I learned to fish in the creeks and beaver ponds of Colorado’s high country, pulling nuggets of wisdom from willing grandfathers who believed time spent with their grandchildren should be time spent outdoors. These two men introduced me and my brothers to the wonders hidden high in Colorado’s mountains. Together, they wandered with us through … Read more
By Ty Churchwell Just eight miles from Durango’s city limits is the 107,000-acre Hermosa Creek Special Management Area and Wilderness. Enacted in 2014, the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act is the result of a community coming together for a favorite backyard playground for locals and a destination for America’s public land visitors who flock to the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado each year. Prior to the passage of the … Read more
Nature deprivation is a real thing, and I’m witnessing the impacts of both being exposed to the wild and willingly foregoing exposure in both of my kids
The thin, cool air and the end of high mountain wildflower season were calling my name.
Arctic grayling provide a unique angling opportunity in Colorado.
Talk about going home again … Todd Moen of Catch Magazine just dropped his latest short film, and it hit me like a surge of nostalgia. I grew up in Colorado and went to college in Gunnison, where much of “Small Stream Colorado” was filmed. The countless little creeks that drain into the Taylor, East … Read more
Years ago, while working in the upper Arkansas River Valley as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor, I shared layout space with a number of other local newspapers. Our papers were owned by a small chain based in Salida, and every week, editors from Buena Vista, Fairplay and Leadville would descend upon the offices in … Read more
By Ty Churchwell No one in Durango nor Silverton, Colo., will ever forget Aug. 5, 2015 — the day of the Gold King mine spill that sent 3 million gallons of ugly, toxic mine water down the Animas River in southwest part of the state. To say the accident was highly visible is an understatement. In today’s digital world, photos of the orange … Read more
Years and years ago, while attending college in western Colorado, I drove up the shoulders of the Sawatch Range between Salida and Gunnison as far as my old VW Beetle would make it on a road it had no business traversing. After reaching a stretch of two-track I could no longer navigate, I pulled the … Read more
