David Willett

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Colorado Autumn Splendor 🍂

A bull elk 20 yards from the cabin

The Rhode Island Willetts, brother Tom and sister Barbara, come to Colorado to enjoy our cabin, wildlife and fall fly fishing.........

During a day of fishing at the cabin, we caught a plethora of trout.  Barbara caught her first rainbow and brook trout. All were all released back into the wild!

"No trout were harmed in the production of these photos....."

Sally caught a big brook trout

Barbara's first trout!

Rainbow trout from Sand Creek

Archery, hiking and puzzles were also on the agenda.  Additionally, we spotted many moose: bulls, cows and calves - one cow with a set of twins

Diana (Barbara) the Roman goddess of the hunt gets a bullseye

The ladies were determined to finish this puzzle

Sally shoots Grandma Thornberry's deer rifle in her old wool hunting coat - fond memories!

Hiking the hills the morning after the second snow of the season.....  Barbara gifted Sally with Grandma Thornberry's wool hunting jacket - perfect for the chilly days coming at the cabin!

One inch of snow, temps last night down to 26 degrees.  Winter is coming......

A night on the town includes great Mexican food and a bit of margarita madness...

Sisters!

Los Tarascos margaritas - sooo good, sooo strong...

Tom fooling' around

Hiking Pineridge Natural area, finds the resevoir low and a lone pelican (yes, they summer here!) napping on the shore.  Fishing Parvin Lake produces few fish, but some lovely scenery.

Tom catching rainbow trout at Parvin Lake at 8,500 feet

Parvin Lake views

Dixon Reservoir lake bottom -receding water leaves a mosaic in the mud

Fishing improves greatly on St Vrain Creek, in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National park. The brook trout are small but feisty.  We sighted lots of deer and elk in the national park and also in the town of Estes Park. Some of the bulls were bugling lustily.

The lovely pools of St Vrain Creek

Finally, a guided fly fishing trip on the Cache la Poudre River produced lots of big fish including rainbow and brown trout.  In addition, Tom caught a rare whitefish!  All were returned to the river unharmed.  The weather was great, fall colors gorgeous.  We had lots of fun and increased our fly fishing knowledge, thanks to our great guide, Chris Eussen (ceflyfishing.com). 

Tom and Chris display a pretty rainbow trout, before returning it to the water

Getting' ready to fish the upper Cache la Poudre

Fishing the pools lower down

Chris captured a pic of my biggest fish - a 17 1/2" rainbow trout, then back into the water she goes......