We spent three great weeks at Navajo State Park and the San Juan River in New Mexico. My Dad, Tom, and Step Mom, Wanda, even joined us the last eight days!
We stayed at Navajo State Park just above the pretty lake. Like many campgrounds, it was likely built in the 70s, so space was limited for large RVs and vehicles. There are quite a few camp sites with electric and water, but only a few had full hook-ups. We had a strong and reliable 3G cell phone signal, but no wi-fi. Reasonably priced supplies and laundry facilities were 15-30 miles away in Bloomfield, Aztec, or Farmington. We reserved one of the full hook-up sites well in advance and we’re glad we did. The place filled up the two weekends we were there. In fact, it was a bit of a zoo with bon fires, music, and crowded campsites. It was our first taste of summer camping and was a little hard to take after so many peaceful nights in mostly empty campgrounds through the winter. Thankfully, sanity was restored each Sunday afternoon when the campground emptied. Overall, we were content and will gladly return.
Navajo Lake at sunrise with San Juan Mountains in the distance
If you’re a fly-fisherman, you are familiar with the San Juan River. You’ve either fished it, read about it, or seen it featured on a television program. The San Juan’s far-reaching reputation is well deserved… It’s some of the best trout fishing in the US! The “tailwater” flows from the depths of Navajo Lake and provides the trout optimum mid-40 degree water year round. It’s also a food factory with a plethora of small insects that the trout gorge themselves on. The average trout is a fat 16-18 inches and fish over 20 inches are fairly common. There are places where you can catch these guys in small, knee to waist deep pools. It feels like you are fishing small water for big fish. The San Juan River is special.
The famous San Juan River below Navajo Dam
Back to my old stomping grounds! I learned how to fly fish in the Pecos and San Juan Rivers in New Mexico when I was a teenager. Once I started to get the hang of it, and became hopelessly addicted, I made many weekend trips to the San Juan. Sometimes I was fortunate and camped in a comfortable trailer with my parents and ate good food. Often it was just me and a fishing buddy sleeping in the back of a truck and eating cold pizza or chicken all weekend. Either way, I have many great memories.
It had been about 20 years since I last fished the San Juan. I was eager to see if it lived up to my memories, make some new ones, and share this special place with my special girl. It was a success on all accounts! Overall the river and the fishing were much like I remembered them. In fact, due to a recent river restoration project, the fishing may have even been better! This past fall, a few new holes were dug and dirt berms and logs were placed to make deeper channels. The end result were lots of great new holes for the fish and a very satisfying experience for the fisherman!
We fished most of the “new pools” and really enjoyed it
The fishing summary…Some days it was hot and some days we had to work for them. Fishing was often best roughly 9:00-11:00am and then again the last hour or two before sunset. We used leaders tipped with 12-18 inches of three (6X) or four (5X) pound test line. We were most successful with miniscule midge pupas size 24 or 26. Other productive flies were red annilids size 18-22, midge emergers size 22-26, and WD-40s size 20-24. Most afternoons the fish would sip these itty bitty flies off the surface, but our eyes aren’t good enough for that type of fishing. That was often our cue to take a break. When the fishing was hot, we would hook about 10 fish in an hour. We’d only hook one or two an hour when it was slow. The trout would also bite in spurts… boom boom boom over a short period and then nothing for the next 45-60 minutes. The trout size varied and depended on where we fished. In our most successful hole, “Arleen’s Hole” (our name for it), the fish averaged 10-14 inches with a few fat 15-17 inchers mixed in. In our favorite hole upstream, the “Pro Hole” (our name for it), the fish averaged 15-17 inches. The biggest trout caught: three 19 inchers, a 19 3/4 incher, and one 20 incher. I couldn’t wrap my hands around one of the obese 19 inchers…it was the heaviest fish landed. I caught it fishing the “Texas Hole” in the dark around 10:30pm with a size 10 black wooly bugger. Speaking of fishing in the dark, it was a freakin’ blast! Unlike the delicate finesse midge fishing during the day, there was nothing subtle about this. Chop off the three pound test line, add six pound test line, a big dark fly, cast as far as possible, let the fly sink, bring it back slowly, and hang on! The big ones feed at night. You fish completely by feel and never know what you’re going to hook. It’s very exciting!
Posing with the fish… We caught a lot of nice trout and attempted to take many pictures. I say “attempted” because, each time we’d gently pick up the fish and pose, the slippery trout would wiggle and slip out of our hands before the photographer, usually me, would snap the picture. So here are the fish pictures. Everybody caught bigger, prettier fish than the ones we got pictures of…
Fishing “Arleen’s Hole”
Success in “Arleen’s Hole”!
Fishing the “Pro Hole”
Success in the “Pro Hole”!
Fighting a nice one in Arleen’s hole A fat 18-incher
This happened a lot!
One of four brown trout we caught A chubby 19-incher
Birds…We don’t consider ourselves “birders”, but we appreciate them more and more as we spend time in the outdoors and observe unique things. The birds along the San Juan River provided much entertainment and cool memories. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the bald eagle or the thousands of cliff swallows that occasionally invaded the river to feast on midges. When the cliff swallows were active, the fish were active… a sure sign!
Fred and Wilma, our goose friends Six eggs in their nest
Red winged black bird…they are very vocal Great blue heron looking for a meal
Turkey vultures circling the cliffs Osprey and a nearly full moon
Osprey with a nice trout
Hikes…We did a couple of hikes near the campground. The road to the primitive campground loops was closed and made a nice place to walk. It was just over three miles round trip to the end of the road and around the loops. Pretty flowers were everywhere and the view of Navajo Lake and the distant San Juan Mountains was great.
Mesa Verde….We took a day trip to Mesa Verde National Park. It was a pleasant 100-mile drive that routed us through the outdoorsy town of Durango CO… Cyclists and kayakers were everywhere… Our kind of place! At Mesa Verde, we checked out the “Spruce Tree House”. The Ancestral Puebloans moved to the area around AD 550 and mysteriously disappeared around AD 1300. Initially, they lived on top of the mesa, and then around AD 1200, built and moved into the cliff dwellings. It’s amazing that they only occupied the cliff dwellings for a generation or two. Arleen and I also did a hike to see petroglyphs. Due to the long drive and some stops, we were only at Mesa Verde a few hours… Not nearly enough. Someday we will go back!
The Spruce Tree House
Standing above the cliff dwellings Crazy calves and petroglyphs
Tasty treats at the Vanilla Moose in Aztec NM
Though Arleen entered the world near here, she left shortly after she was born and had never come back. I am addicted to the famous river and hope to keep coming back. I slyly suggested that we enroll in New Mexico’s VA medical program and get annual check-ups at the Farmington VA clinic. It worked! The Farmington VA treated us great and confirmed that we are in good health. Now each spring or fall when I get the San Juan itch, I might be able to convince Arleen to come back for doctor’s appointments…wink wink!
WHERE WE GOT OUT MAIL:
Navajo Dam, NM
Since I joined the military and left home over 20 years ago, I really missed camping trips with my parents. It was great to camp and spend time with them again. It had been far too long!
Next we head to Albuquerque to visit family and hook up with friends that I haven’t seen in 20 years!
Miscellaneous pictures…
Desert spiny lizard? Henry the beaver…he was huge!
That’s steep! Going down the dam road…
Supermoon over Navajo Lake
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