Colorado Summer

It was our pleasure to spend the last week in southwestern Colorado splitting our days between outdoor adventures and time with family. Friday’s drive up from Sandia was a bit too damp for us to enjoy our scheduled hike near Ouray, so we instead enjoyed more time with Edith (Mom) in the evening. Saturday morning we headed up to Owl Creek Pass for a picnic. The mountains were in full bloom, and the weather was fine. The drive up over the pass and into the valley was just lovely. The pictures do not do the place justice, especially because they fail to reflect how fortunate we felt to be enjoying the day with Edith. She took everything in with the wonder of someone new to the area, although she has lived in the Colorado mountains for over five decades. She was especially taken by the tall aspens, the plentiful skunk cabbage, and the wide variety of wildflowers. She collected a big bunch to take home and brighten her home.

 

Sunday morning after church, Kelly took me to a local park to teach me how to fly fish. There is so much to it! Kelly made it look so easy! He is an excellent teacher, and broke down the entire process into steps. I would love to say that I mastered it quickly and am a flyfishing savant, but unfortunately I still have a LOT to learn.

 

On Monday, we drove the long way to Kelly’s favorite fishing spot. He was worried as we drove because all the drainages had much more water in them than he had seen in quite a while. Our first stop was in a lovely valley cut through with a rather angry creek. I decided that my rookie flycasting was not up to the challenge the creek posed, so I took the dogs for a hike up the mountain. That is, until Rango figured out that his dad was not with us and he headed back down the mountain without my observation or permission. I called and looked and hiked up and down the mountain until I gave up and hiked down the mountain to get Kelly’s help in finding the missing canine. There he was, as happy as a clam, chasing water striders and moles along the creek bank. Kelly assured me that it was ok for Rango to stay down with him while Elfie and I hiked a bit. We were about halfway back up the mountain when who trotted up to join us, but the intrepid Rango. I was afraid that Kelly would be looking for him, so I hiked back down the mountain with the dogs. We were met by Kelly hunting for Rango. It was then that I decided that maybe hiking was not going to work, so I got out my art bag and found a sunny spot. The fishing was challenging due to the high water, but Kelly managed to break in the new rod and catch some lovely little trout.

 

drove over a little pass and dropped down into a river valley that is on the way to nowhere. The river called to Kelly, so I tried again to take the dogs on a walk. Rango and Elfie happily trotted down a path that ran parallel to the river. Kelly was able to drop down into the river without being seen by his dog, so Rango did not try to get away from me to find his master. After our walk, he stayed with me in terror of a fly landing on his butt (a fear that Kelly says has plagued him since he was a puppy.) My art project had to be put on hold while I held the coward in my lap and helped him to keep the flies at bay. Kelly fell in love with his new fishing spot and his new fly rod. The day was an amazing adventure in a remote part of the state.

 

On Tuesday morning, we stayed around the house and helped Keith with a few projects. In the afternoon, we took Edith to Grand Junction to visit an old family friend (and a bookstore she frequented when she lived in the city). It was a wonderful visit with Connie Miller, and Kelly and I once again felt honored to be able to spend time with these beautiful women. That evening, Kelly cooked a delicious meal of grouper, plantain and asparagus for Keith, Lori, Edith, and Lori’s mother and brother.

Wednesday’s adventure was a drive up to the Grand Mesa, where I got to try my hand at fly fishing on a little lake. It was mostly just practice casting, untangling line and losing flies that Kelly had tied in preparation for the trip. He had better luck actually catching fish. Even though I did not catch any fish, I enjoyed the day on the lakeshore. When the rain became more insistent, we loaded up and drove to the north end of the mesa, an area called Land’s End. It was a place of grand vistas and pushy rodents. The rodents were being fed by some other visitors, and were pretty sure that we should have food for them, too. Their boldness led to some wonderful close-ups of these cute little creatures. A few times, Kelly held his fingers out as if he had a seed for them, and was able to boop them on the nose as they came in for a treat.

There is a road down off the mesa that wound back and forth through several layers of foliage. It was breathtaking and a bit frightening. What a wonderful way to find our way back to Montrose! Keith made dinner for us that night, and we had some great conversation with Keith and Lori late into the night. Today we made our way back home without incident, unfortunately again getting rained out of our rescheduled hike near Ouray. We are home now, Kelly is busy working and I tackled the job of trying to get all of the dog hair out of the truck. It was a wonderful week and being back home feels just right.