In early June, Sandi and I drove up the
Poudre Canyon to scout campgrounds. At Kelly Flats, next to the
Poudre River, the campground host suggested that we show up Wednesday
morning if we wanted a campsite, as it is first come first served.
It has been a busy summer in the Poudre Canyon campgrounds, so it
takes strategy to get a good campsite. The campgrounds just opened
June 1st, and people have been feeling cooped up and
wanted to get out.
On June 17th, we drove to
Kelly Flats campground, and spoke to the campground host. She told
us who was leaving that day, and we chose one of those sites. We
waited an hour or so before they left. The campsite was right next
to the river, at the end of a cul-de-sac, so an excellent campsite.
We decided to head up the canyon, and
stopped at Glen Echo Resort, where we had hamburgers outside. We
continued up the canyon to Long Draw Road, where we hoped to drive up
and find the trailhead to the ghost town of Lulu. However, the road
was gated closed, so that was not going to work. We instead walked
on the Blue Lake Trail. We did not walk all the way to Blue Lake,
but we did get some views of Chamber's Reservoir. The creeks and
rivers are running high. The photo of Sandi was taken at one of the
creeks; I was experimenting with longer exposures to get artistic
photos of water.
Small Rainbow Trout |
On Thursday the 18th, we
headed up to Chamber's lake to go fishing. When we parked, the map
showed a smaller lake nearby, called Lost Lake. We took a short hike
to Lost Lake. Sandi practiced with her new rod and reel. Richard
caught and released a couple of small rainbow trout. It was cold,
so we knocked off after a couple of hours, and headed back down to
the camper. We worked on our relaxing. Sandi cooked salmon for
dinner.
Friday the 19th, we again
headed for Chamber's Lake. This time we walked past the closed
gate, to the campground. We started to fish, but the thunder got
closer, so we headed for the only available shelter, the porch of the
campground pit toilet.
We saw rain and sleet, and were glad to be
out of the weather, while we ate lunch. After the rain stopped, we
resumed fishing. Richard caught and released about five 8 inch
rainbow trout. Sandi continued practicing, and had a couple of
nibbles. We scouted the campground for future reference, and saw
that it was very good. We walked back to the truck, and headed down
the canyon, taking a photo at Poudre falls. We stopped at Archer's
resort, which had a little of everything, including the fishing lure
that I was looking for; Archer's is similar to Glen Echo, but with
lower gas prices.
Sandi grilled Italian sausage outside;
the leftovers will be used as part of a pasta dinner on Saturday.
Columbine - Colorado State Flower |
There are about twenty butterflies in this photo. |
On Saturday we took a hike up Dadd
Gulch. The trail follows the small stream. There were literally
hundreds of butterflies near the stream, I am only including two
photos out of many that I took. The columbines were also gorgeous.
The hike was pleasant but warm. There were quite a few parties on
the trail, as this is not far from Fort Collins. Saturday night we
had a campfire.
Sunday we got up early so we would not
miss our ancient Greek class, via Zoom.