Cheesman Canyon

Cheesman Canyon

In the middle of July, I felt the need to get out of the town of Colorado Springs and just relax in the middle of a stream. I mentioned this to Paul and Lindsey and they were game to go on an canyon adventure for the afternoon. I decided to try out Cheesman Canyon, which is right next to Deckers, Colorado. Cheesman is known for it world class fishing and it hearty population of Cutthroat trout.

The drive to the canyon leads you through the old burn out of the Hayman Forest Fire Area. The damage is extremely extensive (burn map) and the much of the landscape is washed out and eroded. However the Canyon itself was spared by change in elevation. The fire seemed to have jump over it, leaving much of the canyon habitat healthy and intact.

The hike into canyon is pretty quick, but does require some effort, which helps to keep a lot of the tourist and looky-lu’s out. We walked along a gravel path passing several other fisherman until we got to a nice watering hole. Everyone set about to do their own thing. I was getting my fish on, Lindsey was getting her tan on, and Paul was getting his drink on. Everyone was having a fun time.

After watching seeing several fish in the river, I tried multiple different flies to get them to bite, but they were not having anything of the sort. So we then decided to do some swimming down through the fishing hole. The water was pretty chilly because the water flow is manage by dam release, however it felt awesome on the bright and sunny day. After doing some tricks and swimming down through the rapids, we made our way up the canyon to another spot.

Here, I tried to do some more fishing but nothing wanted to be bite on whatever I was throwing. This canyon is pretty famous and sees a lot of pressure from the Denver, so it can be pretty difficult to hook into a lunker. After being discouraged, we started to make are way back, down through the stream. Paul was having a difficult time with all the stream crossings. We made it back in one piece and just before a thunderstorm arrived. It turned out to be a fun weekend trip.

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