Colorado - July 7th - 14th - Blue Mesa

From St.Vrain State Park,  we went to Blue Mesa Reservoir.  It is located about 10 miles west of Gunnison, Colorado.  The Gunnison River flows into the Reservoir, and is one of our favorite places to kayak in Colorado.  We were there for about 18 days.  We met lots of kayakers from all over the US during our stay here.

Blue Mesa Reservoir, Gunnison, Colorado

  Mark -  Janine - Mark - Pam - Marty

This is the beginning of our trip down the Gunnison River from Almont, CO

Janine and Marty will be in the kayaks.  Kay is taking this picture, and she will ride in the raft.

The water on the Gunnison River was running very fast, and high.

Kay taking pictures of me trying to keep the kayak upright.

This is where I got into trouble.  My kayak has a very big open cockpit.  The swells on the river were washing over the front, and filling it full of water.  Kay was telling the people in the raft, right behind me, that I was going down.  I did go down full of water and it was cold.

It took them a while to just get me into the raft, and a lot longer to get my kayak loaded on the back of the raft.  Needless to say, I enjoyed the rest of the trip down the Gunnison on the raft.

This is a view of the Gunnison River as it goes into Blue Mesa Rreservoir.  The water is very high, this part of the river is about 15 feet higher than normal.

Our long time friends Jeff and Paula Hamilton, from Mesa, CO brought their boat down to go fishing with us.  Here is Paula waiting for some action on her pole.

Blue Mesa Reservoir is such a beautiful place.  We love coming here.

Jeff, Paula and Kay speeding along to the fishing hole.

Another view of Blue Mesa.

We are looking for fish this big.

Caption Jeff. "I know there are fish in this lake somewhere"

This is a view of our campground from Jeff's boat.

The lake was so beautiful.

Jeff trying his luck with the fish.  No one was having much luck with the water so high.

I am not sad, just woundering where the fish are.

We didn't get any fish, but what a nice boat ride around Blue Mesa Reservoir.

We took Paula and Jeff down a short run on the Gunnison River. 

Paula and Jeff love the kayaks.  We got them hooked on them last Fall when we stopped to visit them

Kay loves her kayak.