As usual the summer is racing on by with entirely inadequate time spent fishing the high country.
The first trip of the year went up into the shadow of Mt Evans. I'd planned to drive up and hike down to the lakes until discovering the road is now reservation-only, go to recreation.gov several weeks in advance to make a booking. Good grief. So, it's five miles and 1600ft up and in, from the bottom parking lot. This was full by 7:30am on a Saturday. Made myself a parking spot in a pullout a couple hundred yards away, just a slightly longer run then.

I say 'run', what this means is 'go as you please', run when I can, walk when the air gets too thin.
As always it makes me wonder why I'm wasting my life in a city. Earning my daily crust and raising a family, comes the dutiful response.



A bit over four miles in to the first lake. I'd hoped to fish the creek, which is densely willowed and roaring with not much for holding water, very tough going, not strong enough for that today. With the smoke in the sky we could barely see across the valley.



On to the upper lake, theoretically holding fewer but bigger fish.



All this just an hour's drive from Denver (plus the 5 miles and 1600ft which took me another hour and 15min).

Two hours of trying the outlet, dropoffs around the shores, and the inlet, showed no signs of life at all. No bugs, no weed in water, no rises, no shoreline cruisers. Hm. Down in Denver it was 95deg, up here at nearly 12 000ft a strong cold wind and 40s, with the sun glowing faintly through the haze.

Back to the lower lake. Tried a side trail hoping to get to the inlet and got cliffed.



Thickets of willow defend the lake. There were a few faint trails through them, most with big moose hoofprints and even some scat. Saw midges as soon as I neared the water under the cliff, as well as weed and other encouraging signs.



First cast got a little 9" cutthroat. Nothing more for a bit until some rises convinced me it was silly to not fish a dry fly. Drifting a Royal Coachman down the faint current as the inlet stream faded into the lake, or with the wind gusting across, worked well.



Gave thanks to the merciful gods of the inlet, wandered around to the outlet to see if the fish were any different there.



No further rises, lazy fisherman prefers dry fly anyway, and it kept working. Slightly larger fish in fact, how nice.



A mix throughout the day of fish in spawning colors and ordinary. Last cast before the run out was a bright spawner.



Legs aching at this point so I foresaw more of a walk than a run. It went OK with a couple of stops, once to chat to a couple of climbers walking down with their giant bouldering pads. The climbers are often such nice kids, open faces and clear eyes, kids today are alright. Another stop to gawk at a huge moose taking his rest in the willowy creek. I tried a picture but it shows only trees, you'll have to take my word for it.



Another good day though as my backpacking spirit guide wrote recently, in these hazy hot days we do wonder if it's the last journey.
That article references a short fish story, Cli-fi (like Sci-fi, except about climate).
Victor and the Fish.

Very nice. Your posts always get me excited to get out chasing trout.

They're great ads for Colorado too. I made it down south a couple of weeks ago to Creede, and I was impressed with the area. I have family that summer there, and we'll be back, with more time to fish hopefully.

KOOL!

The cutthroat in the lower lake are beautiful! We backpacked in last year for a couple of nights, I climbed Mt. Evans while my partner fished the upper lake...he had the same results as you.

As for the smoke, I was driving to the Conejos area (from Denver) on the 8th and could barely make out the Collegiate Peaks and could not see the Sangre de Cristo range. When we were returning on the 14th, things were much better.

Chris

Thanks for sharing! Glad you saw the moose and caught some fish! Sorry for the smoke. Back in ‘99 i was there. Tried to sleep in rig up top at visitors center to acclimate to altitude and ranger made me leave so I drove down to the lake just below and tried to sleep in the rig. Got really cold and condensation was really bad in the cab. Felt pretty lousy. On the way up though i saw the biggest muley of my life.

Didnt fish there but spent a week fly fishing around Leadville acclimating for the August race they hold there every year.

Doug,

Hope you do well up there this weekend! I got my buckle in the “run” that year. Took me 3 times to do it (starting in ‘95) but did a lot of flyfishing killing time all making the whole effort worthwhile. Nice writeup of your experience! Wish i had a pacer. Minimags with AAs are not bright and batteries dont last long. Glad i didnt break a leg. Thanks for the link! Take care.

mike

It's on my bucket list to visit Colorado.

You guys have no concept, none at all, what it's like to live in a place like Florida and look at posts from you and Wvbrookie and read about all your trout fishing adventures, and see the beautiful pics of the mountains, and the trout, and the great times you're having.

I should have moved out there, to Montana or Wyoming or Colorado, when I was a young man. The livetime that I've missed not being out there cannot be reclaimed. I just hope to finally get to move out to Montana before I die.

Great story, Doug, and great pics! Thank you.