From Texas Creek, we continued our journey along Route 50 and the Arkansas River towards Salida.  This section of the road twists and turns for several miles as it parallels the river.  The area is fairly undeveloped as most of the land on each side of the river is part of the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area.  Rafting, kayaking, and fishing are very popular along this section.

Salida

Our stop in Salida was mostly to resupply.  We’d spent time here last year, so there was not much new for us to explore.  But I like Salida.  It’s a small town, has lots of history, and is a hub for outdoor recreation.  It’s a place where I could see myself living some day.  On this stop we spent our time buying food, washing the RV, having some good Mexican food for lunch, and stopping in the down town area for a quick visit.

Here’s video of driving down F street, which is the main business street.

While we were there, I skipped having a dance with Mary Jane.  Salida has two recreational stores and last year it was a novelty to see what the operations looked like and to legally sample the product.  This year the novelty was gone and I found at my age, sipping a chilled shot of good tequila is much more enjoyable than a 6 hour trance dance that a little Mary Jane gave me.

After getting our chores completed, we camped back along the river at the Rincon recreation area.  The Arkansas River is dotted with these small campsites and put-in /take-out points along the river.  There are designated camping spots but no facilities at these areas other than vault toilets.  But the locations along the river are pristine.  For me, it was worth the $18 camping fee to be next to the river.

Campsite at Rincon along the Arkansas River

Mt. Princeton Hot Springs

While visiting Salida last year, the docent at the Salida Museum encouraged me to visit the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.  It didn’t fit into our schedule last year, but I decide to plan a visit this time on our way up the river to Leadville.

Mt Princeton Hot Springs is a resort at the base of Sawatch Mountain Range along Chalk Creek.  It’s located north of Salida about 6 miles west of Route 285 on County Road 162.  The resort has three different areas of pools.  We just went to the day use area, which a has two pools of natural hot springs water.  One pool is kept at 96 degrees and the other at 101 degrees.  The day use area has a municipal pool feel to it with a mix of kids and adults using the pools.  The 96 degree pool felt best for me.  I spent about and hour soaking in the pool, lounged a little bit by the pool, and took a nice shower.  It was a nice way to relax.  The “geezer rate” for me was $12.  For non seniors it’s a little pricey at $18.  For $30, you can get access to all areas of the resort, which includes an adults only pool and water slide.

Chalk Lake

After a couple of hours of soaking and lounging, we proceeded westward on CR 162 up along Chalk Creek to our overnight stop at the US Forest Service Chalk Lake campground.  The drive up this narrow valley is spectacular.  The route was originally used by the railroad as a way over the mountains to Gunnison.  Much of the land past the Hot Springs is part of the San Isabel National Forest.  The Forest Service maintains three small campgrounds along this road.  I chose the Chalk Lake campground because of the openness of its sites.  I had reserved the site 6 months prior and I was glad I did.

This small 18 site campground at 9,600 ft elevation is perhaps the prettiest place that I’ve ever camped.  It’s nestled between large mountains on each side.  I chose an open site versus one by the creek.  We had spectacular views of the mountains.  I sent much of the late afternoon sitting and staring up at the mountains.  It was intoxicating.  Just a half mile away is Agnes Vaille falls.  We could see the falls from our site,  A trail leads up to the falls, but it was closed due to potential flooding and trail work.  Here are some pictures of the area.

Chalk Lake has 18 sites.  Five of these sites can accommodate a small RV.  The remainder are for tents.  There are vault toilets, a dumpster for trash, a water spigot, and a camp host.  All sites can be reserved and I noticed that all had reservations posted for the next two week.  This small campground rivals any National Park campground that I’ve stayed at.  It’s $20 to camp but the views are priceless.

Leadville

From Chalk Lake we went back down to the Arkansas River, got back on Route 285, and proceeded north to Leadville.  My attraction to Leadville was again mining and history.  Leadville was established in the 1860’s right after the Pikes Peak gold rush.  Some gold was found in Leadville, but the key mineral was silver.  By the 1870’s, silver mining was going full tilt.  In 1880, there were 15,000 people in Leadville and it was one of the largest towns in Colorado.  It missed being voted as the capitol of Colorado by one vote.

There’s a couple of interesting historical tidbits that Leadville has claim to.  The first is that Doc Holliday, the dentist turned gambler and gun fighter of OK Corral fame, spent time in Leadville.  In 1884, He was living a quiet life when he gunned down an old rival in Hyman’s Saloon in Leadville.  He was acquitted of the attempted murder. Two years later he died of tuberculosis in Glenwood Springs at the age of 35.  The saloon in Leadville where the shooting occurred is now a bike shop.

The other historical tidbit is the rags to riches and back to rags story of Baby Doe Tabor.  Twenty five year old divorcee Baby Doe came to Leadville in 1880 seeking fame and fortune.  Silver king and millionaire, Horace Tabor, was immediately smitten with the attractive Baby Doe.  Horace was already married, but he divorced his wife to marry Baby Doe, who was half his age.  It was a major love scandal of he late 1800’s.  Horace, who served briefly as a US Senator and was one of the richest men in Colorado, lavished money on Baby Doe.  In 1893, his fortune (rumored to be $6-$9 Million) was lost in the Crash of 1893.  By 1895, he was shoveling mining slag for $3/day.  He died in 1899 at age 68.

Baby Doe didn’t fare well after Horace died.  With everything lost in foreclosure, Baby Doe ended up living in a mining shack just outside of Leadville.  She died penniless in 1935 at age 81.  She was found frozen in the shack, dead from an apparent heart attack.

Although silver was the key mining mineral in Leadville, when it came time to name the town, the town folks felt there were already too many “silver” named towns so they came up with Leadville.  I doubt they won any awards for that name, but I guess you had to be there at the time.

MIning is still going on in Leadville, but the key mineral is molybdenum.  It’s used to develop and strengthen alloys and used as a conductor in electronics.  Its mined in large open pits just north of the town

Upon entering Leadville, the appearance struck me as working town versus tourist town.  The main street area is pretty historic but the whole place came off as a cold hard place where the snow arrives early and stays until late spring.  At 10,200 it’s the highest city in the US.  It also struck me as the coldest.  From Buena Vista to Leadville the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees.

We visited one of the main attractions, which is the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum.  This museum is extensive and covers many minerals and mining artifacts from all over the world.  It a very technical place and probably considered Nirvana for a geologist.  The life-size replica of the inside of a coal mine is impressive.

I was planning to stay over night at the Turquoise Lake area just outside of town, but the weather and altitude made me reconsider.  Temps were forecast to be down to freezing.  I had already had my fill of cold weather camping and thin air at Cripple Creek.   After having lunch on Maine Street, I headed back down the river to the warmer area of Buena Vista.  We left Leadville at 53 degrees and just 25 miles down the road were greeted by 73 degrees at Buena Vista.  Much more to my liking.

There are some free camping options in parking lots in down town Buena Vista, but I chose the Snowy Peaks RV Park just 2 miles outside of town.  It’s a nice enough place that seems to cater to seasonal RVer’s who come the area for the summer.  We needed to do laundry and get a shower so this place fit our needs for an overnight.

Goodbye to the River

I enjoyed following the Arkansas River.  It was an interesting way to explore a section of Colorado.  It’s a region rich in history.  The Arkansas River valley was a major route for the railroads to haul minerals out of the Rockies.

The region is now a nice recreation corridor.  I like the small funky towns that are along the river.  They don’t have the glitz or crowds that you find in the big ski areas of Aspen, Breckenridge, Telluride, and Vail.

After leaving Buena Vista, we headed south back to Salida and went over Poncha Pass for the next leg of our journey.