Hi all!
Despite the high water conditions, the Colorado Adventure is off to a great start! From the airport, we headed into Rocky Mountain National Park and had our fly fishing seminar. We went over casting, knot tying, some flies, and basics on how to read water. The kids took their skills to the nearby Colorado River headwaters in the Kawuneeche Valley where the group was able to catch a few brook trout.
Because of the high water, we decided to move to a nearby tailwater section of the Colorado that comes out of the nearby Shadow Mountain Reservoir. This ended up being a great decision - nearly everyone caught some nicer brown and rainbow trout. We headed back to camp, excited about the big fish we caught and even more excited about the backcountry adventure ahead.
On our first day in the backcountry, we hiked from the Green Mountain Trailhead towards the Tonahutu Creek Valley where we joined the Continental Divide Trail. From there we hiked a couple more miles to our first campsite and our second group hiked another mile further to their site at Granite Falls on Tonahutu Creek. Each group fished near their campsite, and we were able to catch some nice brook trout before getting some rest for our big hike the next day.
The following day we headed all the way to the end of the drainage where we reached Haynach Lakes. We had to cross large patches of snow in order to reach this lake which sits at a little over 11,000ft. With every kid catching a nice Cutthroat Trout, it ended up being worth every step. The backdrop of this lake made the fish even more beautiful with many of the surrounding peaks still covered in snow. We flew back down to our campsite and scarfed down a delicious meal of Buffalo Chicken Mac n’ Cheese followed by a No Bake Cheesecake for desert.
After getting some much deserved rest we got up and started to pack up. We decided to fish around camp for a couple more hours before starting our hike out. The hike out was a breeze and we went straight to get some ice cream and snacks in Grand Lake. After that we headed to our campsite for showers and laundry, followed by hot dogs and bratwurst for dinner. We are heading west tomorrow (Friday) towards Kremmling, CO, where we will fish a lower section of the Colorado River and get ready for our float trip on Saturday. Wish us luck!
