The Arkansas, a Whitewater Capital
Near Salida, Colorado
The river running through the heart of Salida is not just a pretty backdrop. The Arkansas River is one of the most heavily rafted rivers in the United States. Thousands of people ride its rapids every summer, and Salida sits right in the middle of the action.
Just upstream, between Salida and the town of Buena Vista, lies Browns Canyon, one of the single most popular whitewater rafting destinations in the entire country. In the year two thousand fifteen, President Barack Obama used the Antiquities Act to designate Browns Canyon a national monument, protecting more than twenty one thousand acres of granite cliffs, pinon and juniper hills, and a wild stretch of the Arkansas prized by rafters and anglers alike. The rapids there are famous names in the rafting world, a bouncy, sunlit run of intermediate whitewater.
What makes this corner of Colorado special is that the raftable river runs right through downtown Salida. In many rafting regions you drive to the river. Here, the river is Main Street's neighbor, and on a summer afternoon you can stand on a bridge in the middle of town and watch kayakers surf a wave that the town built on purpose.
