Salida is a medium-sized town about 80 miles north of the New Mexico border, along the Arkansas River, at an altitude of 7,000'. The river is a substantial river, especially during the spring thaw, and is very popular with rafters, kayakers, and all kinds of water sports. It is also in the heart of ski country, so it is a booming town because it gets tourist business throughout the entire year.
It is a long story, but I was scheduled to spend four days in a campground in New Mexico, but the dirt roads in the last state park I stayed at combined with strong winds to make it difficult to go out, and impossible to open any windows. The next state park turned out to have the same winds and dirt roads, plus I got on the wrong road trying to get there and ended up driving 20 miles out of my way and almost getting stuck on a badly marked road which consisted of two ruts. The straw that broke the camels back was a sign that pointed to a right turn to get to Highway 95, but the place where it wanted me to turn ended up being a locked gate to a private residence!! Somehow I managed to turn around without going into a ditch and made it back the way I had come. At that point, I made the decision to head north into Colorado in hopes of a better campground.
I spent a couple of days in the small town of Alamosa, CO, but the RV park there was expensive and had no view, plus it also had a lot of dirt in the roadways. I stayed inside and got caught up on some tasks, then filled up with gas, groceries, and propane and headed out to the town of Salida. It was a beautiful drive to Salida, but as you can see from the photos below, it rained occasionally, and I was afraid that it might be snowing over the passes. Luckily, I made it though with almost no traffic and no icing issues.
All of the rivers in this part of the country are overflowing their banks because of the snow melting on the mountain tops.
At this point, the highway went over an 11,000' pass, but at least the pavement was dry. I can imagine skiing around here in the winter.
I found a really nice, brand-new RV park with paved roads and brand-new gravel on each site. (I had wanted to drive farther north to Leadville, but all of the Forest Service Parks were closed until the weekend, so gave up that idea. I will stop in Leadville on my way to Frisco and Heaton Bay Campground tomorrow.
The RV park opened during the winter, but has been pretty empty because not too many travelers know about it. Lots of empty spaces, but that made it nice and quiet for the four nights I have been here. Sites are gravel, but it is new gravel, and the roads are paved.
This is the clubhouse. It has the park offices, laundry, exercise room, and a meeting room with large TV and a pool table.
One of the reasons for such a large club house is that they are selling what are called "park models." These are similar to tiny houses, but are commercially made and better regulated to meet building codes. In most states they can be no larger than 400' square, and have wheels on them so they can be easily moved. I went online and checked the prices of these. They were about double the cost in some other parts of the country, but most had a loft and they looked well-made. Rent for the space was about $680 per month, which I think is steep, especially as it does not include electricity.
One nice thing is that each had a storage shed in the rear, and it looked like most of the 20 currently onsite seem to be occupied. Each has a parking space for a car on the side, but I think I would like a larger site.
Certainly a nice view!! I would prefer these to an apartment in the town because of that view and lack of traffic noise.
I had accidentally driven through the old downtown area and decided to go back to check out some of the small stores. But first, I parked along the river and walked across the bridge over the river.
Lots of people rafting or kayaking in this heavily flowing river. I am guessing the water is pretty cold, especially since it was recently snow and ice!! Air temp was in low 70s, so it was a nice day for walking around, at least.
This is looking from the opposite side of the bridge. There are several restaurants overlooking and also several raft and kayak rentals. These particular rafts were controlled by a professional, I am pretty sure.
If you scroll up a couple of photos, you will see this guy on the right just at a small rapids. He kept going over it, then paddling back up, and going down again. Went under on purpose a few times, also. He is riding a very small, short kayak that has a raised bow. I saw a lot of these, so they might have been rentals.
Our fellow on the green kayak has headed downstream a bit to the next small rapids.
Finished crossing the bridge and took this photo of the town. Almost every shop is occupied, which is a good sign. This is really still the off-season, so it will get busier later.
I liked the old Victorian buildings.
Tomorrow, I head to Frisco and Dillon Lake. Been there before and looking forward to being there for a whole two weeks!!
No comments:
Post a Comment