Lonetree Reservoir southwest of Loveland belongs to my favorite paddling waters in northern Colorado. You can always enjoy a nice view of Rocky Mountains Front Range. It is a great spot to shoot sunsets over mountains.

However, in springtime when reservoir is full it’s time to explore some hidden treasures – submerged cottonwood forest in different lake corners. Please note that the heron rookery is a restricted area.

During last few weeks I paddled different boats on the Lonetree Reservoir: Surfrigger (outrigger canoe), Thunderbolt-X kayak, and Sea Wind Canoe. I cannot take Surgrigger into tight passages between cottonwood trees. There is a lot of floating debris after recent heavy rains. So, Sea Wind is the best choice for my exploration.

7 years ago I was training here with Spencer X-treme canoe for my first Texas Water Safari. I couldn’t find any other place in my vicinity to practice portaging over fallen trees and log jams.

At this high water level you can even escape the lake and explore some irrigation channels. You can easily find the inlet of a supporting channel to the lake. It is a little water cascade over headgates when the lake is low, but at this time it was the same water level in the reservoir and channel. However, there is also another entry to that channel hidden in woods which I discovered this year. No portage.

I am trying to return back to my older articles through “Paddling Photography a Year Ago” series. However, I am running this blog for over 5 years. So, today, I offer a look at selected April posts over the recent 4 years.

A year ago I started to shoot hot air balloons. We went to Hot Air Balloon Harvest at Greeley in the end of October, then I drove to southern Colorado for another balloon festival at Rocky Ford. I took for that my Thunderbolt-x kayak and tried to explore a very shallow John Martin Reservoir.

My another paddling trip further from home was Lake Dillon with Sea Wind canoe: cold and windy, but with some interesting light for photography. Horses below were shot from Surfrigger canoe when paddling my local Beaver Pond near Fort Collins.

During two years, 2001 and 2002, the Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins, Colorado, was drained to just few % of its capacity to allow repairs to the main dam. The 6 mile long lake was reduced to three ponds connected by long narrow channels with some whitewater. The flow was supported by water diverted from the Colorado River within the Big Thompson Project.

Paddling was very interesting, but quite challenging in these narrows channels with a strong current. It was quiet, no motorboats since boat ramps didn’t reach water. Low water uncovered many structures at the lake bottom.

Below you can find 10 selected pictures from these dry years on the Horsetooth.

A nice paddling evening on Boedecker Reservoir near Loveland. Interesting clouds over the mountains. A distant rainbow, but too weak to photograph it without a polarizer filter. The water level was about 3′ lower than six weeks ago. Some islands were not islands any more. One fishing boat and two canoes.