Walking Around Salida, CO - part II

FIBArk, advertised as "America's Oldest and Boldest Whitewater Festival," has been taking place every summer at the Riverside Park in historic downtown since 1949. If you look close enough, you can see the slalom sticks in the photo below

After spending the whole morning walking around the town, we decided it was time to visit the surrounding open spaces for trails to take the dogs on... here are a couple shots of that hike:

and today's parting shot, a room with a view... :p

Walking Around Salida, CO - part I

Continuing with our Memorial Day weekend trip:

We rented a little cabin in Buena Vista (right next door to Salida). Cabins are more pleasant than a motel room and when you travel with 2 dogs, it does offer more wiggling room. The other advantage is being able to fix a meal rather than eating out all the time.

We stayed at Vista Court Cabins. Rustic, simple, it turned out perfect for what we were looking for.

Cabin #3, that's us!  :)

Saturday was reserved for walking around and exploring the Downtown Historic District in Salida, CO.

The day was very overcast, unfortunately not ideal for my little point-and-shoot camera.

Salida is known as the "Heart of the Rockies" and is located on the Upper Arkansas River Valley in central Colorado.

The streets were mostly deserted, being early in the year and still most definitively on the chilly side -though I'm willing to bet that changes once Spring and Summer come around!...

There's plenty of cafes, diners, restaurants, pubs, and shops to go around (our favorite coffee shop of the trip coming up soon)

You can see the 14,000 ft mountains all around town with their amazing snow caps, making for some fantastic views. Salida itself rests at 7,000 ft. elevation.

Besides the architecture, there were a few interesting sightings worth mentioning...

Local art:

We considered joining...

And last but not least, this one gets "Best Red Neck Brush Guard" award:

:P

Next, favorite coffee shop in town and a hike outside of town.

Snow Blanket

Nederland, CO - really cool mountain town. We drive up on a regular basis to visit, walk around, hike on the surrounding trails (or snow shoe, as the case may be), and even camp out.

There's a great art community with several summer festivals, the usual array of tourist shops, art galleries, and a very neat local food co-op.

Anywhere we go, we always make it a point of visiting a local coffee shop -not the bland, chain type of shop, mind you, but an individually owned kind of place.

The New Moon Bakery had been our favorite for a while now. Since the "original" owners sold about a year ago, it has changed hands 3 times... and each time brings a few changes here and there... jury still out of the latest.

Invitations

These images all struck me as having to do with some sort of invitation, in one form or another.


Images taken in Niwot, Colorado.

Niwot Colorado

old firehouse.

Niwot, Colorado is a small town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains about 10 mn. from Boulder.

It is know for its numerous art and music events, including Rhythm on the Rail, a very popular summer concert series.

I was invited to participate in the 1st Friday Art Walk event (see art blog) and had a few minutes to walk around.

The town is named for Chief Niwot, an Arapaho leader, meaning "left hand." His people lived in the front range until the arrival of miners in 1858.

The railroad tracks was an important aspect of this new community, connecting it to markets as far as Denver and Wyoming. The small business district developed on the west side and resident neighborhoods on the east side the the tracks, with trains running through town.

In early 1900s the business disctrict moved to 2nd avenue and evolved into what is now called Niwot Historical District.

Smallest Town

What would be your guess if someone asked you:
"What is the population of the smallest town in the US?"

Mine would have been in the low 100s or so -I've come across a couple of those.

Well, as it turns out, that is way off on this one.

May I present, the Nation's SMALLEST town.

The town consists of ONE house, and ONE gas station / convenient store. Oh, and we met the Mayor -he runs the gas station.