At right: A beautiful 23” Elk River rainbow that fell victim to a size 8 black Wooly Bugger.

From the first time we went to Steamboat Springs some twenty years ago it has always had a special place in our hearts. It’s one of those unique places that blend a multitude of backgrounds into one easy lifestyle.

The town was originally named when early settlers discovered that one of the areas’ many natural hot springs made the sound of a steamship whistle each time it erupted. Over the years mining and development apparently cracked the rock formation that made the lonesome whistle sound, but the town that bears its name is still there and better than ever.

Despite the loss of the whistle, the downtown hot springs have been developed into a first rate spa, including several pools and a health club. It is more active than ever and well worth a visit when in Steamboat. If you’re more into a natural, wild setting some enterprising entrepreneurs have enhanced several hot springs a few miles up in the Rockies just outside of town – Strawberry Park. The owners have blended the steaming hot water of the hot springs with the ice-cold waters of a mountain stream by building a series of small dams and diversions using indigenous rocks and well-disguised iron water gates. Instead of changing in a locker room like the downtown springs, Strawberry Park offers tee pees. Massages are also available in small log cabins, for a nominal fee. It’s the only place we have ever been where the water is cold enough for trout to thrive on one side of a stream, and hot enough to cook them on the other side!

Time to Fish!
Speaking of trout, Steamboat offers a wide variety of great trout fishing opportunities, ranging from hundreds of miles of mountain streams in surrounding National Forests, free to the public, to high-end private membership waters where owners pay upward of 2 million dollars for river front lots. Over the years we have had a chance to fish a good amount of these waters.

Back in November Robin planned a trip to visit a new nephew in Delaware so I decided to head to Steamboat for one last foray before winter hit. I wanted to sample the fishing on a few new ranches that my friend, Doug, a Steamboat local, had recently acquired access to. It was an easy flight from Richmond, leaving at 9:45 am, and by 3:30 pm I was spotting elk in mountain meadows as the small twin prop commuter started its slow descent into the Hayden Airport, a few miles west of Steamboat.

Early the next morning found Doug and I catching up over some good coffee and cinnamon buns to die for at a local eatery, Winona’s - one of the many cafes that make Steamboat special. Between the aroma of the fresh ground coffee, homemade buns, and the crisp, clean mountain air, it was definitely what the late John Denver so aptly called a Rocky Mountain High.

Next it was on to the Steamboat Fly Fisher (without question the finest fly fishing shop in town,) where owner Steve Henderson suggested a few flies and offered to have one of his top guides, Jonah Drescher, show Doug and me around Marabou - the newest high-dollar outdoor adventure ranch being developed around Steamboat. Developed is probably the wrong word. Perhaps crafted would be more appropriate, as the word developed seems to conjure up images of ugly subdivisions and the decimation of nature.

Quite to the contrary, native Steamboater, Jeff Temple, and his friends have taken some 2,000 acres of ranch land that is home to deer, elk, eagles, and more, all laced together by the Elk River which flows into the Yampa, Steamboat’s primary river, and are carefully crafting it into a premiere wildlife sanctuary / trout fishing venue where a few of us humans will also be allowed to live.

Jeff and crew are taking a good thing and making it even better with the help of wildlife and fish biologists and a team of professional outdoor experts that know how to get the most out of the outdoors with the minimum amount of impact. After

On To the Yampa
Day two I found myself fishing some beautiful water on the upper Yampa with my friend Steve and Steve Henderson, who decided a day on the water was worth many in the shop. And what a day it turned out to be! Steve took us to two different ranches, one where the Yampa flows slow and quiet through hay meadows, and the other some 10 miles upstream closer to its source high in the Rockies, where the water runs much faster. Both ranches produced beautiful trout as the day before, in the same 16 to 24 inch range, but this days’ weather provided all kinds of challenges, ranging from calm and sunny, to wind, rain, sleet, snow, and back to sun. In other words, pretty typical weather when you’re trout fishing in the Colorado Rockies in November.

I would love to relate every hit, run and fight of each trout we caught over the next few days but neither time nor space allow. To make a long story short, Steamboat Springs, Colorado still has a special place in our hearts. Now I have loads of fish stories and memories to add, and look forward to still more.