I didn’t even discuss my new labels for the types of blogs being posted; I just kinda started doing it. “In-between the mountains” is for posts that talk about a general place or town when it’s, well, in-between the mountains. City experiences and urban adventures are classified as “in-between the city the streets.” Backpacking, hiking, running, or anything else where we’re outside all day is considered “in-between the trees.” The previous post about Salida covered things to do IN town, but this covers things to do NEAR Salida.
This post is more about adventure. We had a blast trying a couple things we’ve never done and further exploring an area we keep falling more in love with. There is so much adventure to be found all across the state of Colorado, but we recommend you take your trip to this area because it still has that small town vibe while offering everything you need to have a perfect vacation.
Stay (camp) Near Salida
Our previous post covered some great places to book should you not be into the camping thing, but there are so many great places to camp that we highly recommend spending a night or two under the stars.
Elephant Rock Campground
This ones free! Just pull up and pick a great spot, clean up after yourself, and enjoy camping right alongside the Arkansas River.
Headed Towards the Angel of Shavano
We’ve camped at the Angel of Shavano campground before and it’s a great campground. This trip, however, we found a spot alongside the road as we were headed to the campground and couldn’t pass up this perfect spot. There are plenty of similar spots along 240 and the North Fork South Arkansas River. We made camp early afternoon and listened to the drizzle of rain, content to just be.
Adventure
So many things to do in this area that we’d have to live there to even begin to share it all. Maybe one day… But here are some of the things to do near Salida, specifically in the summertime.
White Water Rafting
This is actually the reason we drove out to Salida in the first place. Our pal has been a river guide for several seasons and told us he’d take us on the Arkansas. Of course we took him up on that. I gotta be honest, when they gave us the safety talk I suddenly felt nervous. It had not even occurred to me that I might end up in the water. If that happened, there were several things I’d need to remember to get back to the boat safely. Thankfully, no one ended up in the water. We had a blast doing something we’d never done before. I realized the most fun things always involve just a little bit of risk.
SUP
We actually drove up to Buena Vista (just thirty minutes) to rent stand up paddle boards from CKS Main Street. We asked the team at this shop where to go and the recommended Cottonwood Lake since we’re beginners. This was both Jackson and Kona’s first time on a SUP and they both did great. Neither of us were actually willing to stand while Kona was on board… next time.
Great Sand Dunes National Park
A national park that welcomes Kona! Pets aren’t allowed in all areas of the park, but they are welcome in the main use area and along the Medano Primitive Road. We took the primitive road to distance ourselves from the crowds. We accessed the Medano Creek further down and climbed the dunes in our bare feet. (They warn the sand is extremely hot for dogs’ paws and we figured we’d only know if it was too hot if we traipsed across it ourselves.)
My biggest tip for experiencing this incredible place is you should absolutely try to visit with a four wheel drive vehicle. There was very little parking at the main access and if we’d gotten out there, we would have been surrounded by other visitors. I’m so glad lots of people are getting outside to enjoy this park, but I personally don’t like crowds. They stress me out.
I’m so glad we could do something we normally couldn’t since we were in my brother’s sweet ride. We splashed through creeks and over soft sand with ease until we could hop out and explore the dunes with our girl. The sand was extremely hot. When it started to sting our feet, Jackson picked Kona up to carry her back to the cool water of the creek.
Trail Run or Hike on the Rainbow Trail
I didn’t carry my phone on our run because I thought it might rain but I did make us hike back up to this view that wasn’t far from the car. This view just caught the top of a mountain, but there were more, sweeping views that greeted us from several spots along this beautiful path. We stopped to take them in and because we were gasping for breath.
Glad you liked it, thank you for reading!