Emily & Luke's Travel Blog & more: Colorado Fish and Ride

I'm (Luke) finally getting around to catching up on blogging about some recent trips. In early April I flew down to Colorado to visit our friends Adan and Mara. During her spring break from teaching Spanish Mara was going to be in Utah testing to be a whitewater guide for a trip in May that she is a chaperon on for juniors in high school down the Green River. Adam and I thought it would be a good idea to fish our way over to Dutch John, Utah, via Wyoming and pick her up so we could all fish our way back to Winter Park, CO together. Adam and I got our butts handed to us on the North Platte in WY as we dealt with steady winds of about 30MPH and gusts up to 45MPH. Even though our casts were not picturesque textbook loops Adam caught a few trout and I ended up getting my first carp on the fly; which, to me, was something to write home about despite the fact that there are some fishermen that would put the carp pretty firmly in the "turd knocker" category.

After meeting up with Mara in Dutch John, UT we spent a couple days fishing the Green River. The fishing (Blue winged olive hatch) and scenery were both great. I'd last spent time on a lower section of the Green when I was 14 on a two week Outward Bound whitewater trip. It was great to reconnect almost 20 years later. We worked our way back to Steamboat Springs and while Mara skied at the ski area Adam and I fished the Yampa River. The Yampa treated us very well with some great action on midges and a herd of about 100 elk watching from the mountains nearby. I caught my first cutbow (a cutthroat/rainbow hybrid) trout in a gorgeous hole nestled among boulders that we fished for a couple hours and could have easily stayed for a few more.

We got back Winter Park and were greeted with 18" of fresh snow. We spent the next two mornings snowboarding at the Winter Park ski area. Adam, being the great photographer that he is, got a few shots of me where it looks like I'm a good snowboarder. My last day there we snowboarded in the morning and fished in the afternoon on the Williams Fork of the Colorado River. It doesn't get much better than that!