Salida Mountain Trails overview

A plan for building new singletrack on BLM land near Tenderfoot Hill north of downtown Salida has been approved, and building is underway! Contact Andrew Mesesan for details about how to roll up your sleeves and get with the program!

We’ve been working with the BLM since they started the Arkansas River TMP in 2004. Our trails master plan is part of it, and now that it’s been implemented we are good to go! Check out some of our new projects, and then go up there and see them for yourself!

Along the slopes of S-Mountain, up Ute Trail, down Deadhorse and Cottonwood Gulches is an area literally in Salida’s back yard. Trail runners, cyclists, hikers, and dog walkers know that there’s treasure within minutes of downtown Salida.

Between Dead Goat Gulch and Longfellow Gulch north of downtown Salida is arid, rugged public land. The sandy, rocky soil that grows thin, tough vegetation makes the area perfect for trails. The soil drains well, and the terrain makes for interesting trail routes. And since this area is on the warm side of the Arkansas Valley, much of the land stays relatively warm and snow-free during the winter.

Many Salidans already love this area, and use the trails that exist on a daily basis. Why change anything at all? Why not simply work the existing trails into the new BLM BLM Travel Management Plan and continue using them as always? Because the trails are too steep, rocky, and difficult for many trail users, and it can be difficult to find trails and trail junctions since there are no signs and few “official” routes. The existing trails do not form a trail system.

We would like to plan and build a system of concentric loop trails. Options for easy, moderate, or more difficult trail routes will be available from two or more starting places. There will be maps, marked intersections, interpretive signs, and hopefully restrooms and a camping area.

Why have a Trails Park?

We’re proud of Salida. It’s a friendly, pretty little town surrounded by some of the most beautiful country found in the Rocky Mountains. We celebrated our town’s riverfront a few years ago by cleaning it up, building a whitewater park, and making the banks of the Arkansas into a place everyone, boaters and non-boaters, could enjoy.

A few hundred feet from the River Park, there is one gravel road and one singletrack trail that can be used to access miles and miles of beautiful public land. You have to know where to look for the singletrack trail to use it. The road is fine, but you have to watch for motor vehicles and you have to make your way past short hill-climb side-roads, trash, and broken glass to get to the natural public land.

People in Salida could not imagine seeing someone dump trash along the river, but that was common practice not so many years ago. The whitewater park is a source of civic pride. It would be unthinkable to degrade it. If we treat our close-in public land as a source of pride, a park, it will become unthinkable for people to dump trash, drive vehicles off the track, or otherwise degrade it. This will be a place to bring children and grandchildren for a walk or a bike ride. It will be a place to send visitors where we know they’ll find the trail and get to explore the land we love and cherish.