There are some maps below. They help. Finding a place is more than looking on a map. I found Salida when I lived near here for a while. I moved to Salida when I retired and now I find myself here.
Salida is on the South side of the Arkansas River. The river source is near Fremont Pass, about 60 miles North of here. It flows South to Salida where it makes an Eastward turn, enters Bighorn Sheep Canyon, flows through the Royal Gorge, out onto the Great Plains, and to the Mississippi. (Somewhere near Cleveland I think.)
The Upper Arkansas Valley starts, the geologists tell me, in a valley that runs from Leadville Colorado to El Paso Texas. There are just a few spots in between where the valley was filled up with a bit of debris. Poncha Pass is one place. It is just West of Salida and is probably the reason that the Arkansas doesn't flow into the Rio Grande.
Immediately to the West of Salida is the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains. The range runs North/South and is the backbone of the Rockies in Colorado. The Continental Divide follows the Sawatch Range. Many of the peaks are named after Eastern schools, like, Mt. Princeton, and Mt. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and that ilk. Here, they are called the Collegiate Peaks. The major peaks are all over 14,000 feet high so they are also called the "fourteeners."
To the North of Salida are the Arkansas Hills. If I were still in Pennsylvania I would say "Mountains." To the South and Southwest is Methodist Mt., Mt. Ouray, Chipeta, Pahlone, and others.
On the Southeast of town is the Northern end of the Sangre De Cristo range. They say Sangre De Cristo (Blood of Christ) because the evening sunset on the white peaks looks very red. I think Sangre De Cristo is used as a Spanish cuss word the common soldiers used when the Conquistadors told them they had to cross the range.
US Highway 50 and US 285 are the main auto roads that come through town. Fifty comes up from Pueblo and crosses Monarch Pass in the West. US 285 runs North/South in the valley. North of here it turns East and goes to Denver. South, it goes to Santa Fe.
You can always find Salida on the Weather Channel map (when the guy isn't standing in front of it). Look for a storm over South Central Colorado and the clear spot in the clouds is where Salida is.
Still can't find it?
OK Here are the maps. The red stars mark Salida. The purple line to the West is the Continental Divide. (Thanks Mapquest)
