Telluride With the Gondola Down: Your Evening Ends When the Bus Does

The gondola made its last run of the summer and fall season on Sunday, October 25. It reopens on November 20. Until then, the ride between Telluride and Mountain Village is a SMART bus on a set schedule. On weekends that bus loops past each stop about once every hour and a half. Most of Mountain Village's restaurants are closed for the same weeks. So for anyone living up the hill, dinner means going into town, and the night is over when the last bus leaves, whatever time the kitchen closes.

How the loop actually runs

SMART published its offseason route changes on October 13. They apply from October 26 through November 19, and the route and schedule flyer is worth saving to your phone. The local loop starts at Town Park and stops at the Courthouse, climbs to the Meadows Post Office, then serves Market Plaza and Centrum before heading back down the same way. A full lap from Town Park back to Town Park is scheduled at 90 minutes. The leg from the Courthouse up to Centrum takes a little over 40.

Weekdays and weekends run very differently. Monday through Friday, the first bus leaves Town Park at 6:25 a.m. and daytime departures come roughly every 45 minutes. Saturday and Sunday keep the same 6:25 a.m. start and 11:05 p.m. last departure, but the buses come about 90 minutes apart all day. Weekdays also add an hourly express. It runs from Town Park and the Courthouse through the Lawson Hill Park & Ride to Blue Mesa and Market Plaza, with the first bus at 6:20 a.m. and the last at 6:20 p.m.

Here's what a Saturday or Sunday evening looks like on the local loop:

Read the bottom two rows together. On a weekend, the last bus down from Centrum into Telluride leaves at 10:20 p.m. The last one up from the Courthouse leaves at 11:07 p.m. The schedule also says the bus doesn't wait for its listed time and asks riders to be early.

Dial-A-Ride won't fill the gap. The Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association runs that service during winter and summer only, not in shoulder season.

Mountain Village closes on almost the same dates

Visit Telluride's fall 2026 off-season dining list shows how closely the village's kitchens follow the lift. Alloy Kitchen is closed October 26 through November 19, which are exactly the gondola's maintenance dates. Black Iron Kitchen, Kettle Coffee and Timber Room all close October 26 with no reopening date set yet. Tracks Café & Bar is closed October 23 through November 22, and La Piazza del Villaggio is closed until December 2. Siam Talay reopens December 10 and Communion Wine Bar on December 11. The Telluride Brewing Company Brew Pub in Mountain Village has been closed since October 11, with its return still to be announced.

The Village Market is listed as open daily, so groceries are still close by. Down at Lawson Hill, the Conoco is open daily and the Telluride Brewing Company Craft Kitchen & Pizza is open Wednesday through Sunday. On weekdays, the Lawson Hill Park & Ride is on the express route.

On the mountain, Allred's is closed October 25 through November 25.

In town, most kitchens close by 9

Walk Colorado Avenue in town and the list is longer, but closing times come early. Here's how the same list sorts out, as of this week:

• Open daily: Brown Dog, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Smugglers, noon to 8 p.m.; Butcher & The Baker, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays; Cornerhouse Grille; Steamies Burger Bar; Clark's Market; and The Patio. Last Dollar Saloon and West End Bistro are listed as open.
• Evenings, some days only: Rustico, Tuesday through Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m.; Kazahana, Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m.; Stronghouse, Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 8 p.m.; There., Wednesday through Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m. once it reopens after October 27.
• Open for now, closing soon: The National runs Tuesday through Saturday, 4:30 to 9 p.m., through November 14, then closes November 15 through December 4. Floradora Saloon closes November 21 through December 4.
• Closed: 221 South Oak until November 12; La Cocina de Luz until November 22; the New Sheridan Bar, Chop House and Rooftop Bar until December 3; Coffee Cowboy's cart and general store until December 4; Tellurado Studio through December 8; La Marmotte until December 10; and Sidework until December 17.

Visit Telluride notes that it's still updating the list, so call ahead before you plan around a specific night.

Most kitchens in town are done by 8 or 9 p.m., and the last bus up leaves the Courthouse at 11:07. On a weekend, anyone who lives in Mountain Village has more than two hours after most kitchens close before their last ride home.

The corner on Spruce Street that stays open late

That gap is part of why the new place above O'Bannon's matters this month. The Patio took over the outdoor area and the space that used to be The Bistro, beside the Spruce Street pocket park. The Telluride Times reported that it soft-opened in September, opens at 11 a.m., serves a full menu until 11 p.m., and offers takeout through the off-season. In that same story, director of operations Alex Laney said food after 9 o'clock "is definitely an underserved piece of the market." He described the goal as putting "a smash burger and fries and a draft beer on the menu for 20 bucks."

A kitchen that closes at 11 p.m. lines up with a bus that leaves at 11:07. The Patio is on Visit Telluride's list as open daily this fall, except for a break November 24 through 28.

Downstairs, this is the last off-season for O'Bannon's Irish Pub. The Telluride Times reported that the pub will close on December 31 after almost 40 years. Owner Ann Marie Fitzpatrick started there as a bartender in 1994. Until the end of the year, the paper said, the doors stay open as usual from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., and she plans a New Year's Eve party where, in her words, "everyone is welcome." The Patio's partners bought the space but not the business. They plan to reopen a bar there soon after, with very little change to the room and a different name. A November night at O'Bs is one of the last chances to see that room the way it has been.

What's on between now and November 20, with the bus in mind

Most of what's on the calendar is in town and within walking distance for anyone who lives there. For Mountain Village households, the loop decides how each night works.

1. October 29 to 31: Young Frankenstein the Musical plays all three nights.
2. Saturday, October 31: KOTO's Halloween Bash runs at The Alibi from 9 to 11:30 p.m., with RADO playing. The last weekend bus up the hill leaves the Courthouse at 11:07 p.m., so staying for the last song means getting home some other way.
3. Monday, November 2: Mountainfilm for Locals at Wilkinson Public Library is a free screening of about 90 minutes of 2026 festival shorts, with pizza while it lasts.
4. Thursday, November 5: Telluride Arts holds its monthly first-Thursday Art Walk. It's a weeknight, so the 45-minute loop applies.
5. Thursday, November 12: Telluride Arts' Creative Exchange meets at Arts HQ Gallery. That's also the last day 221 South Oak is listed as closed.
6. November 13 to 15: The annual KOTO Ski Swap fills Wilkinson Public Library with used gear, discounted ski passes and the Freestyle FREE-Ride. If you're carrying skis to the swap, the weekday express and its Lawson Hill Park & Ride stop come in handy on Friday.

When the gondola comes back

The gondola's winter season starts Friday, November 20, and runs through April 4, 2027. Closures at Tracks and La Cocina de Luz are both listed as running through November 22, two days after that. The Telluride Ski Resort FAQ lists a targeted opening day of November 26 and says weather or unforeseen circumstances can change that date. Allred's is listed as closed through November 25, the day before. Plenty of town restaurants stay closed into December, though. The New Sheridan reopens after December 3, and La Marmotte and Sidework come back even later. For most of those, the gondola's return comes before their reopening.

Until November 20, it helps to know the 10:20 p.m. bus down from Centrum and the 11:07 p.m. bus up from the Courthouse.

If you own a place in Mountain Village or Telluride and want to talk through how a home there works across the off-seasons, Ouray Real Estate Corporation is happy to have that conversation, gondola schedule and all. Let us guide you to your home in Colorado.