Blue Mesa Road Trip

Yes fans, another world adventure with Dan and Collette. This time to beautiful Blue Mesa reservoir. Located near Gunnison, Colorado, Blue Mesa is the largest body of water in Colorado. The lake is about 20 miles long, has close to 100 miles of shoreline and by the dam is over 330 feet deep. The earthfill dam was completed in 1965 and is one of 3 dams making up the Colorado River Storage Project. The primary purpose of the dam is to provide hydroelectric power generation. As a side note, the movie “True Grit” starring John Wayne was filmed here, his only Academy Award. Our purpose was to catch fish, kokanee salmon and maybe some lake trout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’ve never driven through Colorado’s mountains, you’re missing some of the most beautiful country in the US. Our drive took us through the Western part of Colorado’s Rocky mountains and is quite spectacular. Once over Monarch Pass located on the Continental Divide at 11, 312ft., it was a fairly easy drive. Some road construction but that’s to be expected. You see Colorado only has two seasons, winter and road construction.

Our journey takes us to Ferro’s cabin rentals and guide service just up the hill from the lake. Now, we knew this was not going to be the Holiday Inn so we were prepared for a quaint cabin for the two nights. That’s exactly what we got, a quaint, somewhat rustic cabin but it had a comfortable bed. Owned and operated by John and Kay Ferro since 1989, the resort is somewhat dated and could use a little sprucing up but all-in-all was a quiet, relaxing location to enjoy a bottle of wine and watch the rain. If you’re in the area, stop by and talk with Kay about how Blue Mesa was made and some of the stories about the area, especially how they bought the resort, very interesting.

 

 

 

 

Our rustic little cabin with veranda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a few artifacts around the resort that were kind of unusual, for example the weather rock. Now not many people have seen an original Indian weather rock much less understand how one works, but trust me, these really work. The one at Ferro’s is an excellent example and seemed to work perfectly while we were there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google it if you don’t know how it works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, we’re here to fish and try to catch that elusive species, the Kokanee. Well I’m happy to report it is still elusive and we didn’t present a threat to the Blue Mesa population. We did manage to catch a few trout, some we sent back to grow up, some we kept, not sure why. We kept three larger ones, about 16-18 inches long, mostly because they swallowed the hook. Every once in a while Collette will bread-up, sauce-up, smoke-up or just fry-up a trout for dinner and I’ll eat it. Only seems right if she is going to that much effort.

 

 

 

 

 

Gonna close with a few more pictures of the lake. Really beautiful area and there are many options for rentals, some not as rustic, some more, up to individual tastes. Kay and John are very welcoming hosts and know a lot of history of the area. I’m sure they would welcome you to their resort even if it’s only for a trail ride.

 

 

 

 

In the immortal words of Marion Morrison, aka John Wayne:

“Get off your horse and drink your milk.”