Experience the best of Telluride

Telluride lies at 2,667 metres in a narrow box canyon, ringed by peaks above 4,000 metres, and its main street of brick Victorian buildings from the silver-mining boom is a National Historic Landmark District. Butch Cassidy committed his first bank robbery here in 1889. Bridal Veil Falls, at 110 metres the tallest free-falling waterfall in Colorado, drops at the head of the canyon.

A gondola links the town with Mountain Village, a resort village on the slopes above, where lifts serve the ski runs. Festivals fill the summer, among them bluegrass in June and the film festival over Labor Day weekend, and the airport, at 2,764 metres, is among the highest commercial airports in North America. Ouray, a hot-springs mining town ringed by cliffs, lies north across the passes.

Elk, bison and trout appear on the menus of the restaurants along Colorado Avenue, with craft beer from local breweries. Snow for skiing lies from late November to April, and the aspens turn gold in late September.