Salida, Colorado seems to be a favorite top choice for living, retiring, and recreating. It has been the favorite of several magazines and newspapers, from the New York Times ("The Outdoors Life With No Attitude," December 2008) to the U.S. News and World Report Magazine ("one of the top ten affordable retirement communities in the US"). In late 2008, Diversion Magazine called Salida "one of the 10 best places you've never heard of," an "off-the-radar" destination with lots to offer but without the Colorado resort prices. A few years earlier, in 2004, Outside Magazine called it a "sweetly unpretentious town" and one of 20 "Dream Towns + Adventure Hideouts (& Sweet Land Deals)." Additionally, this town of about 5500 residents was included in the guidebook America's 100 Best Small Art Towns.
Located in central Colorado in the Upper Arkansas River Valley, Salida embodies the Colorado lifestyle experience. It is an outdoors paradise with year-round activities that include an almost complete A-to-Z adventure list: archery, biking, camping, climbing, fishing, four-wheeling, golfing, hiking, hunting, kayaking, picnicking, rockhounding, skateboarding, skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, and a world-class zipline tour.