Day 34 – Rest Day in Gunnison

So… Yeah. Colorado is awesome. I swear, since we crossed the border we’ve had the most amazing vistas, food, conversations and experiences. Jeez.

Today was a rest day, which is our day to stock up, clean up, and go do some exploring. We bought a couple of fly rods yesterday and went through all the effort to get fishing licenses, so we figured we should probably go fishing today. 😉 I was really excited to take the boys fishing, but I’m not 100% sure they were. I got them up late (7:15) and after some breakfast we went out in search of fish.

The folks at the Gunnison Fly Shop had some suggestions for places to fish, including going up the Taylor River. We didn’t know anything about the rivers in the area, so we took their word for it. I did some research last night on public places to fish along the Taylor but I had no idea what to expect.

A little Colorado geography lesson… the Gunnison is a fairly major river the runs west through southern Colorado. It’s formed just north of the town Gunnison at the confluence of the East and Taylor Rivers. Apparently the fishing at the confluence is really good, so that’s where we were shooting for.

We got to the head of the Gunnison and started up the Taylor. Unfortunately the road was closed due to construction, so we had to turn around (always fun in the MCC) and went up the East River instead. About 4 miles up river we found public fishing just outside a state hatchery. Curiously, the river near the hatchery isn’t stocked (go figure). Also, as Bobby and I explored we found out that what the area lacked in fish it made up for in mosquitoes. We decided to push on.

A little farther up the road we found the detour to get back over to the Taylor. We took the detour… which very quickly turned in to a dirt road going up and over a mountain pass. A dirt road with a shocking amount of traffic. There was clearly something up the Taylor.

After clearing the pass, we were back on the paved road up that went up the Taylor through a large national forest. After looking at a map, we figured out there was a reservoir at the top of the road that fed the Taylor. Not knowing where to fish or really what else to do, we decided to hit the reservoir to check things out.

14 miles later, we crested the hill and found it. A 230+ acre reservoir fed by snow melt that was built in 1934 at an elevation of 9,400′. It was a pretty amazing sight.

There’s a small park up there with a number of people camping, a fair number of RV’s running around, and very little else. It’s incredibly isolated and amazingly beautiful. Considering we just went out wandering, it was an amazing find.

All that said, the reservoir didn’t look very good for shore fly fishing, so we went back down river a bit to find a place to fish. I haven’t fly fished in probably 20 years, and the boys never have. Most of what I know about fly fishing I learned last night watching Orvis videos. Safe to say, fishing was definitely an experience. For the most part the boys did very well. We had a few issues managing all the line that you have to deal with…

And we bought two rods yesterday so two of us at a time could fish. We really didn’t plan on Dax being one of the folks fishing. He probably spent 2 hours just waving the rod around and splashing it in to the water.

We didn’t catch any fish, but I did have one really solid bite that I couldn’t set the hook on. Also, I caught a few trees including this one. Looks to be about a 40-footer. I’m getting it stuffed and will have it on display at home this fall.

Also, while I don’t “Facebook” I hear there are a number of people on there who like my hat. For those of you who like it, here’s an action shot with the hat.

The whole Taylor River valley is pretty amazing. Impressive cliffs, wildlife, the river…. Oh and the dirt road mountain pass had some pretty amazing views too.

There’s still snow in the peaks. Awesome.

JP and Art spent the day in Crested Butte. No pictures from that excursion, but they had a great time. They went to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and apparently JP wore his cowboy hat so he would not look like a tourist.  😉

We both had dinner at the Twisted Fork in Gunnison. Heidi, the boys, and I ate there last night and loved it so much we went back. Tonight we ordered “every appetizer except the garden salad”… we basically used their appetizer menu as a tapas menu. It tasted great and we went home stuffed.

A big thanks to the crew at the Gunnison River Fly Shop. Seriously, we walked in total noobs and they took care of us. I feel like we got amazing service, good prices, and some great conversation. They even gave us advice on where to fish tomorrow afternoon in Montrose. W00t.

Tomorrow is a 66 mile ride to Montrose. We lose 2k’ of elevation, but there’s some climbing in the middle. Sleepy time.