The Prospect Trail traverses the spruce and fir forest across part of the Telluride Ski Area in southwest Colorado. The trail head is a branch off of the Village Trail near the St. Sophia Nature Center.
I started my hike at the free parking area on the southwest side of Telluride and walked east about 0.4 miles along the very scenic San Miguel River Trail to the free summer gondola. Along the way there is an interpretive sign at the Depot, a restored early train station. The first gondola stop is the St. Sophia Station and the Nature Center is to the left.
Near the trail head, there is an interpretive sign describing the history of skiing in the Telluride area. Most of the ski runs at Telluride are references to the area mining history. The first segment of trail passes through forested areas, chair lift openings, and open ski slope areas.
The views are mostly to the mountains north of Telluride near the airport. This trail is open to hikers, mountain bikes and horses with mountain bikes probably the most common. I didn’t see any evidence that horse riders use this trail. There isn’t much elevation change in the first 2.5 miles or so to Prospect Creek.
After crossing the small Prospect Creek, the route climbs with switchbacks and crosses a scree slope area. There are more spectacular mountain views and some views down into the Mountain Village area.
The trail was easy to follow until I arrived at the Ute Park Express Ski Lift and the Topaten Nordic Ski Area. There is a trail junction before these two sites with the Prospect Loop to the left and the Prospect Trail to the right. I stayed to the right. Looking at the maps later, the loop returns to the Sophia Nature Center without going into Mountain Village. Staying on the Prospect Trail led into the also confusing Nordic Ski Area. A map of the ski loops is posted, but it didn’t show the Prospect Trail.
A sign pointing downhill toward Mountain Village said Enchanted Forest and there was a trail so I followed it through a narrow opening in the forest. The Enchanted Forest is a short section with some weather beaten art propped up against the trees. I saw at least four of these large cartoon images.
This alternate route cuts some distance off the Prospect Trail and ends up in more or less the same place. The typical maps that hikers use don’t show all of the alternate ski route trails and roads that are available here. Even the local Telluride maps are somewhat confusing, but all the ski trails generally lead back to Mountain Village.
After the Enchanted Forest I followed Teddy’s Way. This segment led downhill through the outskirts of a residential area with some spectacular mountain homes. There are ski bridges passing over the paved roads.
I think the last part of the Prospect Trail merges with Teddy’s Way but I didn’t see the trail junction. Just before arriving in the Mountain Village area the route enters the Double Cabins Disk Golf Course and there were several groups firing disks at the chain flags. The Prospect Trail conveniently ends across the road from the Station Village Parking Gondola. I rode the gondola all the way back down into Telluride and returned back along the River Trail to the parking area.
My hike took 3:50 hours. I think I walked about 5.5 miles on the Prospect, Enchanted Forest, and Teddy’s Way Trails and another 0.8 mile on the River Trail. There is about 1000 feet of descent from St. Sophia to Mountain Village. It was about 60 F degrees at 9:50 AM and about 70 F at 1:40 PM. I carried 3 liters of water but only drank 2. Mountain hikes often face afternoon showers. There was rain in the Lizard Head area to the south as I finished but no rain during my hike.
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