No. 01
On the river
The Arkansas runs right past the deck — one of America's most-rafted rivers. Brown's Canyon, the Numbers, the Royal Gorge. Quiet eddies for fly fishing in the morning, big water in the afternoon.
About Salida
A small mountain town with a river running through it
Population 5,800. Elevation 7,083 ft. Surrounded by fourteeners, hot springs, singletrack, and the Arkansas River. The kind of place that gets in your bones.
No. 02
Hot springs
Mt. Princeton's mineral pools sit thirty minutes up the road, set against the Chalk Cliffs. Cottonwood and Salida hot springs are even closer when the snow flies.
No. 03
On the mountain
Monarch Mountain — Colorado's best-kept secret — is forty minutes west. No lines, deep snow, top-to-bottom in twenty minutes. In summer the same pass opens to wildflower meadows and Continental Divide hikes.
No. 04
14ers from the door
Mt. Shavano, Tabeguache, Antero, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, Belford, Missouri. Ten fourteen-thousand-foot peaks within an hour. Pack water, start early.
No. 05
Downtown
Brick storefronts, a slow river walk, third-wave coffee, two bookstores, and a half-dozen restaurants worth a return visit. F Street in summer feels like a small Boulder; in winter it feels like a secret.