Telluride: The Photoblog, at Long Last

On my way out of Telluride back to Gunnison Wednesday, I stopped at the Office Depot (hooray for civilization!) and bought myself a USB cord, and, 'lo! I am now able to actually download the pictures from my camera and into my trusty laptop! I was driving the three-plus hours to Gunnison, in case you're curious, because all the flights into Telluride and Montrose were booked, and Gunnison was as close as I could get. Fortunately, it was a nice drive.The pic above is of the amazing Colorado sky, taken near Blue Mesa Lake.

If you're hoping for lots of cool celeb shots, sorry. Telluride is a laid-back festival where stars come to relax and feel normal, and honestly, although I saw a few, I just didn't want to intrude on their privacy and fun at the fest. I suppose that makes me a lousy paparazzi. No doubt we'll get plenty of celeb pics for you at Toronto, but Telluride is all about the beauty and the films. There are a few more pics after the fold.

Main Street in downtown Gunnison. "The Bean" across the street makes a really good latte. The cafe to the right of "The Bean" boasts that it serves "the best breakfast in Gunnison," which impressed me a lot -- until the waitress whispered, "Well, actually, there's only really two places in town to get breakfast, hon." Gunnison does boast one thing Seattle sorely lacks -- a Sonic Drive-In. I wanted a cherry limeade, but had already bought my coffee by the time I saw it down the road a piece.

Some of the artwork available to buy in Gunnison. I know, I know. But they're cute, in a rural Colorado way. If I had a little log house out there somewhere, I would definitely want that moose on my front porch.

Almost, but not quite, to Telluride. Surprisingly well stocked with gourmet-ish stuff, for a little shop kind of in the middle of nowhere. Well, technically, it's the town of Sawpit, a pretty remote spot to find gourmet cookies and organic dark chocolate. Not that I would eat those things, of course not. I just bought bottled water, really.

Finally in Telluride. This pic is off Colorado Ave (which everyone there calls Main St, so I don't know why they don't just change the name already).

Colorado Ave again, with more people and the official Telluride Film Festival banner up. Look! Is that Paris Hilton? Oh, sorry, guess not.

Remember in grade school, when you sang "America the Beautiful," with those "purple mountain majesties?" I couldn't stop humming that to myself all weekend.

The way you get around the film festival, from Mountain Village (where Cinematical headquarters was located) over to Telluride, is on the free gondola -- basically a taxi in the sky, where you're in a little car suspended on cables, and you hope desperately that the engineers who designed it were really, really good at their jobs. This is a shot from the gondola as we pass over the lodge.

Now we're on the gondola that goes from the second Mountain Village stop all the way down the mountain to Telluride. Almost straight down, as you can see. You can see Telluride -- all of it -- down below. That's pretty much the whole town -- you can walk from one end to the other in about 20 minutes. It's about the size of my neighborhood in Seattle.

A nice shot of the lodge at Mountain Lodge at Telluride, site of Cinematical's headquarters for the fest.

That's it for Telluride, folks, except for a couple more pieces I'm working on. Lots of Toronto coverage heading your way, starting tomorrow!