How traveling to Telluride showed me to appreciate the journey of life
During my time in Colorado, I learned a lot about life from a road trip my husband and I took from Denver to Telluride. We decided to travel to celebrate my birthday in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and then turned a week long trip into a mini getaway.
My vacation was filled with beautiful scenery, alpine forests, mountains for days, winding roads, changes in elevation and weather, and so much more. Yet, the most important thing this journey did for me was awaken a depth in myself that I didn’t realize until I embarked on this adventure.
When my husband suggested we drive to Telluride, I felt excited but extremely nervous about it at the same time. It was a dream place for me to visit, but we didn’t have it planned in our weekly vacation itinerary. It was a completely spontaneous suggestion.
In fact, we only had (3) days planned in our itinerary. The rest of the (6) days of our travel would be planned on a day-by-day basis. I’ve always been the type of person to enjoy spontaneous adventures, but for some reason my anxiety awoke in that moment.
Since I live with high functioning anxiety, the only way I have come to terms with myself is by separating my anxiety from my personality by giving my anxiety a name. I’d like to introduce you to Short — she comes out from time to time when least expected. To compensate for her being “short” in size, she exaggerates and makes things bigger than they need to be. She is also named Short because she has a Napoleon complex in her direct relationship with unnecessary fear, and causes limited beliefs which my higher self does not agree with.
So, Short went into a spiral of overthinking some of the worst possible things that could happen while taking a 7+ hour drive. She kept circling on the fact that none of us have traveled these roads before and how intimidating the thought of that was. She kept thinking we would be in zones with no reception, asking questions in her head like:
How would we get help if the GPS signal got lost? What do we do without any cell reception? Were we well prepared? What would happen if we get a flat in an area where there is no civilization for about 20 miles? What if we run out of gas before we could reach a gas station? What if the car breaks down because of altitude changes? What is the weather going to be like during our journey? Did we bring enough water? What are we going to eat? Will there be enough pit stops? Why don’t we just stay a night so we don’t have to drive 14 hours in one day? Why is this all so sudden? What if my knees start aching on the way there? I’ve never been in a care more than 4 hours, how will I survive? HELP!!!!
While Short ruined the moment with fear, my true nature on the other hand was extremely excited to finally get to see and experience the town I’ve always wished to visit. When I had seen pictures of Telluride in the past, I knew I had to go there. I didn’t know what it was about that small mountain town that brought me joy, but it just looked magical in pictures. I just knew I’d be happy traveling there. I just never thought we’d actually be traveling by car get to the final destination. It was an overnight decision and it’s funny because when I woke up on the day we were going to head out on our adventure, Short was going to say “let’s wait another day” but my husband wasn’t going to let her ruin our fun adventure.
The funny thing about this whole adventure (as cliché as it may sound), the journey was much more exciting and fulfilling than the destination. On the road to Telluride, I discovered so many different towns and areas in Colorado that I just adored.
We started our journey at 3:00 am to drive out of the city and onto I-70 West through the mountains. I couldn’t fall asleep in the car. Short just kept me awake during the morning hours, and oddly enough, I was glad she did. If it wasn’t for her, I would not have gotten to see a sunrise over the mountains like I always wanted to. I know my husband would have woken me up, but I just couldn’t sleep. I wanted to experience and see everything.
We stopped at a rest area in the town of Frisco to catch the sunrise over the mountain. It was the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen. Everything about the sunrise was perfect. The sky was filled in shades of pink and purple breaking up the dark night sky to welcome the morning rays of sunlight into my own personal paradise.
We stayed and watched the sunrise as we took our first real break from the drive. We were at around our (2) hour mark at this time, but we still had 6 hours left to go. After leaving the Frisco area, we continued on and discovered more beautiful scenery.
I’ve always been a mountain lover, and being able to see mountains for hours was just breathtaking. The winding roads added a nostalgic feel for me as it made me remember my time in Canada when I first fell in love with the mountains and forests.
After about 3 hours of driving, we ended up stopping at a rest area that had the most perfect view of a river next to the mountains. Anyone that knows me knows I can’t have my mountains without a body of water next to or around them. For some reason, it just feels empty to me. I love listening to the sound of the rivers flowing.
The perfect ideal scenic photography combination for me has always been: trees, water, and mountains all in one picture, and we ended up finding this little gem by complete accident.
