Yesterday we traveled south and east to a town called Salida where they are known to have a family friendly swimming area and also some rapids that rafters come to hone their skills. The Whitewater Park in downtown Salina offers kayaking, paddle boarding, surfboarding, and body surfing as well as swimming along the banks. The river is extremely clean and every summer there is the famous Ark Boat Races and the Olympic sport of whitewater slalom racing which makes paddlers negotiate a series of gates suspended over the river. The gates were not strung, they only put them up on high water and during the races.
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| View dropping down to BV |
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| I called this guy Hotdog |
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| Girl surfing, then gave up and floated down |
However, we did see a couple of nuts playing in the rapids and also a girl who was trying to surf on the rip tides more up stream. She gave up after awhile and floated by. Some real hot-doggers were showing off for us. We bored easily so decided to drive back to Buena Vista and go to the Railroad Bridge recreation area and sat with a wonderful view of the River.
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| Our lunch spot at Railroad Bridge RA |
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| Here come the floaters |
Had a great viewing point, watching the floaters come by. I texted a picture to Rob, nephew, who was with us in 2018 when we floated down the river on rafts. He said he shuddered when he saw the picture, brought back nightmares! Been there, don't ever want to do that again. At this point in the River, the classification of the rapids is Class 4, meaning narrow passages, multiple obstacles, rapids here tend to be longer, steeper, and more "technical" which translates to turns, spins, and lateral moves across the current. Having capsized 2 times on our 'tame' trip, I cannot even imagine floating on the river where we had lunch.
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| Rafters had stopped for lunch |
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| Brings back (NOT GOOD) memories |
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| These nuts were tagging along with the others. |
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