Other activities

The mountain offers snowbiking, tubing and snowskating (wheel-less skateboards designed for snow) at Thrill Hill, an outdoor activity center at the base of Lift 2 and accessible from Mountain Village. It's open from 2:30–7 p.m., Wednesday–Sunday. For indoor fun, go to Plaza Arcade to play video games, foosball, air hockey and pinball, or the Xbox Arcade next to That Pizza Place to play Xbox games.

You can go on sleigh rides at Skyline Guest Ranch (888-754-1126); horseback riding with Roudy at Telluride Horseback Adventures (728-9611); winter fly fishing with Telluride Outside (728-3895); hot-air ballooning with San Juan Balloon Adventures (626-5495); dogsledding with Winter Moon Sled Dog Adventures (729-0058); snowmobile tours of Telluride’s mining past with Telluride Snowmobile Adventures (728-4475) or Dave’s Snowmobile Tours (728-7737); and helicopter skiing and riding with Telluride Helitrax (728-8377; 866-435-4754; above). There’s a pond in Mountain Village and another in town for ice skating. It isn’t every town that has a colorful past like Telluride’s, so Boling’s Historical Tour of Telluride (728-6639) is well worth the time, and entertaining too, since local performer Ashley Boling dresses the part.

Non-skiers and those who need a break might enjoy stretching their creative muscles at the Ah Haa School for the Arts (728-3886), which offers weekly and daily classes in painting, silk dyeing and more. First-run films are shown nightly at the Nugget Theatre and sometimes at the Sheridan Opera House which was originally a vaudeville theater and is now the stage for many events. Check the calendar and see if local productions are scheduled during your stay. The old hospital has been turned into the Telluride Historical Museum which depicts the mining past of this Victorian town.

The fabulous Golden Door Spa (800-772-5482; 728-2590) at The Peaks Resort is a 42,000-square-foot facility on four levels. Sister spa to the Golden Door in Escondido, Calif., the spa provides sanctuary in the tradition of the ancient Honjin inns of Japan. The spa has 44 treatment rooms where you can enjoy a wide variety of massage techniques, facials, body and signature treatments. We highly recommend the three-hour Breath of Life package for people not used to high altitude. You’ll spend 20 minutes in the Oxygen Bar, be slathered in a re-mineralizing body mask to exfoliate and rehydrate your skin, take a break for a delectable spa lunch and end with an oxygen facial treatment. Peaks guests have complimentary use of the fitness level (Cybex weight room and cardiovascular deck), the men’s and women’s kivas, saunas, steam rooms, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, an indoor lap pool connected by a water slide to the lower indoor/outdoor pool, squash and racquetball courts and indoor climbing wall.

Telluride has great shopping in one-of-a-kind boutiques and more than a dozen art galleries. Some of our favorites, all on Colorado Avenue: Lizard Head Mining Co., for its extraordinary custom-made jewelry; At Home in Telluride, with distinctive housewares and gifts; Picaya, with some nice and inexpensive jewelry and clothing; the Scott White Contemporary Art Gallery, showcasing renowned contemporary artists (affiliated with San Diego’s distinguished gallery); Overland Sheepskin & Leather for clothing, footwear, accessories and home products; and Telluride Antique Market. A nice souvenir is a hat from Horny Toad Activewear, a national outdoor clothing company headquartered here. If you decide you’d like a Nordic wool-and-felt hat like a lot of locals wear, call Kim Chapin-Richard, a member of the ski patrol and hat maker (728-3443). She’ll need a few days’ notice.