An upscale hike in Telluride

©2013 Lydia Hinshaw

Wednesday's aspen-heavy trail

The old mine we hiked to

 TELLURIDE, CO -- Wednesday after things warmed up from the 22-degree low, we set out on a hike that was supposed to lead to a waterfall a mile and a half away.
 Turned out, a mile and a half took you to an old mine with a view of the waterfall, the top of which was probably another hour or two up a steep, dusty road.
The waterfall itself was in the shade, and flanked by a power plant, and not very photogenic, at least at the time we were there.
 Not much about the hike was what we expected.  The trail was almost manicured, and went through a residential area of high-dollar homes.  Every few hundred yards were storyboards with information about Telluride's days as a mining town, and the hardships endured by early prospectors who came here to get rich.
 Nowadays, if you want to live in Telluride, you have to get rich somewhere else first.