Saturday, June 4, 2011

Jud Wiebe Trail

The Jud Wiebe Trail is a 2.7 mile loop in Telluride town in southwest Colorado. The west trailhead is at the north end of Aspen Street. I parked in the free parking that is on the southwest side of town and it was a 20 minute walk through the scenic town streets to the trailhead.

The west trailhead is also the beginning of the short trail to Cornet Falls and to the east ends of the Deep Creek Trail and Sneffels Highline Trail. At the trailhead there is a bridge across Cornet Creek.
 

The first segment climbs steeply to the west through spruce, fir and aspens. There are increasingly higher views to the west down the Telluride Valley and across the town. It took me 0:35 minutes to climb to the trail junctions.

The Jud Wiebe Trail switches back toward the east and continues to climb. 


The views get better as the elevation increases. In early June there was still a lot of snow at the higher elevations.

At the high point there is a small bench with more spectacular views. It looks like the high point elevation is at about 9680 feet with the trailhead about 8800 feet.

 I thought the bench view point was higher than the top of the Bridal Veil Falls to the east. From the trail junctions it took 0:20 minutes more of climbing to arrive at the bench.

From the bench the trail begins to descend and winds around the Cornet Creek. This segment of trail still had some patches of snow. There is a bridge across the Cornet Creek and a trail junction with the Liberty Bell Trail.

The switchbacks down the final segment come very close to the area above the Cornet Falls but I didn’t see a good view of the falls from there. The east trailhead connects to Tomboy Road, which leads 5 miles to the Tomboy Mine site.
 

The Telluride Historical Museum on Gregory Street is very close to the east trailhead. The museum has interpretive displays on the mining and social history of Telluride and also has the Telluride Blanket, a rare Ancestral Pueblo woven blanket that is more than 700 years old.

My total hike from the parking area to the Museum took 2:30 hours for the 2.7 mile trail plus about 1 mile of town walking. It was a 58 F degree sunny day. I carried 2 liters of water and drank 1 of them.


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