The Horsetooth Reservoir west of Fort Collins is busy during summer, but a paddler can still find some relatively quiet time early morning.

Below are three pictures from my morning paddling with Sea Wind canoe (7/30/2011) shot with Pentax Optio W30 camera. I launched in the Sunrise Area and paddled across the lake to visit the Quarry and Orchard coves (~6 miles in 1.5 hour). The reservoir has a very high water level and all shores with tree and bushes in water look wonderful providing some unusual opportunities to explore by kayak or canoe.

I am using 5 access and lunching spots on the Horsetooth:
1. South Bay – boat ramp
2. Inlet Bay – boat ramp
3. Satanka Bay – boat ramp
4. Sunrise Area from the Centennial Road.
5. North Eltuck Cove from the Lory State Park (trail access up to 0.25 mile at a low water)

I am avoiding boat ramps during power boat season. Off season, I am often using one of the South Bay boat ramps. It’s possible to park on a beach close to water there. Access point 1-4 require Larimer County Parks pass for your car. You also need a paddling pass. These are quite expensive. I paddle on the Horsetooth only when I buy annual passes. Well, sometimes, especially of season I visit the Horsetooth from the Lory State Park.

Related posts:
Summer Paddling near Fort Collins and Loveland

I love paddling the South Platte River in eastern Colorado. The further downstream from Denver the better. Evans to Kersey to Kuner is a popular river segment which can be paddled year around. Below Kuner the river is getting more interesting to me, but it is more difficult to find enough water there due to numerous diversion dams. The South Platte is filling up some big reservoirs including Empire, Riverside, Jackson and North Sterling. Frequency of dams is not really higher than between Evans and Kersey, but they can take much more water.

Weather and water permitting I am going to extend my South Platte River paddling guide all the way to the Cooper Bridge below Fort Morgan. I have never managed to paddle further downstream. Every 10 miles or so the river is crossed by a highway or county road, so there are many access points. However, planning a paddling trip below Kuner requires checking flow data and some flexibility.

On February 14, 2011 I did a couple mile paddling upstream starting from Masters. You can launch under the bridge (right shore upstream) on county road 87. You need to go over a bridge rail, but not over a fence. This is a new bridge with a plenty of room for parking, In my old reports I was talking about old very narrow bridge and road.

1/4 mile upstream of the bridge there is a diversion dam for the Jackson Reservoir canal. I believe that there is an underwater structure (gate) across the river there which can be lifted, but I have never seen it in an upright position.

Where to paddle in Fort Collins in winter time when all ponds and lake are frozen? The South Platte River is usually the only open water in northern Colorado, but it is 30-40 miles of driving. However, it is possible to find short sections of our local Poudre River suitable for some paddling even if the river flow is almost nothing. One such a spot is about a quarter mile of the river above I-25 within Arapaho Bend Natural Area. You can access that section from the Strauss Cabin parking (the very east end of Horsetooth Road) through two small ponds. When these ponds are frozen the river access requires a pretty long walk (~0.5 mile).

The picture above shot in January 2007 shows another opportunity – the river above the Timnath Reservoir Inlet Dam between Lemay and Timberline Streets. Finally, I found a comfortable access to this river section from the Nix Natural Area and did some scouting with Seda kayak.

Here is the entry (fire lane gate) to Nix Natural Area from the Hoffman Mill Road (driving north on Lemay turn right just before the bridge into Poudre River Drive, and then follow Hoffman Mill Road until you pass a gravel quarry).

About 200 yards of gravel overgrown fire lane leads you to a bike trail and the river.

Then, you have about half a mile of the river with standing or slow moving water. A lovely scenery in fall colors. It may be also good for some winter paddling photography. You can paddle upstream almost to Lemay Street, but before the bridge you will encounter some shallows with a fast current. I did my paddling on October 14 with ~100 cfs of the river flow in Ft Collins. It was enough water to run through those shallow downstream. However, rocks were pretty slippery and water too cold too drag my kayak up the river.

I started my exploration of the lower St Vrain Creek in spring of 2004. I covered 7 miles of the river from highway 66 to the South Platte near Platteville. Most often, I launch at the Weld county road 19.5 just north of the Fort St. Vrain Power Station and a mile above the confluence. The best flow to paddle there is perhaps around 400 cfs, but there is still enough water to paddle at 100 cfs, especially, if you are just going downriver. You may encounter occasional log jam and one rocky and shallow spot near a high cliff before you reached the South Platte. There is a diversion dam with an easy portage about 1.5 mile above the county road 19.5.

Pictures in this post come from my recent early October paddling on the St Vrain Creek. I was testing my low water paddling rig: old Seda Cyclon whitewater kayak with an added fin and a heavy duty wildwater wing paddle. The kayak was tracking pretty well and I enjoyed upstream/downstream workout. I had enough room to pack a tripod and my Canon DSLR camera.

I finished my paddling at sunset and I was ready to shoot the nearby power station during evening blue hour. Evening Blue Hour refers to the period of twilight when there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. It is the best time to photograph cityscape or industrial scenery with a lot of lights against the deep blue sky. The blue hour starts approximately 15 minutes after sunset and is lasting only 10 minutes, so it is really a short time window.

I see a few way to improve my picture of the power plant. Cold temperatures can add drama by making steam plumes from cooling towers visible. Some snow cover on the foreground wouldn’t hurt either. Finally, water reflections would be cool. The power plant is nicely visible from the diversion dam upstream (see a thumbnail of my 2004 picture). So, it looks like I have a plan for a winter night paddling …

A waterproof Pentax Optio W30 camera was mounted on a bow of my Sea Wind canoe with Sticky Pod suction cup and a mini ball head. The camera was set in a lapse time (interval) mode to shoot a picture every 4 minutes …

Since Texas Water Safari was postponed due to flooding I switched to plan B, packed my camera gear and Sea Wind canoe and drove to Wyoming instead of flying to Texas.

