Duh! Yeh! We're in the Rockies

I had no real plan for Friday.  I packed up and set out with my atlas.  My cousin lives in Estes park and although she was out of town she really thought it would be worth checking out.  It's also had a nice river to potentially fish!   

I got into Fort Collins then headed west up the canyon towards Estes park.  This canyon contains the big Thompson river and was one of the areas decimated by the floods they had last year.  It was a fairly tight canyon with tall and steep walls.   This area was littered with small cabins lining the banks of the big Thompson.  The amount of destruction caused by the floods was terrifying.  Houses were just flattened.  Some lifted off the ground, only to be found somewhere down stream.  Many of them were literally cut in half.  You could see couches and kitchens perfectly from the road.  You really get to soak it all in because there is still major road construction and stream renovation going on, pretty slow moving.  

Enough with the despressing stuff...  I emerged out of the canyon and into Estes park, with an incredible view of Rocky Mountain national park.   It was warm and not a cloud in the sky.  I found the outflow of the resevoir and decided to fish.  This was a Friday morning and a completely different fishing scene then I was used to...  The river was packed!!!  People were fishing almost on top of each other.   So I slithered my way into a small spot and went to work.   Multiple fish hitting the surface and I had been watching people catch fish that were  three feet in front on them.  It wasn't long until I hooked into some beautiful fish! 

Unfortunately this floppy fish pic is the only one I got.  But very healthy rainbows for days!! 

The one spot my cousin said I needed to see was the Stanley hotel.   This hotel was the inspiration for Stephen kings "The Shinning".  It was also were it was filmed. Apparently King and his wife stayed in the hotel, which was already at that time known for some ghostly happenings, and saw things out of the ordinary then wrote the book.   The other truly legendary work of art that was partly filmed there was Dumb and Dumber!   The scenes that were shot there can be seen here. 

And I got a pic with this gem, which is still in the same location as when the movie was shot. 

WE LANDED ON THE MOON!!!!

The hotel itself was a magnificent place and mostly originally.  I imagine the grand hotels, during the early days of my home town looked very similar inside and out. 

It had an ok view.  

I took rt7 through the mountains south, into boulder.  From there I hopped on the highway and headed through the construction and traffic nightmare of Denver.  I immediately missed the mountains.   I set my sites on a place called deckers on the south platte river.

A very tight winding road finally leads you to banks, seeing the river made the drive seem totally worth it.  

As the day was winding down, I decided it was more important to find a campsite then to fish right away.  I drove past three, the first empty but no wind protection, second was full of a large Mexican family reunion with a sectioned off crowd of very terrifying teenage rednecks who insisted I stayed and partied, the third was right on the banks of the river with plenty of trees in a deep ravine.   I picked the latter. 

Painfully I had to pay a site fee since the camp steward drove around right after I arrived.   It was worth it in the long run though, my neighbors for the evening were a bunch of folk my age from Denver who wanted out of the city for the weekend.   They kindly invited me down for dinner and we drank around the campfire til the wood ran out and copious amounts of alcohol were consumed.   

The next morning I woke up early, somehow, and set out to fish.  Already at 8am the river was packing up with fishermen and ladies.  I couldn't believe how many people were fly fishing.  It was like musical chairs, everyone moving to the next whole at the same time.  By about 10 I'd had enough.  I caught one nice brown and headed back.  I returned to the smell of pancakes that my neighbors had been cooking.  They insisted I come down and indulge with them in exchange for some fly fishing lessons, I happily agreed.   I strung up another rod and took a few of them down to the banks for a fly fishing crash course.   Most of them got a hang of casting fairly quickly.   But before any catching took place, check out time arrived.  I said my goodbyes and headed south towards forest park.  

Around the fire the night before there was talk of a big storm coming.  One with colds temps and potentially quite a bit of snow. So I wanted to get on my way south to see if I could juke around it.  

The next destination was a place called 11 mile canyon. This is east of gunnison co, about the same lattitude.  On the way in I decided to stop at a little convience store and get some beer.  While in there I saw a computer set up to get your fishing license online.  For some reason I just had a feeling it would be a good idea to get one, so I did, it was a lucky decision. 

I have to give a big shout out to western rivers fly shop back in Utah.  I brought in my atlas one day, telling the guys my proposed route and seeing if they had any suggestions.   They circled on my atlas some of the most beautiful trout streams I have ever seen.  11 mile canyon was one of those.  Clear green water, huge boulders all along the banks, and plenty of eating fish!   Not mention some really cool rock tunnels! 

And a double one 

I stopped a few places and fished on the way up, with pretty good luck on a dry dropper. 

I stopped near the dam and while I was fishing guess who pulls up...  Colorado game warden!   He came up to me and asked how I was doing, I told him great and about how amazing the area was.  He abruptly asked for my fishing license. With a huge shit eating grin I presented my license.   This was the first time in my life I had been asked to show a fishing license and it just so happened to be one of the extremely few times I actually had one!  He was very friendly after and he gave me directions to a place I could primitive camp as well direction to colorados "dream stream" which I will be hitting tomorrow!  

I found a nice little spot off the beaten path and made camp.  I still had a bit of day light left so I decided to clean my .22 and shoot some cans.   Just as much fun as when I was ten. 

 After a few shots I finally hit the pop top bullseye.  

That's all for now.  Hittin the dream stream tomorrow!!