A Journey into the Rockies

Peter Tong
2001

Not long ago I spent a week in Colorado with my host and hostess, Lowell and Pat. Lowell and I worked for the same companies from 1971 to 1980. In 1978, they had enough of big cities and decided to move back to Pat's hometown, Salida, CO. Salidian claims their town is 'the Heart of the Rockies'. On the map, it is south west of Denver and north west of Colorado Springs, miles from what we would associate with a mega metropolis like Washington, D.C. Salida has a population of fifteen thousand. 

The last time that I visited them was the summer of 1987 when Connie and I spent a couple of weeks with them touring the scenic parks in Colorado. This time, I wanted to experience the mountains in the winter. In 1987, Salida was a town slowly slipping into oblivion. To my surprise, on this visit I found the town very much alive and thriving as a resort-artist colony in the midst of magnificent mountains and the Arkansas River, which runs through the middle of the town. Oh, the surrounding is still very, very sparsely populated but the restaurants are first class and reasonable. Art exhibits by local artists can be found in the all local banks, restaurants, gift shops and art galleries.

Surprising to me also was the weather. I had expected it to be cold and snowy. But in fact, the temperature was 45 degree on most afternoons, even though it did fall to 0 degree at night. I did not find it to be uncomfortable even when I went with Pat to take pictures of the mountains early in the morning. Pat said it is because the humidity is low. She must know since she is a fourth generation Salidian and was its mayor and city administrator for many years. Lowell used to say that he is known locally as the husband of Pat Brooks. While I was there, it snowed when we went snowshoeing in the mountains and on the day we left for Colorado Springs on my return trip. People say we Easterners don't know how to drive on snow. Well, that may very well be true but the people in Colorado Springs does not seem to do much better. That Saturday, they had only three inches of powdery snow and I25 was closed for many hours because of traffic accidents.

I brought on this trip my new digital camera and a regular camera. While those on film are still being developed, the digital photos are immediately ready. I selected a few of the more impressive scenes for our website. Happy New Year.