one day in salida, colorado
Volunteer efforts during the High Lonesome 100 ultramarathon occupied much of our short expedition in Salida. Even so, the small town layered quite the impression on my travelling self. Nestled in the mountains three hours southwest of Denver, much of the attraction to this region involves the vibrancy of the outdoors. Such mostly filled our leisure time.
Upon completing our volunteer duties, all we wanted was a long, deep nap in our cushy motel beds. I woke up an hour or so into my snooze to rattling windows and whistles of wind sneaking through miniscule cracks in the sills. Mountain weather is fickle and authoritative, perfect conditions for midday rest but not so much if you try to pen an afternoon hike into the itinerary. An hour later the skies cleared, the trees fluttered with a gentle zephyr, and I laced up my Zantes for a short run to the pizza joint we intended to dine at that evening.
Salida offers gorgeous scenery in every direction. This was enough to distract me from my burning lungs – running at 7,000 feet above sea level, I learned, really doesn’t feel the same as the throat-tightening struggle that is Floridian humidity – as I burned rubber down F Street and wove through the grid of the neighborhood to Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub. Their beer won awards in years past and I enjoyed their summery Peach Wheat, one of the touted brews in their then-current lineup, alongside a vegetarian pizza loaded with black olives, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, and tomatoes.
No one can leave this hill-laden dreamland sans a long, quiet hike up one of the several ranges surrounding Salida and nearby. We chose a 10K path on Browns Creek Trail for a midmorning climb, our endpoint a rushing waterfall halfway up. The switchbacks initially disconcerted me as far as vertical endurance goes: J and I walked silently for the first half hour in fear our breaths would escape and as a result we’d have to lean against the rocky crops for hours before recovering. Bodies adjusted, though, and once the first mile ended and the terrain mollified, we began observing more clearly the landscape, the rows of aspen anchored on either side of the trail, wildflowers waving in wide fields and bugs humming and clicking unseen somewhere in the brush. The falls greeted us with blasts of damp. We ate granola bars at its feet. Took a long survey of the creek before reversing for the return three miles.
I wish for more than one day in Salida, but schedules disallowed more and we packed a good deal in a short span. Below you’ll find a printout of my 24-hour itinerary, and below that an expansive gallery of the city and the placid hillsides and our lodging at Amigo. What would you focus on if given a day, or a weekend, in any city: food and drink, active adventures, or pure escape?
- Click the “Download” link above and locate file in your computer. It will be named “tampa coffee brochure.”
- Open the file in Adobe Acrobat. The file contains two pages.
- Go to File –> Print.
- Different printers afford different settings. If yours has a “Fit”, “Fit to Page”, or similar option for sizing, select that one. Be sure the orientation is on “Landscape” and the job set to print double-sided.
- Print the document!
- To orient and fold the brochure: Begin with the “Featured”, “Kellie Karbach”, and “Tampa Coffee” pages facing you. Fold the “Featured” page inward. Then fold the “Tampa Coffee” page atop. The cover of the brochure should be “Tampa Coffee”, with inside flap at “Featured” and the full fold-out being the featured locales. The credit information should be the back cover.
*By printing this document, you agree to in no way mass produce for your own profit, or claim the original work as your own.
