’ve always known them to be.
The gondola station was right across the street from our hotel. Hubby tried to keep Roxie as warm as possible, but she was shaking like a leaf!
Stationary gondola in Mountain Village that was set up as a photo booth.
Our trip to Mountain Village was brief and once back in Telluride, we swapped the dachshunds for snowshoes. I verbally protested the idea of snowshoeing on my birthday in the 15 degree temps and falling snow, but once we got going on the trail, I remembered that I actually liked being out in the snow and not just watching it from the hotel room with a brunch mimosa in hand.
We had chosen to snowshoe the Bear Creek Falls trail, which seemed like a delightful trail for the first mile while we were trekking through beautifully naked groves of aspens and following a few previous snowshoe and snowboarder tracks, but when those ran out, our snowshoe hike got serious real fast!
Breaking trail in two feet of snow on a slight incline was no joke. Pie and I ended up taking turns breaking trail and after hiking a total of 2.2 sweaty, exhausting miles, we reached what seemed like the end of the trail. In the far distance, we could just barely make out the iconic frozen waterfalls of the Bear Creek Falls trail.
After snapping a few gazillion obligatory pics, it was time to head back to our cozy, warm lodging and celebrate the rest of my birthday inside!
While I didn’t want it to stop snowing [ever], the next morning we awoke to clear skies and this was actually A-okay. We had enjoyed the snow and grey skies for the first part of our weekend, but it was also nice to see the snow paired with blue skies for the second part of our weekend. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect and snowy weekend for my birthday!
Our drive home through a real-life winter wonderland.
{ E M & P I E } 