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.

Winery at the Holy Cross Abbey

Driving back from the Royal Gorge (see previous posting), we went into Canon City, CO to visit the winery at the Holy Cross Abbey.

The Abbey.

It started when two Benedictine monks came from Pensylvania to Breckenridge, CO in 1886.

More followed as they moved from Brekenridge to Boulder to Pueblo and finally to Canon City, naming the foundation Holy Cross Abbey.

The Abbey was built in 1924 in the gothic style, where the monks ran a boarding school for high school students until 1985.

Monks still resided at the Abbey until 2006.

You can actually visit the monastery during the week and if I remember correctly, the sign at the front also listed mass hours for Sunday mornings.

The Winery.

The vines were started by the monks a few years before the church decided to close this monastery and move them out of state.

Very few wines are actually produced there now, though we did see several rows in front of the tasting room. I don't recall where the vines are currently grown -where's that handy tourist flyer when you need it- but they do have over a dozen wines including Chardonnay, Merlot, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah.

The tasting room is open Monday - Satruday, from 10 am - 6 pm, and Sundays from 12 - 5 pm. Most selections are free except for a few reserved collection, requiring a small fee.

Royal Gorge Bridge

Memorial Day weekend was the perfect time to get away for a couple days. In that spirit, we rented a little cabin in Salida, CO and went visiting the area. The weather was perfect for it.

First stop was Royal Gorge Bridge, the highest suspension bridge in the US, located over the Arkansas River near Canon City, CO. It was built in 1929 for $350,000, or the equivalent of about $15 million today, and took 6 month to complete.

A few facts:

• Length: 1,270 ft (387 m)
• Width: 18 ft (15 m)
• Main span: 880 ft (268 m)
• Towers: 150 ft high (46 m)
• Height above river: 1,053 ft (321 m)

I hiked down the canyon a few yards to try a get a good view of the bridge. The semi-arid landscape of red rocks and cactus offered and great contrast with the snow patches still present.

Be advised that is it $12 per person to get anywhere close to the area, with rides, shows, petting zoo and other attractions. You can also either walk or drive accross the bridge. We did neither as it was not part of our budget this time, but we do plan on coming back.

Intrepid Trail at Dead Horse Point

One last item on our list for this particular trip was a mountain bike trail, for which we choose the Intrepid Trail System at Dead Horse Point State Park.

This trail has three hiking and biking loops, from 1 to 9 miles and varying in difficulties.
The Intrepid is the first and shorter of the three for those novice riders wanting a decent ride without rattling too many teeth -i.e. me. The loops are relatively flat with about 140 ft elevation change on the longer loop, and made of sand and rock and a few sections of slickrock along the way.

I can tell you I'm not much of a mountain biker and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

We stopped at every overlook off course (what did you expect, ha) and I assure you they are well worth it. The view is breathtaking.

Oh, by the way, it is $10 to get in Dead Horse Point State Park.

Here are the bullet points, taken from the link provided above:

• Trailhead: Dead Horse Point State Park, 32 miles west of Moab
• Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
• Length:
• Intrepid Loop: 1.1 miles
• Great Pyramid Loop: 4.2 miles
• Big Chief Loop: 9.0 miles
• Elevation @ Trailhead: 5900
• Directions: Nine miles northwest of Moab on US 191 and then 23 miles southwest on Utah 313 to the end of the highway.

Enjoying the view...

This post concludes the Utah trip. :)