Salida Colorado

bigred1cav wrote:
What to do? Where to wade fish and be productive at fishing? Will be there all summer where would you go on time off?

I'm sure you'll get replies from some of the folks over in that area. It's a favourite of a lot of folks here, the area from Salida to Leadville.

The Arkansas River is famous for it's trophy fishing areas; while I'm not a fisherman, there are many sections of the river that I've seen many fishermen in the past. The locals should be able to advise where a good location would be for a specific time you'll be there.

"Time off" - does that indicate you're working in some capacity there? How much time do you have off?

Since that's a real good central location for Colorado there's TONS of stuff to see/do, just starting in the Arkansas River Valley. Besides historic Salida there's also Leadville up the road, with a lot of history as well as beautiful vistas everywhere. You're in the heart of 14'er country (peaks over 14000 feet) so if you're into hiking there's plenty of trails, with varying degrees of difficulty. If you're into 4-wheeling, there's plenty of places to rent a jeep and explore. Same for horseback riding. There's also various hot springs in the area -- Mt Princeton and Cottonwood come to mind. And that's just within about 30 miles of Salida!

There's also the Taylor Park area over Cottonwood Pass

There's the San Luis Valley over Poncha Pass

There's Aspen over Independence Pass

There's Gunnison over Monarch Pass

There's Fairplay and the South Park area.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Some folks from Buena Vista and Glenwood Springs could probably offer you more details. Suffice it to say, it's one of my favourite areas and I don't/can't get over there enough, since there's so much to see and do.