Happenings in Our World: Star Valley Fishing Trip

After the kids camping trip, Brian and I sent the kids to various cousin's houses to spend the week while we had a little get-away. Brian hasn't been fishing at his fishing hole for a couple of years, so that is where we went. He has bought me all of the gear to fly fish, and has tried to teach me before, but with young kids, the opportunity to do it has been hard to find. Needless to say, I haven't caught a fish while fly fishing either. I told him that as long as I could take all the pictures that I wanted, I didn't mind going fishing. After all, it really is a beautiful stream.

When Brian goes to Star Valley on a fishing trip, there is one particular stream and lake that he fishes. It is here that he feels close to his dad. This picture makes me think that his dad is probably close to him too.

And of course, I had to try my hand at some beautiful flower shots. I love the way that flowers glow when lit by the sun.

And to every ones amazement, I caught the first fish. Yay for me! As it turns out, the small stream that Brian usually fishes was quite a river. There is still snow melting up there, and the rivers are fast and high. Above this point, we struggled more to just stay upright in the stream than we did fishing.

The bushes are so thick around the river that there are only a few places to get in and out. The water was so fast in some places that I couldn't move my feet. Every time that I would try to take a step, my feet would almost wash out from under me. It was a little scary at times, and I'm sure stressful for Brian. But, good news....We made it out alive! We heard a motorcycle go by on the road and knew that it was really close except for the bushes. We ended up climbing through about 10-15 feet of fairly dense wild rose bushes to get out.

Brian caught 2 fish on this first day. One was small so he turned it loose, and the other one was so small that he managed to fling it right out of the river and off of his hook. But, somehow, he managed to catch a rather large bug. We are still trying to figure this one out! He speared it with a fish hook!

At the lake, Brian was float tubing while I took dozens of over-exposed pictures, but I truly do love this one of his rod and tube. I was busy taking pictures while he was busy cooking me the most delicious breakfast in the world. Do you see now why I agreed to go fishing. He lets me be lazy and do nothing while he does everything for me!

This little chipmunk caught me by surprise as much as I caught him by surprise. He was eating breakfast too. Too bad we didn't see any moose either morning that we were up there. That was the whole reason I wanted to get up at 5:30 AM. Does that moose know that I'm not a morning person?

The Lake

The Flowers

The stream just below the Dam

Tuesday afternoon, we drove to a nearby canyon to go see Intermittent Springs. This Little lake is caused by a dam in the river, but it was gorgeous. The cliffs around it, and the turquoise water almost made me forget that there was an ugly cement dame that made it. Even the river water was turquoise.

And while Brian let me take all the pictures that I wanted, he found ways to entertain himself (I know, like father, like son)!

And a beautiful waterfall in the same canyon.

And another waterfall up near the trail head for the spring.

Again.....finding ways to entertain himself!

This is the spring that we hiked to. It is actually a geyser that comes out of the wall of the cliff. Here, you can see the water at the top, and again at the bottom. It is covered with about 15 feet of snow still unmelted. But the snow is covered in fallen greenery, so it was hard to recognize at first. The water carved its way underneath. It was really pretty. Unfortunately, because of the high water still, it just ran continuously. In the late summer and fall, it goes from a small trickle to a small river when it erupts. We'll have to go back.

More flowers. This one on our hike into the uninhabited woods above the lake.

Also on our hike.

On Wednesday, we went back to the only spot that was fishable on Monday, and Brian finally caught 4 fish worth keeping. It turns out the river had dropped about 6 inches from Monday to Wednesday.

The cutthroat trout were beautiful. Look at the bright orange cut on its gill.

Because the fish here are all natural, no stocked, they are much smaller than fish in other areas, but who cares when you can usually release three times more than you can keep.