Salida Play Park

Following a rough day on the Royal Gorge, we decided to take an easy day in Salida.  We slept in, headed into town for lunch, and then had a couple hours to tour the area and check out the play park.  Like Buena Vista, Salida has the river running straight through town.  Both cities decided to put in some play features, and tons of people (both locals and tourists) take to the water.

The town itself is relatively small; there's a 4x2 block downtown, the river, some housing sprawl, and a highway section with some chain restaurants and gas stations.  Salida's downtown has a couple outfitters, a river repair shop, tons of boater grub/pub spots, and a gazillion art galleries.  Some of the artwork hanging was incredible.

Our Fearless Leader on the Wave

We were only in the water for two hours, but the features kept us pretty entertained.  I got a fair amount of roll practice from this little trashy hole that I was supposed to be jetting through in order to catch the glossy front-surf wave.  I passed the wave once and was worn out in no time.  Some others in our group had more luck catching the wave, but the easily-accessible hole features were a bit better for me.

Our group was off the water and headed up towards Ft. Collins a few hours later.