We had a quiet morning and then drove down the road to
Spinney Mountain Lake, which is another reservoir, just 10 miles from the lake
where we are camped. Paul did some
fishing from the shoreline and caught two fish, one Pike, the other a nice
Salmon. However it was pretty windy so after a couple of hours we drove to the
other shore line of 11-mile Lake.
This area is a fairly flat valley surrounded by
mountains.
Two reservoirs have been
created in the shallow canyons and turned into recreational lakes. At the bottom of 11-mile canyon there used to
be a mining town, before it was flooded.
Cattle and horses are grazed in this area, although the grass is fairly
poor.
Our camp site is raised on a small hill and we have a lovely
view over the lake. We took a stroll
down to the lake side in the evening and noticed the distance hills were
obscured. It was smoke from the distant
forest fires in southern Colorado that was being driven up by the southerly
wind.
25th June. 11-Mile Lake
We launched the kayak on 11-mile Lake. Paul did some fishing (another fine Salmon)
whilst Alison slowly paddled. We had a picnic lunch on the rocky shore line
near the ‘walk-in/boat-out’ camping area. We past an island which was covered
with birds – sea-gulls, cormorants and some pelicans – and they were making a
lot of noise! There must be a lot of
fish in these lakes to support so many fish-eating birds so far from the sea.
The weather was perfect today; blue sunny sky with a couple
of white fluffy clouds with the slightest breeze so as not to be too hot. In the evening we enjoyed the freshly cooked
salmon and watched the sun set behind the Rocky Mountains in the distance. We have finally got rid of the Millar Moths
which we picked up in Cheyenne. They are
large moths which arrive by the dozen every evening and crawl into all sorts of
places emerging the next day inside the RV.
3 or 4 x 1”sized moths dancing in front of the driver’s view is not
recommended.
25th June. Back onto the Lake again.
After spending 5 hours on the lake yesterday we had a slow
start to the day. We eventually got back
out on the lake in the afternoon. There
was little breeze and the lake as very flat.
Paul was successful again at fishing so more fresh salmon for dinner! We watched lightning in the sky somewhere in
the distance and hoped it was raining effectively on a forest fire somewhere.
26th June. Florissant Fossil Beds.
We were out on the lake again in the morning but by midday
it was getting too hot so we headed in shore for lunch. We notice a lot of other boaters left the
lake between 11am and 4pm. Although Paul
had a couple of ‘bites’ he didn’t manage to land a fish that day.
In the afternoon Alison went to the town of Florissant to
visit the Fossil Bed National Monument.
35 million years ago a volcano erupted and covered a valley of Redwood
trees with 15ft of lava and ash; this resulted in the stumps of the trees being
petrified.
The Fossil exhibition had
been recently refurbished and opened just last month. There were many excellent fossils of insects
and flora on display. However many of
the relics have been taken by tourists and trophy hunters over the past 100
years. This area was made a national
monument to prevent the development of a housing estate on the land.
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