Durango/San Juan National Forest

[raftman]

Hey folks,

My wife and I are doing a two week trip out west in July and have ended up renting a cabin outside of Durango for a long weekend. We would love to do some hiking up into the San Juans and hopefully do some trout fishing. I know the Animas River is supposed to be spectacular, but I was wondering if anyone else had any suggestions for places to fish and places to hike. We'd love to find a trail that takes us up into an alpine meadow with a small trout stream....

any ideas?

Thanks so much!

 

[lestrout]

raft - I'm more into the ffishing than hiking, so I drive the 1 hr south into NM and hit the San Juan. It's combat ffishing, but the trouts are large and numerous. Going west the top dozen miles of the Dolores coming out of McPhee Reservoir has had some spectacular years - check with the local shop before you take the drive. There are interesting cliff dweller artifacts there, not Alpine at all. North of course is Telluride - again check to see which of the beautiful streams are not too affected by mine waste, but up high there should be less of that problem.

tl
les

 

[raftman]

Great! Thanks for the info! I'll be heading in the New Mexico after my stay in Durango, so maybe I'll hit up the San Juan then. My wife will be along, so ideally I'll find a nice alpine hike for us to go on that has a stream I can fish when we take a lunch break... just trying to get the best of both worlds

 

[icyguides]

Raftman, I stayed in pagosa springs and backpacked that area 2-3 years ago. Fourmile trail is a nice hike through sub alpine meadows with some large waterfalls at the end. I didn't fish fourmile creek below the falls, but I know above the falls there are lots of cutties. If you're going to hike above the falls you better be in good shape. It's 2-3000 feet of gain up to fourmile lake, which is over 10,000. It kicked me and my friends collective a$$es and left us with altitude sickness. Fourmile trail is very popular up to the falls, so if you're looking for solitude it might not be the best.
We hiked through a pass from four mile lake into the turkey lake drainage. Turkey lake itself was overpopulated with stunted brookies and turkey creek also had lots of small (by western standards, ~10-11in) brookies. A trail parallels turkey creek up to the lake. We spoke with a family of fishermen on the way out who fished the lower mile or two and they said they got skunked, so i'd suggest hiking 3+ miles or more before wetting a line.
Be very careful you don't get caught away from the tree line around mid day. We experienced violent, sudden thunderstorms on a daily basis around 12-1.

 

[sandfly]

flytyingfred goes every year, contact him by pm he'll put you on fish.

 

[raftman]

Thanks guys!

 

[Acristickid]

Packpacked the Vallecito Creek Trail drainage.

Seems to get lots of rain- think the mountains just a little more east dont get as much rain- which is important when your wet all the time backpacking/tenting and slogging through puddles. Anyways, maybe its not so rainey there this year.

Beautiful area. You can fish the Aramis right in town if you want if you dont have alot of time. Highway 550 very senic.

 

[raftman]

Good to hear about Vallecito Creek; our cabin is one drainage over near the Lemon Res.

Is there a particular fly show in Durango that you'd recommend?

 

[Acristickid]

No fly in particular that I recall- it been some years since I last was in the area.

There is at least one fly in Durango- or at least there was. Dont recall the name- try google. High mountains for sure.

 

[Gone4Day]

Try duranglers.com. They always treated me well and the owners are originally from PA.