Classic Photos: More Gold in the Colorado High Country

Written by: Jon Hill

Jon Hill and his friends hiked into the mountains for cutthroat, golden, and brook trout.
All photos courtesy Jon Hill

A few years, ago some friends and I went on the hunt for golden trout in Colorado and came back a little richer. After that trip, I found out that the Colorado Division of Wildlife had received some surplus golden trout from California, the first time in almost twenty years. They stocked a handful of lakes around the state, and I have been waiting for the chance to go on the hunt again.

Tom, Shawn, and Carper joined me for this most recent five-day trip into the wilderness. We hiked roughly twenty miles and fished five lakes, a couple of streams, and a handful of beaver ponds. The fishing was unbelievable, as we found brook trout, cutthroat trout ,and golden trout in abundance. We had our fair share of bad weather—thunderstorms, a hail storm, a three-hour rain storm—but those are the things you have to deal with when backpacking in the Rocky Mountains, and it’s always worth the trouble.

Jon Hill lives in Littleton, Colorado and works in the digital-graphics field. But he spends almost all his spare time chasing trout in the high country, and his photos have been featured many times on the Orvis News. (See here, here, and here, for just a taste, or visit his blog, Ramblings.) He’s also a former Trout Bum of the Week.