Salida, Colorado, Riverside

salida, riverside, originally uploaded by mike thomas.

Salida is a rustic mountain town in central Colorado. My wife and I spend a lot of our weekends in nearby Buena Vista. Salida’s entire downtown is a historic district. The buildings range from near-ruins to restored beauties. I especially like wandering the alleys looking for photo and sketching subjects.

I sketched this very quickly while standing on a bridge over the Arkansas River. In this sketch you can see a street coming from the left that descends right into the river.  In the summer this is where folks launch their kayaks. To the right is a small rapids where the kayakers play.