Headwaters Ark(E. Fork)

peter saucier _{on Google}

Nov 3rd, 2023

This is a follow up of an earlier post of mine describing this place but I unfortunately lost the pictures and recently went back to find the first snow of the season on Oct 8th. The east fork of the Arkansas is found directly below the southbound Highway 91 below Fremont pass. Coming down you need to take it in low gear because the first left is the turn of a dirt road that borders the national forest with climax mine property and driving up a moderately bumpy road your pass signs saying no camping or trespassing. If you dont have a four-wheel-drive you can hike up past the railroad tracks about a half mile and find the branch of an old mining two track Road that takes you up into this beautiful 180 degree arching valley that ends in the cold ponds and tarns that feeds this nacent river, the source of fly fishing as it passes Leadville, and whitewater floating through Buena Vista, Salida and the Arkansas Canyon. Past this, it creates the magnificent Royal Gorge east of Canon City, crossed by the highest suspention bridge in the world.
I have followed the river across Colorado, Kansas and Arkansas to Little Rock, where the slender brooks of snowmelt become thousands of feet wide on its way to the Mississippi.