Salida, Colorado

Visited May 21 - 23, 2021

By Marty

We are working our way toward Denver to visit our sons Garrett and Matt.  Garrett lives in Denver and Matt in the Bay Area.  Matt will be flying in for five days over Memorial Day weekend. Due to COVID it's been 12 months since we've seen Garrett and 15 months since we last laid eyes on Matt.

From Montrose we drove to Salida, about half way to Denver. The three hour drive to Salida became four hours because of a US highway 50 scheduled road closure. We detoured north and then east over the top of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison before reconnecting with highway 50.

A portion of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison as seen from the beast on the north side of the canyon.

The Aspens are really leafing out!

No audio books on this part of the drive. The road was narrow with lots of twists and turns.

Taken from the Beast while crossing over the dam at Blue Mesa Reservoir. The Black Canyon begins at this point as the Gunnison river flows to the northwest

Blue Mesa Reservoir is Colorado's largest lake. With a capacity of almost 1,000,000 acre feet the lake is about the same size as Folsom Lake in California.  Blue Mesa, like most of the reservoirs in the western US, is well below capacity due to an extended drought.

Back on highway 50 our drive takes us over the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass. 

This is the last time this year that I will be telling you that our Beast route aligned with my 2019 bike ride route. Once we get to Salida the two routes diverge. I expect to cross paths with the bike route again in 2022 when we get to America's heartland (Kansas, Missouri, etc.) 

You can see from my May 2019 bike journal entry below that 2019 was a big snow year in Colorado. I remember being told as much at the time.

Cross Country bike ride journal entry: Montrose to Salida, CO. May 19, 2019

Pausing at Monarch Pass for a quick look around

Heading down the east side of Monarch Pass

The Arkansas River as it flows past the Pleasant Valley RV park in Howard, CO (about 20 minutes east of Salida.)

When we arrived at our RV park Friday afternoon the scenery, thanks to the dramatic skies, was really amazing.

This is a 360 degree view of the vistas shown in the photos above.

Salida is a charming town on highway 50 along the Arkansas River. It is a hub for outdoor activity enthusiasts with river rafting being a major draw.

They appear to be phasing out the mask requirement in Salida. Women can breath easy while men, if on bikes, must wear a mask...

And there is a brewery in Salida! Who'da thunk it?

No artsy beer glass photo for you this time. But I did pick up this cool tin tacker for our backyard beer garden back home. I have bought about a dozen tin tackers on the trip so far.

The Arkansas River from a bridge in old town Salida.

We only had two days in Salida so we made the most of our time by booking a white water rafting trip through Browns Canyon on the Arkansas River.

Our guide Margo told us that the Arkansas River is the second most popular rafting river in the US. She said that the American River in CA is the most popular. 

The Arkansas River is no slouch of a river, flowing 1,460 miles from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River in Arkansas. It is the second longest tributary of the Mississippi-Missouri river system.

This is how they used to do it, me thinks.  Carved into the door of the raft tour operator office.

The half day rafting trip through Browns Canyon is considered moderate with eight named rapids in the Class III+ category. 

You wouldn't know it from the following photos but the Arkansas River isn't flowing at peak levels yet. The weather isn't warm enough by late May for significant snow melt. The river was flowing at around 700 cubic feet/minute (CFM) on this day.  In another few weeks it will be flowing closer to 2,000 CFM!

Nonetheless, we had a ball!

Apprehension...

Excitement!

Check out our guide, Margo (silver helmet).  She has been guiding raft trips for 16 years (in the winter she is chef in a mountain resort.) Margo was awesome and really puts her heart into her job.

Fear!!!

Doused!

Joy?  Relief?