Driving the Loop, September 2nd, 2015

The road looked different, and I didn't remember all the large rocks. Still it had to be the right road, even though we had seen a good road that turned off to the north west. Climbing over a ridge the road headed northeast and began a steep descent.I finally recognized an old avalanche debris field.
We had driven through it last year, barely making it though the ice and avoiding the five hundred foot drop to the valley floor below. There was no ice or snow, this year. Reaching a hair pin curve we stopped to check the topographic map, and now we were positive  of our location, we were driving along Poison creek.

A little further the valley opened up and now we could see the Tri County Intersection. From here you could go southeast to LeBarge, north to Alpine, or back west to Highway 89 and the Salt Pass.
We drove a ways down the LeBarge road, hoping to find some fishable water. Lebarge Creek does hold some Colorado Cutthroats, but the stream here was tiny. It had taken us three hours to reach this spot and time was pressing so we turned around and headed down the Grey's river road.

Planning on doing some fishing we drove quite a ways before there was enough water to hold some cuts, but the willows were son tick that fishing would be difficult at best. We had almost seventy miles to drive down a wash board road and I mentioned that it was just like a ride at Disneyland, but this ride would be another three hours!

We finally stopped for lunch before locating some good water and Val caught the first fish of the day. She caught it on a dry fly and so we all changed but it was to no avail. Further down we came across a spot where I caught and released two nice fine spotted snake river cuts. No one else had any luck but Renita spotted a suspicious track, also imprinted with a print from a bobcat.

We were still thirty miles from Alpine and so we drove further. The wind came up and made our fly fishing almost impossible but not before George caught and released another beautiful trout. The hunting camps became more plentiful, as archery season has started. Still we passed feeding deer and we almost had  a small buck collide with the truck.

It had been a fun but tiring day as we finally reached the rv park. The road had been dry and was pretty easy this time of year, still it is not a road to drive in a car with low clearance! If you drive it expect to go slow and be sure it hasn't rained recently!
Clear skies