In my desperation I ignored weather forecast. My trip turned to be shorter than planned. In Wyoming I experienced heavy rains, thunderstorms, hail, strong wind, cold, and flooding. Nevertheless, I achieved my main goal – exploring the paddling access to Medicine Bow River Arm of the Seminoe Reservoir.

First, you need to drive to Hanna, a small mining town (hwy 72 from I-80). Then, there is about 25 miles of a dirt road – county road 291, and then a short narrow road to a boat ramp. This is a good gravel road traveled by RVs and boat trailers. Of course, after heavy rains driving conditions may be more challenging.

So, despite of rain and some water flowing across my road I reached the boat ramp in a pretty remote location. There were some people there, but they were hiding inside their campers. I took a short paddling upstream the Medicine Bow Arm of the reservoir. The wind was quite strong, but not so bad (actually good for training). However, when I got surrounded by thunderstorms with intense lightning I gave up and returned to my car.

I decided not to camp there – I was afraid that the road could get too muddy or washout during night, so I drove back to Hanna and I-80. Finally, I ended up for night at a motel in Rawlins. It was raining all night and till noon of the next day. When rain was stopping it was cold and windy. So, I stopped at Fort Steele to see the North Platte River, and then return home.

Since Wyoming Outback Challenge (annual 44 miles paddling race) is gone, we decided to make a longer training run on the North Platte River this year (May 22-23). We means me with Pixel, Rob Bean and two Kruger canoes.

On Friday, May 21 we run a shuttle between Seminoe State Park and Bennett Peak campground which we reached at sunset after a stop at Saratoga. Saturday was a full day of paddling starting around 7:00 am and stopping for a night 12+ hours later between Dugway and the Seminoe Reservoir. On Sunday, we paddled the last few miles of the river and then a lake to the North Red Hills campground and boat ramp. We finished paddling around 4 pm, took a look at the dam, drove to Saratoga for a dinner, and recovered our second car from the Bennett Peak campground at sunset. The Snowy Range road was still closed, so we returned to Fort Collins through Walden and Cameron Pass.

We experienced every possible weather Wyoming can offer: a very warm night and morning at the Bennett Peak campground, winter conditions (rain, snow, wind) during the second half of out first day, chilly night in tents covered by frost, sunny second day: calm and turning windy in the afternoon.

Wildlife: one moose, plenty of deer, proghorns, bald eagles, pelicans, and a lot of other birds.

Since I bought annual passes for Larimer County Parks I am paddling on the Horsetooth Reservoir quite regularly this springtime. I started with Sea Wind canoe when the lake was still covered by ice. Now, I am paddling mostly Thunderbolt kayak, but I am going to use other boats too (at least for photography purposes).

I love early (and late) season on the Horsetooth since there is very little or no motor boat traffic. However, paddling workout with a racing kayak is always more challenging here than on a smaller body of water like Beaver Pond in Arapaho Bend Natural Area. This narrow reservoir is about 6 miles long. You can make a 14 mile loop by paddling around the lake. Many more miles can be added if you follow closely the shore and visit all coves.

Last time (April 18, 2010) I started at the South Bay and paddled total 11+ miles to the island next to Eltuck coves and back. The water level is high enough to make it an island now (a favorite place for Canadian geese).

Pictures above were shot with Canon PowerShot G11. I still don’t have a waterproof housing for that camera. It travels in a small Pelican case. The last picture came from my paddling camera on duty, Pentax Optio W30. I am waiting for reviews of the last Pentax model (W90), but my W30 is still working fine.

Related posts:
Icy Horsetooth Reservoir – Opening Lake Paddling Season
Cost of Paddling – Access to Local, County, State and Federal Waters
160 Lakes and Reservoirs of Colorado

It is not easy to catch good a paddling water in the South Platte River in eastern Colorado. 5 years ago I made a series of trips on the South Platte above and below Fort Morgan. My trip reports had a common title Paddling on Wet Sand …

It seems that the South Platte has a pretty good flow this winter, so I selected 20 miles above Fort Morgan for my New Year paddling. Sunny weather with temperature above freezing (well at least before sunset), a little bit of breeze, and the river flow of ~750 cfs at Weldona.

I was joined by Rob Bean for this trip. We paddled our Kruger canoes (Sea Wind and Sawyer Loon), probably, the best boat choice for winter paddling. We started at Goodrich (hwy 144) around 12:30 and finished 5 hours later under the Rainbow Bridge at Fort Morgan.

The river was slower than I expected – much wider than between Evans and Kuner, but pretty shallow with multiple channels. It was also much nicer than you could see around Greeley. No feedlot aroma! We had three dam portages. The last one over the Upper Platte and Beaver Canal dam was pretty long, but snow on ground helped with portaging.

You can compare my pictures with those shot five years ago during my 30 mile Texas Water Safari training run. I had much lower water (~400 cfs at Weldona) and a nicer weather in May.

Connie helped us with a shuttle. We finished our trip together with a dinner at Fort Morgan’s Memories.

December is time for me to decide where I am going to paddle next year and to purchase some annual access passes. I live in Fort Collins in northern Colorado. Most of my paddling takes place in my local water within a short driving range. I am interested primary in flatwater paddling and photography.