Back to the Rio Grande

June 13, 2013

We’re heading north so Jack can fish a few more Colorado rivers, and I can live my cowgirl dream of riding in a cattle drive, which I’ve scheduled for this Saturday at a ranch in Kremmling, CO, north of Denver. Our goal today is Southfork, CO, which is on the headwaters of the Rio Grande River. To get there, we ascend some very steep grades, finally crossing the Continental Divide through Wolf Creek Pass, over 10,000 feet. Views are spectacular. We stop to see if Jack can walk to a snow patch to make a snowball, but the ground between the road and snow patches is too soggy to navigate.

A view from the Great Divide

 

I was hoping to bring back a snowball, but that grass ahead of me is a bog.

We stock up on a few grocery items in Southfork, and see that the grocery store also has a fly shop in it! While I shop, Jack spends his time there and gets the “skinny” on trout fishing in the area. The fly shop owner, Rodney, also owns an RV campground nearby so we decide to stay there for the night. The owners are very friendly—Rodney’s wife Joyce Ann loans Jack an iron so he can patch a couple of holes in his waders.

I’ll let Jack tell you about his Rio Grande fishing adventures. I used the time while he was fishing to do some birdwatching on the river bank and in the aspen and cottonwood groves nearby. Since we did not achieve our birdwatching goal of spotting a male painted bunting (yet), our new goal is to see and identify 100 species of birds while on the trip—our “trip list.”  At first all I saw today were 2 species, Brewster’s blackbird and robin, which we already have on our list. They have been by far the most common birds I’ve seen on the Colorado rivers. It’s weird that the robins seem to love the water here—they light on the rocks and catch bugs off the river. I’ve always thought of them as more of a “backyard bird.”

My main birding goal for today is to spot an American dipper, the only aquatic songbird in the U.S. We’ve both seen it before on previous trips out west, but not yet on this trip. This weird but cute little bird looks something like an overweight dark grey wren, with a stubby little upturned tail. It has outlandishly oversized feet and can actually walk underwater! I finally spotted one and watched it for a while—it perched on a rock at the water’s edge, checking things out, and then suddently disappeared underwater, to appear several seconds later in a different spot. The dipper also has a strange behavior of bouncing up and down while perched on rocks at the stream side. It’s a fun bird to watch.

I also saw a yellow warbler for the first time (life list and trip list), and a tree swallow (trip list). Our bird count for the trip is now up to 65 birds identified. We need to get busy on achieving 100 birds, since our epic journey is rapidly coming to a close!

Jack here.

Having spent so much time around the Rio Grande River when we visited the Big Bend National Park, I was anxious to visit the headwaters of the Rio Grande near Creede, Colorado. Expecting to find a tiny river hardly able to support a six-inch trout, I was amazed to find a river that was many, many times larger than the Rio Grande in Big Bend, Texas. How can that be? Mankind, of course, has managed to destroy the beauty of many of our nation’s rivers by building dams and then diverting the water behind the dams to irrigate surrounding lands including many acres of arid desert land. The US Army Corps of Engineers are the nation’s main dam builders and on this trip we see their work everywhere. By the way, these are the same federal government folks who plan to build a dam at Hypes near Oriskany, Virginia which will create a lake that will bury Oriskany, its church, surrounding homes, and the graves of Carol’s and others ancestors. What is the purpose of that proposed dam? To store water during springtime that can then be released in the summer to support the urban sprawl of Lynchburg, Richmond and other cities along the James River. As you can guess by now, I am not a lover of dams, cities, or urban sprawl.

Even upstream of Creede there is a dam on the Rio Grande. But here at this time of year water is not being diverted for irrigation so the river is big and full of trout and rafters. Carol and I drive up the Rio Grande about 8 miles above the small town of South Fork. This is where the South Fork River joins the Rio Grande. We park at a beautiful area in the Collers Wilderness. The river is about 200 feet wide and there are plenty of rapids and pools that must support a good population of trout. The Colorado Fisheries sign says this is an artificial flies and lures area and brown trout 12 inches or less can be taken. All rainbow trout and all brown trout above 12 inches long must be returned to the river.

After donning my gear, I head upstream and tie on “Big Gaudy” since it served me well yesterday on the San Juan River and there are now salmon flies flying all around me. I fish for about 30 minutes with no bites. I decide to tie on a nymph dropper (it’s a weighted artificial and will drift about two to three feet under my Big Gaudy). I almost immediately catch a six to seven inch brown trout on the dropper nymph. According to the regulations on this stream, I could keep and eat this trout, but I return it because it is a wild trout. After a few more casts a big trout rises up and takes Big Gaudy (so I think). The fight is on and the trout runs and wisely uses the current in the river to try to break my line. But he comes to net and I can see he is about 18 inches long. I keep him in the water inside my net while I gently remove the hook from his mouth. He is not on my Big Gaudy, he’s on the nymph dropper. Was he attracted to Big Gaudy, refused it and then took the nymph? I’ll never know. I leave the trout in the net for awhile while he regains his strength and then he quickly leaves me. This is what trout fishing is all about to me.

And a river runs through it.

I hook several more fish, but they get off. Fly fisherman who release their trout call these “long distance releases.” I like that phrase better than “I had a fish on but he got off.”

Bird species count: Vermilion flycatcher, turkey vulture, Bell’s vireo, *golden-fronted woodpecker, Say’s phoebe, northern cardinal, greater roadrunner, house finch, common raven, *northern rough-winged swallow, *summer tanager, *prothonotary warbler, *yellow-breasted chat, *yellow-rumped warbler, northern mockingbird, mourning dove, cliff swallow, Mexican jay, black-headed grosbeak, black-chinned  hummingbird, Wilson’s warbler, *Scott’s oriole, chipping sparrow, house sparrow, lesser goldfinch, black-crested titmouse, acorn woodpecker, scrub jay, *western kingbird, white-winged dove, *canyon towhee, *Grace’s warbler, *zone-tailed hawk, *curve-billed thrasher, Bullock’s oriole, Gambel’s quail, great horned owl, black-throated sparrow, *cactus wren, ladder-backed woodpecker, white-crowned sparrow, brownheaded cowbird, Brewer’s blackbird, *pyrrhuloxia, hooded oriole, verdin, crow, Anna’s hummingbird, dark-eyed junco, white-throated swift, Steller’s jay, mallard, common egret, brown pelican, western bluebird, loggerhead shrike, Audubon’s warbler, robin, Canada goose, black-billed magpie, red-winged blackbird, redtailed hawk, American dipper, *yellow warbler, tree swallow

State count: 14 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado]   

   

Odometer count:

Surber, VA: 107,435

Southfork, CO: 114,004 

Accommodations avg cost: 69 nts, avg $12.98/night