Christmas 2013 in Salida, Colorado

For Christmas week this year, we booked a cabin in Salida; a small town in Colorado.

Salida is an old railroad town with a population somewhere over 5,000.  It is not a huge tourist destination, but it is home to the annual FIBArk whitewater kayak race, which runs right through town.  We loved Salida and have decided we would really like to return in the summer months.  There is so much to do in this little town and the surrounding area!
Salida maintains the charm of a small mountain town and is nestled among a sea of 14K ft mountains, so the scenery is spectacular.

We planned to arrive early evening Saturday, but the weather had other plans.   Between Amarillo and Dumas, TX, the roads became treacherous and the highway was closed (while we were on it).

Somewhere under that blue cloud is the road we were traveling on.

This sounds like a nice place.

As we were driving, the weather deteriorated and the GoPro camera we had attached to the hood, to capture our drive in 5 second increments, froze up.

We finally came to a stand still and remained that way for FOUR HOURS.

This truck slowly began to slide off the road before the driver got out and put on his tire chains.

Mary scrambles to find any source of entertainment.

Brrr.

We finally got going, and drove by several cars and trucks who had spun off to the roadside.  I had mixed feelings; sorry to see people in that situation, and annoyance that poor driving had inconvenienced us for four hours.  I'm sure some cars could not have prevented their slides, but we saw some people driving like idiots so it was easier to think the traffic jam was likely their fault.

That night, we drove as far as we safely could.  We then found a hotel in Clayton, NM; the Eklund.  The Eklund was a friendly place and we were happy to find a room as every other traveler had booked up every other available room between Amarillo and Clayton.  The next day, we made our final push for Colorado.

We made it!

I see mountains!

I see bison! 

(Not buffalo;  early settlers called them Buffalo because of similarity, but buffalo only live in Africa and Asia.  You are welcome for the useless trivia.)

Big Horn Sheep!

Our cabin was cozy.  Although, not when we first arrived.  The heater didn't work and we walked into a 35 degree house of pain.  The owner kindly put us in the Days Inn for one night while they could work on repairing the heater.  Being cheap, as we are, we determined to make the most of the cozy cabin we had paid for, and we stayed there until bedtime.

The cabin was Moonstone Retreat Cottage, built somewhere around 1920 as some kind of farm building.  It was perfect for a Christmas getaway and felt more spacious than our cottage last year, perhaps because it had two stories.

Good quality family time fighting over M&Ms and playing Minecraft.

 

The dogs liked their new home, although Daniel had a general look of concern the whole time we were there.

We had read that deer wandered around the town, but were surprised at how many frequented or backyard.  Mary tried to feed them some potatoes, but they weren't as sociable as they first appeared.

  

Monarch Mountain is the local ski slope and we had it on good authority that Christmas Eve would be the last 'quiet day' before January 6th.  Mary had never been skiing before, so we enrolled her in a half day lesson for starters.

On her way to ski school.

While Mary was in training, we rode up and re-familiarized ourselves with skiing.  This came easier to Andrew than it did to me.  I had forgotten everything and had to be disentangled from a tree by a nice man from San Antonio who reassured me "these green slopes are pretty tough!".  Finally, I remembered how to ski, and my only real injury occurred because I forgot to get off the ski lift and ended jumping from my chair.  Jumping in skis is an advanced skill that you probably don't have if you're still sliding the green slopes.

Mary's ski lesson didn't go so well and Mary decided Skiing wasn't her thing.  So, like any good parents, we took her out on the Bunny Hills and forced her to "try harder".  After 15 minutes, she was off!  Once she got the hang of it, she was out on her own, making it down the slope with no help from us.  Mary decided that she wanted her own skis for Christmas which was great timing because it was Christmas Eve and I'm sure Santa had time to revise her wish list.  We decided it was best to continue practicing skiing at Ruidoso before asking Santa to deliver expensive ski equipment.

There she goes!

Late in the afternoon, Mary claimed she was ready for the green hills.  I wasn't so sure; those greens were a little on the blue side (I believed the man from San Antonio) and I had images of her falling and breaking a limb.  Not wanting to crush her spirit, we said yes and Mary rode up on her first ski lift.   Mary was awesome!  I was so proud of her enthusiasm.  Another couple of days practice and she will be better than me.

On Boxing Day (day after Christmas for non-Brits), we took out some snowmobiles.  I had never driven a snowmobile before, but it was far easier than a dirt bike and it even had heated handle bars!  These small things make a big difference in below zero temps.

We drove up to the continental divide (rivers on one side drain to the Pacific, the other side to the Atlantic).

The snowmobiles took us to places otherwise inaccessible.  The views were beautiful.

We would love to come back in the summer and ride the same trails on four wheelers./dirt bikes.  Mary enjoyed the snowmobiles, but after four hours, she was ready to go home for some hot chocolate!  Her handle bars were not heated.

There are many opportunities for sledding in and around Salida, so we bought some cheap sleds at Walmart and threw them in the back of the truck for any chance sledding opportunities we might find.

This probably isn't going to end well.

 

Or this.

