Bennett Spring State Park

 We were on the road in our RV for a family gathering and needed a place midway to spent the night. Bennett Spring State Park in Missouri was about the right distance so we stopped there.

What a beautiful place to visit! The park includes a trout hatchery, hiking trails, trout fishing, very nice camping sites, a lodge for dining and of course the spring itself.

The trout hatchery allows you to walk amongst the various pools of various sizes of trout

Our dog enjoys watching the trout

                           

You can dispense trout food pellets and feed the trout in the pools. The trout have figured this out and follow you as you walk along waiting for you to feed them.

As trout increase in size they are moved to the next pool

                                    

Eventually the trout are released into the river for the fishermen to attempt to catch

Different sections of the river allow certain types of lures only

                                   

                           

The actual spring outputs thousands of gallons of water and is the source of the river

This fisherman is trying his luck at the edge of the spring

                                     

There is a rather attractive river monitoring station along the trail

Warm days and cool water make for interesting effects

There are hiking trails all thru the park

A massive spillway is found along the river and offers fine fishing spots

I enjoy going to eat in the classic lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corp workers

                                     

Such a pleasant place to enjoy a meal

This is a great state park and well worth the time to visit.

Fishing the Alpine Lakes

I received an invitation to hike to an alpine lake above Lake City Colorado to try my hand at fly fishing. This is a 5.2 mile hike from 8800 feet of altitude to about 11,200 ft. Quite a hike!

It involves a memorable Jeep Trail to an upper trail head and a wonderful (if strenuous) hike to a beautiful series of lakes know as Larson Lakes.

First stop was at the fly shop to get a fishing license and a few more flies

This is a good place to get a report on the fishing conditions in the area

Trail access made good use of the Jeeps low range capabilities and skid plates

The trail marker is rather optomistic as to the distance to the lakes - our GPS tracker showed it to be a 5.2 mile hike.

My hiking/fishing companions - L to R Bob, Doug, John and Brett

It was a steep hike in places

There were occasional mountain meadows

Almost there!

A little slice of heaven

The lakes were stocked by aircraft dropping fish while flying over. That must be something to see!

Everybody spread out and fished different parts of the lakes

The fish were biting. The best action was to be found where the upper lake flowed into the lower.

Steep sections on the way down were best navigated with the aid of walking sticks

 A particularly good book detailing fishing the Colorado High Country is "Fly Fishing the High Country" by John Gierach. Lots of good advice about fishing the alpine lakes...