Telluride Outside — Local services in Telluride

Remember the Leonard Cohen song "Everybody Knows?" Well everybody who knows him must know my guide Jason likes bugs... he watches them on the water, plunges his hand in cold water to scoop one up, turns over rocks to see what is wiggling around... yup ... loves bugs. Maybe the most memorable moment of my three wonderful days on the water was when Jason caught one of the several grasshoppers of the trip. It was modest sized. He showed it to me and then said I am going to toss this guy in the river (the lower Delores). He did that and "slurp" a large trout responded. Jason then matched the hopper size and color with one of the flies from his collection. Rigged it up, told me where to cast it which I I achieved (sort of). It drifted down and "slurp" again! But somehow I missed it. I was disappointed. But Jason was really disappointed -- his great piece of superb guiding spoiled by my slow hands. I caught multiple large trout 15 to 20 inches and on my third day five different species of trout -- rainbow, brown, brook, cutthroat and cutbow. Of course, all those great fish will remain a wonderful memory. But the hopper story will somehow rise to the top for me. Jason is a fabulous guide. He deserved for me to have caught that fish. Oh well, guess the moral of the story is that I will have to come back multiple times (poor me) to see if I can make it up to him -- reward his great guiding as it should have been rewarded. ...

I went fly fishing yesterday with a guide, and while the overall fishing experience was solid, there were a couple things that didn’t sit right with me.

First, the guide himself was a great fly fisherman. He knew the area well, took me to some beautiful spots, and helped me land several beautiful fish. He was also a great teacher, patient, clear, and easy to learn from. I really appreciated that part of the day.

However, there were issues that made the experience less enjoyable than it could’ve been. When I booked the trip over the phone, Heather told me waders would be provided. Instead, I was given ankle-high waterproof shoes, basically aqua socks that went over the foot and into hiking boots. Not at all what I expected, and definitely not what I would’ve packed for if I had known. It made being in the water pretty uncomfortable.

At the end of the day, I tipped the guide $140, which I thought was generous. But as he was dropping me off, he asked if that was 20%. Honestly, that caught me off guard. It felt unprofessional and left a bad taste at the end of what was otherwise a decent day. Tipping should be left to the client’s discretion — not suggested, questioned, or demanded by the employee.

In short: great fishing and instruction, but the gear situation and the awkward comment about the tip really detracted from the experience.

After coming to Telluride for 24 years, I’m not sure I’ll be returning to or recommending...

My daughter treated me to the Telluride Outside guided tour to Alta Lake/Ghost Town - mining town the day before we left for home. Telluride Outside was very accommodating as we didn’t want to do the Ophir Pass and Heather stated that there was another family that just wanted to see the Alta Lake and the Gold King Mining town. I am ashamed to say that I didn’t catch our guides name but I believe he said his name was Matt. I hope I have his name correct because he was just awesome! Telluride Outside pickup us up from our condo and returned us back after the tour, which I thought was great! The weather was rainy at the base of the road leading to Alta Lake but once we arrived at the top, it started snowing. It was just magical! The guide let us get out of the jeep and take photos of the lake. We arrived in the mining town and most of the old wooden buildings had fallen over but the guide did a wonderful job explaining what each building was and how the mine was operated. He had a pick axe in the jeep and started breaking some rocks in the discard pile from the old mining days in the 1940’s. He pointed out minerals in the rocks and showed us samples of fools gold, copper, geodes, and pyrite. He took us to some other lakes on the mountain and drove down the hwy a bit to show us three water falls. It was an amazing day that we will remember for always! Laurie...