Experience the best of Buena Vista

Buena Vista sits at about 2,400 metres in the Arkansas Valley of central Colorado, a small town of brick storefronts and a main street that still looks as it did in the mining and railroad era. The Collegiate Peaks, a line of mountains named for American universities and including Mount Princeton, Yale, Harvard and Columbia, rise just to the west, each of them more than 4,200 metres high.

The Arkansas River runs beside the town through Browns Canyon National Monument and is popular for white-water rafting. Natural hot springs at Cottonwood and at Mount Princeton lie close, and Cottonwood Pass climbs to the Continental Divide. Salida, with its historic downtown, and Leadville, the high mining town, are within reach.

Breweries, burger joints and cafés line Main Street, and trout and elk appear on mountain menus. Summer is warm and dry for rafting, hiking and climbing, golden aspens colour the mountainsides in late September, and winter brings snow and clear cold skies.