  

Maybe we shouldn't have cheaped out on the kiddy sleds.

There are so many places to hike, you could spend your whole life here and never see everything.  A different season would make every trail look completely different.  We drove up (as far as we could) on Cottonwood pass, and saw people ice fishing on Cottonwood Lake.  We hiked off into the wilderness and found some good viewpoints.

Andrew sleds into a tree stump.

Spot Andrew (you might need to click on the photo)

  

Poor Daniel got stuck in the 3 ft snow.

Hiking with a ten year old can be a challenge.  It has to be fun, or the ten year old will become bored and refuse to go any further.  Snowball fights, making snow angels and forming snow sculptures helps.  

Our snow and stone replica of the mountain in the background.

We also agreed that the only time Mary was allowed to tell us all about Minecraft (a subject she will rattle on about for hours), was when we took the dogs for a long walk.  

Now that Andrew is also addicted to Minecraft, it was an enigmatic two-way conversation.

The Royal Gorge Bridge is currently closed due to fire damage, so we took the Royal Gorge Rail and viewed it from the canyon below.  We tried to visit the bridge last year, but it was closed and we had to view it from afar.  This was my second failed attempt to stand on that darn bridge.   I WILL get on that bridge.

The train leaves from Canon City, a small town (pop 16,000) about an hour east of Salida.  The train was festive with free standing dining tables and a choice menu.  The tickets included a meal and the food was yummy, not your typical "train food".

Frozen Fremont river, nature's artwork.

Devil's Face in the rocks.

Magmatic sill!

Stupid closed bridge.

Canon City is also home to the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, one of the oldest prisons in the US.  Apparently, the people of the town were given the choice of building a prison or a college.  They chose a prison.  We were told that the inmates kindly made the plates and utensils we were using for our lunch.  This explains why we were not provided with knives.  Nearby, in the town of Florence, is the US supermax prison, also known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies; a maximum security prison for male inmates.  I wanted to go see it, but I was vetoed.  

Saint Elmo Ghost Town was supposed to be "just west" of Buena Vista on County Road 162.  With road conditions as they were, it took us quite some time to drive there.  However, the drive was beautiful and took us through some quaint towns and resort areas with people bathing in outside hot springs and many scenic turns in the road.  St. Elmo is home to only 8 year-round residents and it is said that the chipmunks and hummingbirds outnumber the people. In fact, the lady we spoke to in the tourist office encouraged us to "feed the chipmunks".   This lady has obviously never visited St. Elmo in December.

"Oh chipmunks! Here, chipmunks!"

Cottage for rent.

Buena Vista is another small town, north of Salida, west of the Eleven Mile State Park.  Here, you will find Eddyline Restaurant and Brewery on the Arkansas river.  I tried to be fancy and ordered the sausage primaveria quinoa and arugula salad.  I apparently don't like quinoa and should have gone for the calzone.

By the river, a new development is emerging with new houses, stores, parks, and community areas. Someone obviously has a master plan for this part of town and in a few years it will likely be populated by tourists.

Go on Andrew, you can do it!

It's just so pretty, everywhere you drive.

Christmas Day was very exciting for Mary.  The night before, she carefully prepared a plate of treats for Santa and laid out some potatoes for the reindeer.

"Mama, it's Christmas Day!"

It's a Webkinz!

It's Sudoku and chapter books!

I had forgotten how Mary likes to look at and thoroughly explore every gift she opens.  

Opening a stack of gifts can take considerable time.

Piece de resistance!

The aftermath

It's magic!

The doggies seemed to enjoy their gifts.

Mary bought me a Homemedic neck massager.  She also bought the exact same gift for Andrew and thought it was hilarious when we opened our gifts together and we had the same thing.  The massager has a heat function and works pretty well!

We spent some time wandering around Salida and ate at a pretty good Pizza Brewery place; Amica's Pizza.

Christmas trees in the park

The decorated S Hill.  Or, that's what we called it.

On the way home, we decided to stop by the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  The dunes are the tallest in North America.  It really is quite an amazing and diverse place; grasslands, wetlands and rivers, and sand dunes, all against a backdrop of Aspen forest and snow-capped mountains.  Another place we must visit sometime in the summer months.

 

Mary picked up on the "National Park" element and set about earning her next Junior Ranger Badge.  This was not easy; we did not see much in the way of animals and vegetation on our hike so she had to improvise a little on the Nature Bingo Board.  We did find an aspen leaf and pine cone and we figured the stuffed animals on exhibit in the nature center counted as animal encounters.

The drive home began with spectacular cloud coverage over the descending road.  Of course, the photos don't do it justice.

We did not want to leave Salida.  We figured we could both get jobs at the local coffee shop and spend our days hiking, skiing, sledding, kayaking, and generally bumming through life.  We could be poor and happy. Later, when we arrived home, we decided we didn't want to be poor and happy after all and that working 8 hour shifts in a coffee shop to make ends meet would probably lessen the joy of the Salida lifestyle.  For now, we would continue to grow the savings accounts in Midland, TX, and take vacations to more beautiful areas of the world.