Mountains of Telluride - My first time touching snow

I can touch snow! I told my sister that when we watched a movie with snowy scenes on family television. Then I opened our old refrigerator and scratched a pinch of snow from it to show my sister. That was a childhood memory of kids from a tropical country like us.

When we grow up, we have a bigger fridge and it even does not create snow in freezer. As a stream of life, my memory about snow was locked in the fairy trunk of childhood. Luckily though in 2012, I had an opportunity to travel to the United States to be a co-leader of Vietnamese delegation for an international cultural exchange program.

I and teenagers in the delegation spent most of time in Telluride, Colorado where the program was held. Telluride is famous for ski ranches and snow in winter. However, we got there in June - July so it meant that we could not see falling snow like in Christmas movie. The eager to discover a new land obliterated my kid dream of touching snow. Moreover, the beauty of nature here amazed me in my first trip abroad.

As busily arranging classes and activities for teenagers in the program, I was told by a staff that we could get up mountains where snow is permanent as it is not melted even in summer. As a result, the joke of touching snow with my sister returned in my head and I asked for a jeep booked to climb top of Telluride with my group.

The driver picked up us from town center to go off-road on a rocky road. Actually, I did not know much where he was going to take us to except the belief that I could touch REAL snow for the first time. That seems a weird thought for some from temperate zone but not from a tropical man like me. The altitude of the town is about 8750 feet so we were going to get around 12,000 as the driver told us.

From high mountain, I could see this beautiful town is cuddled in middle of the valley and the green of oaks is hugging it. The temperature was about 15 Celsius when in the morning, but it dropped quickly when we got higher on the mountain. As the result, the road is getting more rocky. It looks dangerous with cliff on one side and the narrow road.

On the way, we had time to stop on the road for group photos. All members were very joyful and so was I. The higher we got, the colder it was. The sun hid himself behind foggy cloud and we could feel the frozen air eating our skin. We were asked to get some blankets on the jeep to keep warm.

Rain started and we covered jeep side by transparent plastic to keep dry and warmer. I really adore the photo above reflecting image of my teenager. When I look this photo, it reflects a part of me searching for a new thing for an old childhood dream.

When the temperature got around 4 Celsius, hail started. It was not big, at the size of a pea. The reason was that we are in the same altitude with cloud as the road was foggy. To press higher our excitement, the driver asked us to shout: " Free ice cream" then he would push the pedal to accelerate. We knew that everything was in his control and we shouted in great excitement. "Free ice cream" sounds same as "Free I scream". I keep that joke as a great words of the trip.

Finally, we got the stop where we could see snow patching around on the rocky ground. There is little grass up here but it is reasonable because I can not stay long in this cold as these plants. I watched the thermometer on the car and it showed 35 Fahrenheit (2 Celsius).

The landscape is so perspective and gorgeous. We were actually higher than cloud. When I were a kid, I thought over the cloud was where fairy lived. I believed that until a day I got my first flight. The view in front of my eyes reminded me of that innocent thought and I smiled with it.

Everyone rushed to snow patch to get snow and play snowball. The snow is not truly white like in movie but with red dust in it. We did not make snowman but playing snowball on the top of mountain was a great experience for everyone. To me, the childhood dream came true and I thought of my family, specially my sister: "Hey sis, I did it!"

Yes it was not snow in my old fridge! It was natural snow! Snow from the sky! I forgot the cold there at that moment. I helped other to take some photos because I knew that they had the same excitement as mine and they wanted to keep this good time as well. I hope you guys can imagine how I felt that day.

The trip ended by a downhill "free ice cream". On the way down, we could see some elks on other mountain sides. They looked still from distance but when we got closer, we could see they were moving and eating. There were many bikers coming up. It is a great place for outdoor activities. I would like to show you other activities I did another day.

As you may know, in Vietnam, there is some snow in cold winter in mountains of Nghe An or in Sapa. However, it may be melted after 2 - 3 days and it rarely happens. As a result, it could be hard for me to travel to see snow in my country or it may be melted when I get there. The experience on mountains of Telluride is always a great part of my memorable trip and when we talk about this journey, I would tell my sister again: I did touch real snow!

@tungphong
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