Lulu City

When gold was discovered in Colorado towns sprang up out of nowhere, swelling in size almost overnight and disappearing again almost as fast when the gold vanished. Lulu city had over 250 inhabitants, bars, and a bank all along the headwaters of the mighty Colorado river. The river that carves the deepest canyon in the world and quenches the thirst of millions of people in the dry desert west. Five Kilometers up the trail all that is left of Lulu are the remanents of a few buildings and the beginnings of the canyon maker; small enough to leap across.

I was lucky to be able to make the hike with my father and although he's not a fisherman he worked as an environmental engineer and now spends his retirement studying biology. The last few days have brought lots of rain, unusual for this time of year, and the forest was exploding with mushrooms and wildflowers.

I walked up past miles of river to get to this place, where the river is small, in search of a rare native fish, the Colorado River Cutthroat. I cast into the delicate pools pulling brook trout out on every cast while my father busied himself identifying the flowers along the stream and admiring my catches.

As much fun as they are these invasive species were not what I was after. As I fished on past old Lulu a cutt blessed me and took my fly. A jewel in the stream.

As my father watched he noticed another jewel lining the banks of the river. We sat next to the river feasting on the ripe wild strawberries and talking about the history and future of this wonderful place.