Posted on 04/16/2010 3:18:13 PM PDT by smokingfrog
I'm hoping some FReepers will be able to help me out here. The wife and I will be vacationing in Colorado in mid May. Flying into Denver and will be looking for some things to see and do there. (Is there anything in Denver that would be considered a must see?)
At this point in time we're looking at staying around Estes Park or maybe the Winter Park/Fraser area. We'd prefer to stay in a cabin/cottage or maybe a B&B if not too pricey. Not interested in staying at a Dude Ranch or someplace like that where all the activies are planned.
Neither of us are fishing fanatics, but we'd like to try our hand at some fly fishing. So where are the best places to fly fish in Colorado that would not be too far from Denver? If you do an internet search for 'fly fishing Colorado' the number of hits is kind of overwhelming. I guess we'd be looking for a guide or outfitter that can give us some lessons, along with a half day or so of fishing. (We don't own any fly fishing gear.) I've seen a few places like this while browsing the net. Some of them seem to be quite expensive. So can anyone here point me in the right direction or tell me a good place to look for information. Is mid May a little bit too early for fly fishing?
Valhalla looks nice!
Stay in Grand Lake just north of Winter Park. Use it to do day runs North to the west gate area of Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park which you might visit with warm clothes. Grand Lake is a nice little town on a stunning lake.
To the south within 40 minutes is Winter Park, Fraser and Granby in reverse order. Nice ski towns. You can go west of Fraser and drop small top water spinners and flys in the small rivers in the research forest area 20 minutes from Fraser.
Between Grand Lake and Granby you have Shadow Mtn lake and Granby Lake.
Like much of the Rockys there is a lot of evergreen killed by cyclic insect kill. I think its at the peak of a 70 year die back from beatles.
Funny you should mention Grand Lake, because I was just checking out the Western Riviera. Seems like a good central location.
I really didn’t know anything about the evergreen kill until I posted this thread. It sounds pretty bad. In Texas, we have the pine bark beetle, which I assume is a similar problem. It doesn’t seem to be as severe as it used to be. I imagine that periodic forest fires are nature’s way of taking care of these things.
Oh, it's definitely possible. Some people have a knack for it and take to it like...pardon me...a fish to water.
There is great fly fishing on the upper Arkansas river in Chaffee county.Help keep Colorado green, bring money.
Just to make sure there is no mis-understanding, while I disparage the Granby/Grand Lake area, it’s all relative. All of Colorado is nice, some areas are just nicer. That area would not be my first pick.
Western Riv has some units lake front and some a block back. The lake front stuff is old but I like the setting. Around the block is a good breakfast place with live music.
I like the band box square a block away. Take your camera.
We went to Red Rocks. I consider that a must see.
Otherwise, I agree with you. There was some kind of festival going on downtown the day we arrived and it looked like kooksville to me.
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