Riding Shotgun on The Arkansas
In these parts, the river is an ecological treasure and draws visitors from all over for world-class paddling and, possibly even more exceptional, the fly fishing. The Upper Arkansas that flows from Leadville south to Parkdale boasts over 100 miles of gold medal trout waters, the longest stretch in North America.
The deepest measured natural section of the Arkansas River is about 1,250' where it flows through the Royal Gorge. That's 300' deeper than Lake Michigan. In the Great Plains, it's over a half mile wide in some places. The Arkansas has always been a critical waterway and you can trace much of how history unfolded over the last few centuries along its banks.
But the Arkansas that flows through my backyard in Buena Vista, CO merely hints at the scale of its downstream flows. Further up the valley, near Leadville, you'll find its headwaters. It's debatable where she turns from a collection of streams and into a river, but it is astonishing to see its origins and be able to step once or twice across something that so dramatically shapes the world immediately around it and beyond.
In these parts, the river is an ecological treasure and draws visitors from all over for world-class paddling and, possibly even more exceptional, the fly fishing. The Upper Arkansas that flows from Leadville south to Parkdale boasts over 100 miles of gold medal trout waters, the longest stretch in North America.