Short just had to say:
Imagine if we never had to take a break, then we wouldn’t have found this amazing place we fell in love with!
It was a super small walk from the rest area down this river path and we sat here for a moment to take it all in.
This amazing spot was known as Glenwood Canyon, CO. Later it became known as “my spot” just because I fell in love with it instantly.
This spot was about 2.5–3 hours away from where we were staying in Denver/Aurora, but it was honestly my favorite part of the trip to Telluride. I just fell in love with everything about this spot. There was a massive rock that came up to my waist on the edge of the river. It had a dent to where it looked like it could be a seat to sit on, and I sat perfectly on that rock. I took a few minutes to just sit by the river listening to the sounds of nature from the water flowing around the curves of the mountain.
We hadn’t even reached the destination yet at this point, but I already fell in love with the sunrise over Frisco and the Glenwood Canyon rest area off I-70. This was the greatest trip ever, and we had only been on the road for over 3 hours still.
During the rest of the drive, we discovered other interesting scenic points along the way to Telluride.
We saw the Colorado Mesas as we passed through De Beque to Grand Junction. As we passed through the Mesas, Short’s fear of no civilization for about 20 miles appeared on the road to Telluride.
We drove for about 20 miles down an empty road with no real “stops” or gas stations for a solid 25 minutes of the journey to Telluride. The towns through the Mesas looked like an old west scene passing through on the west side of Colorado.
It looked almost desert like as we passed through the scenery of the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area. The Mesa and Plateaus were sand colored and not as much of the mountain-alpine scenery as back in Breckenridge.
The last half of the trip to Telluride felt like forever especially since the scenery changed drastically since we weren’t driving in the mountains anymore. It was a mix of flat and hilly areas but the last hour into Telluride was a gorgeous scenic view with higher elevation and the mountains still had some snow left on them during the summer season.
During our journey to Telluride, we had an accidental detour about 30 minutes away from Telluride after realizing we took the wrong road since the GPS had lost signal the closer we got into the mountain ranges.
The funny thing was — that mistaken path was extremely beautiful and full of mountains as well. I couldn’t have complained. Even in the wrong direction, there was still beauty to be seen.
After re-routing back on the right path, we finally reached our final destination: Telluride.
We made it (9) hours later. I was so happy that I could overcome my fear of the unknown to reach this level of happiness, love, and appreciation.
Telluride — the beautiful mountain town of Colorado. We finally made it. This is what the whole journey was supposed to be about (at least we thought) — but at the end of the day, I realized it wasn’t.
This whole journey wasn’t just about enjoying the destination, but about enjoying every single part of the ride — all of the stops, detours, and hours spent through every town we passed through.
This journey showed me how to appreciate my personal weight loss journey as well from the up and down moments to my plateaus and the unexpected pit-stops that come along that route. It even showed me it’s okay to take a detour and then get right back on the path to my “destination”. When I lost weight in 2013, I was never focused on the journey. I just rushed through it miserably because wanted to reach my destination as soon as possible.
Needless to say years later, it backfired because once I was at my destination, I wasn’t happy. I failed to love and accept the ride I was on because I was impatient.
Then Telluride happened.
The journey to Telluride made me realize that while I have been running on flat tires the past two years, it was time to replace my tires and get back on the road again and stop sitting waiting for someone to come pick me up. I had to get back on my path and start enjoying the entire journey.
I learned how to appreciate the Plateaus as much as the uphill battles.
I learned how life can change from moment to moment and how it’s better to embrace the moment(s) that arise than to fight them.
I learned I could find happiness in the most unexpected places, but that happiness must have already been inside me to truly appreciate the world around me.
I learned that love travels with me everywhere I go, and sometimes fear does too, but that’s part of being human, and when I recognize when “Short” arrives, I don’t have to let her control me.
I learned to appreciate the detours, because sometimes a detour might not always be such a bad idea.
I learned that it’s easy to find joy in the good times, but you need to find joy in the unsure times as well, because life’s too short to be miserable.
Telluride was an unexpected journey. I realized that sometimes some trips can’t be planned ahead. It’s better to enjoy them in the spontaneous adventures of life. There are some things you just can’t prepare for, but it doesn’t mean you can’t find some enjoyment in them.
Now, I finally understand when they say that it’s not the destination you’re after— but it’s all about enjoying the journey along the way.
By: Cecilia J. Sanders © 2019
