Thanks, HCR--glad you liked it...
A couple more points for soloman about the fishing.....
A lot of the water around Creede is wild trout water with the appropriate regs. I find that the big river itself can be pretty difficult to fish in Aug. generally--especially between So. Fork and Creede where there is a lot of public water. The hatches are not as common as they are earlier in the season in my experience and you'll likely need to go subsurface. I fish the Lake Fork every summer---very consistent light hatches with good fish but what I really like is to go higher. I've found green drake hatches as late as the last week in July up high and that can be special. I don't really fish much down around So. Fork but I know there is at least one tributary creek of upstream from town that is regularly stocked. Interestingly, last summer when I was out there, I found more people per mile of creek there than any place else I visited---I didn't try to fish it--just passed through on the way to some pretty spectacular fishing over a couple of passes. I've found that I get plenty of good information to get started (and maps that define the public water) each year at the local fly shops (there's a couple in each town) but you'll need to work at it to find the really good places. These aren't secret places but they are not the first thing that comes up in conversation--for good reason. By work--I mean putting in your time, taking some hikes, and analyzing the maps. Here's another little write up that describes what I mean. And then when you get there, in addition to the normal monsoons you expect you may have to deal with the remnants of a hurricane that blows out all the water in a drainage for a week. You have to be flexible and know your options. Be ready to switch drainages or seek out a tailwater if necessary. The time out there I spend is very precious to me and very limited. At one point I was spending a couple of months out there a year but now I've become too busy back here in KS and other places. I'm not able to get out to the Rio and the Gunnison drainages anymore than a couple of weeks, now. I hope that when I transition out of this phase of life that I will still have the physical abilities to keep on exploring the back country. I've got a new wilderness stream (for me) targeted for this summer that I've seen in some photos--photos with big fish, beautiful water and outstanding scenery. I can't wait--I'll be there the last week of July and the first week of August.
Oh, and by the way, about the only fly I really need during that period of time is an EHC or a parachute adams. I carry a bigger selection but sometimes I fish the caddis (successfully) for 3 or 4 days in a row---the fish up high are hungry.
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