YODELOPS(opportunites)

COLORADO YODEL OP

  This summer a family wedding took us to the San Juan mountains and Telluride, Colorado. The former bustling silver mining town, turned ski resort, is nestled at the end of a portion of highway 145. The town, at around 8500 feet, challenges your fitness with even a few stairs, but it only takes two or three days to acclimate.

   Unlike during the winter months, the solid Swiss gondolas run all day for free. This provides the opportunity to ride up and hike down a number of different trails, though yodel opportunities on this side of the mountain require a bit more effort to reach. This means hiking up more.

  Take a trip to the end of the road. Go through the town and hike up to Bridal Veil Falls and bounce some yodels off the rock faces. Nice. At the top of the falls you can see the historic power station, and continue on to more hiking trials.

  Telluride left a great impression on us. The restaurants were excellent and on our first day there we met Mary DeBriae owner of Alpen Schatz, a cool Alpine store featuring great yodel wear, alpine fashion and much more. Mary introduced us to some of the locals and made us feel welcome.

  The mix of local character and the inevitable upscale development made for an enjoyable experience. Naturally yodel opportunities abound. Put this on your list.

ALL FOUR SEASONS IN ONE PLACE

  What was originally a mountain bike trip, turned out to be meteorological grab bag. Santa Fe, New Mexico, known for its abundant art galleries, was our destination. Clearly, the altitude and mountains in nearby Taos, New Mexico would make for stellar Yodelops.

  Santa Fe turned out to be an excellent destination for yodeling, hiking, biking, shopping, gallery walks and much more. The week in October we were there we experience heavy rain, heavy snow, cold temperatures, warm temperatures, sun and clouds. Clearly we did not pack enough clothes.

The best yodeling was to be had in nearby Taos. We hiked up to the ski resort, by an Alpine Inn that was closed, to Williams Lake at about 10.500 ft. Great echos bounced from rock to rock with only a few other hikers looking on.

THUNDEROUS YODELING

  When you live in a state (Indiana) that is extremely flat, vacations have to be to regions of some geologic interest. Our travels took us to Sedona, Arizona, popular for its many art galleries. After settling in to our wonderful rooms at the Alma de Sedona, we turned around and glanced up at the tallest peak in Sedona, Thunder Mountain.

  The trail is not an official hiking trail, and is conspicuously absent from the bike/hike maps, but it would be our yodel opportunity. The climb was moderately difficult until we were halfway up. From that point on, it becomes much more challenging. No special equipment was needed, but loose rock made the ascent somewhat difficult. Adding to the challenge was our need for oxygen. The air was a bit thin for Indiana boys.

  The yodeling was best at the midway point of the climb, where up to six echoes could be heard in the sandstone formations. Here is a short video clip of one of the yodels. Sedona Video (2.7 MB

YODEL MECCA?

  Who knew our recent mountain bike vacation would end up being a scouting trip for yodelops (yodel opportunities). Moab, Utah has been growing as a vacation destination for mountain bikers, Jeep drivers and hikers. As I discovered, however, yodelers should put this destination on their calendar also.

We stayed at a fantastic B&B, the Cali Cochitta, where our hosts David and Kim made us feel at home. The breakfasts kept us riding and hiking all week.

The rides were spectacular and very diverse. One day you were rolling down not-too-difficult Jeep trails, the next day you were giving everything to make it to the top of petrified dunes.

The hiking was unbelievable. Any of the hikes took you to great overlooks and expansive canyons.

NEED A YODEL VACATION?

Try Achensee, Austria. This place is a yodel paradise. Mountains surround this beautiful alpine lake. To learn more about the region visit the web site. My wife and I stayed at the Fischerwirt Hotel. Large rooms with bathrooms, balconies with views of the lake, fresh lake trout at the award winning traditional restaurant await you. The Hotel offers very reasonable rates.

The site is all German, however you can copy the text and paste it in a translator. Also, you can use the altavista.com translator to translate the site. Google also offers translations of sites when you search and find them. Next to the title of the page click on translate this page.

OTHER OPS

Some hard to find videos are available at the German online Video store German Language Video Center. Many of the music shows have appearances by Franzl Lang.