Beautiful Telluride reopens with great care

The 13-minute free gondola ride between Telluride and Mountain Village provides breathtaking views of the San Miguel mountains.

BY FREDA MIKLIN - GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER

Telluride is a popular tourist destination in San Miguel County for visitors from all over the world, especially for skiing. It is also isolated in a box canyon six hours from Denver by car and does not have a hospital with an intensive care unit within 60 miles. COVID-19 began showing up in Colorado during the height of the 2020 spring skiing season. Residents of Telluride, many of whom are over 60, feared the worst if the virus took hold in their community. On April 9, we reported a plan in The Villager for testing all 8,000 residents of San Miguel County, including the 2,200 who live in Telluride, for antibodies to the novel coronavirus. It was the brainchild on two Telluride residents, Mei Hei Hu and her husband Lou Reese, who are principals of United Biomedical, Inc. based in New York. The lab where the antibody tests were scheduled to be processed is also in New York. Just as the plan to test the residents of San Miguel County was put into place, New York suffered a well-publicized overwhelming outbreak of the virus, delaying the processing of the tests for San Miguel County. They eventually got some results, but it was not possible to complete the two sets of tests for comparison purposes that were originally planned. Also, like many antibody tests, these did not tell the whole story about who was still susceptible to the virus, so the town stayed closed up tight. Although it never experienced large numbers of positive cases of COVID-19 (there are currently 12 active cases in the county), Telluride is being extremely careful as it begins to reopen to the public. In an abundance of caution, the San Miguel County website describes every new case of COVID-19 on the day it is diagnosed in great detail (age, gender, relation to other known cases) to offer its residents every chance to take necessary precautions. We visited Telluride on the weekend of June 26-28. At our hotel, the restaurant and fitness area were closed and there was no daily maid service. Rooms are left untouched by hotel staff for 24 hours after guests check out to protect housekeeping staff. Masks are required in all public areas at all times. Although a few offer on-premises seating, largely outdoors, most restaurants in town are still take-out only. Cash is not accepted, only debit or credit cards. To accommodate patrons, Main Street has been made into a one-way, with half the street set up with round outdoor tables six feet apart available for public use, not for any specific restaurant. There are hand sanitizer stations nearby and signs on every table reminding patrons to bus their tables when they are finished using them, wash their hands frequently, wear masks whenever they are in public, and maintain social distancing. Anyone walking into a store without a mask is immediately reminded to put one on. It is not optional. Some stores require customers to use hand sanitizer located near the door upon entering. One store we visited kept the front door locked even though it was open for business, admitting new customers only as others left through a side door to limit the number inside to 15 people, including staff, at all times. Like restaurants, stores do not accept cash, only plastic. At one restaurant we visited in Mountain Village at the top of the gondola, which offers 13-minute rides between Telluride and Mountain Village from 7:00 a.m. to midnight daily for free, we were asked for a name, email address, and phone number before our order was taken, so it could be used for contact tracing, should someone test positive for the virus. Telluride is a breathtakingly beautiful and unique area in southwest Colorado, the home of a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River. There are hiking trails and mountain biking trails all around to enjoy the outdoors. If you visit, be prepared to follow health guidelines. They are not optional there. Fmiklin.villager@gmail.com

Main Street is now a one-way, with half the street reserved for outdoor dining for the public and signs overhead to remind everyone how to stay safe. Photos by Freda Miklin