Jeff Hammond spends day after day along the Arkansas River, in the cold and the heat and the wind, telling people to put on their life jackets, or making sure they have a permit to camp, or — sometimes — performing rescues like the one in which he pulled a mom, her daughter and their […]
Arkansas River
Posted inOutdoors
A tutu-wearing guide is leading the way as women fill the ranks of Colorado’s raft industry
Elisha McArthur wants women and girls to feel the power of rowing their own raft
Posted inWater
Colorado lands another $100 million in federal funding for Arkansas Valley Conduit
Latest installment spurs 103-mile pipeline paralleling the river to bring safe drinking water to 50,000 southeastern residents
Posted inOutdoors
Colorado surfers rally in Salida as local engineers adjust celebrated wave
2-ton sandbags helped tame a boat-flipping menace at city’s popular whitewater park — bringing back the vaunted Scout Wave after 8-week absence
Posted inOutdoors
Salida lost its longtime carnival — and bags of poop were hurled at a man’s home because of it
A resident’s complaints about “dangerous” rides prompted carnies to pull up stakes. But ninjas came to the rescue.
Posted inOutdoors
Colorado Supreme Court ends long river access dispute by ruling fisherman has no standing in right-to-wade argument
When a landowner hurled rocks at Roger Hill for wading and fishing in the Arkansas River, the octogenarian angler sued, arguing the river was navigable when Colorado became a state in 1876 and therefore public property and open for wading and fishing. The lawsuit threatened to upend decades of tenuous agreements around public access on […]
Posted inWater
Colorado may have its best boating season in over a decade thanks to this winter’s large snowfall
But if the deep snow melts too fast, the rafting season that might have been could end in a rush of dangerous water and debris.
Posted inBusiness
As places like Cañon City court redevelopment, they find an unlikely ally in the EPA
The agency’s brownfields program just came into lots of new money. And they want rural and small-town Colorado to help spend it.
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Economy, Environment, News, Outdoors
Drought and irrigation demands will drain two Eastern Plains reservoirs, killing fisheries and the local economy
It’s open season with no limit on walleye, saugeye, crappie, perch, wiper and catfish at two Eastern Plains reservoirs. Again. As severe drought spikes demand for irrigation water on the plains, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is dropping angler limits at the South Platte River-fed Jumbo Reservoir near Julesburg and the Arkansas River-fed Queens Reservoir north […]
Posted inArts, Business, Culture, Economy, News, Politics and Government
In Florence, pop. 4,000, political upheaval is testing the city’s push to shake off its “ghost town” past
At 8 p.m. on a summer weeknight, the setting sun slants its last warm rays through the trees along Main Street in Florence. The antique stores, bakery and coffee shops are closed, and the nearly empty dinner spots will soon follow. The benches that provide a shady respite during the day are empty. There’s a […]