Fish your park: Great Sand Dunes National Park

 

 

Think about Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, and most of us probably conjure up high-school textbook images of Sahara-like dune fields devoid of vegetation or water—like a scene out of “Lawrence of Arabia,” complete with cracked lips and sunburn.

 

Even those of us who have been to the dunes in spring and early summer and relished the cold water of Medano Creek, which trickles across the sand in thousands of ever-changing rivulets about 3 inches deep and a couple hundred yards wide, might find it hard to believe that Great Sand Dunes National Park offers phenomenal fishing opportunities — that’s right, phenomenal

 

To top it off, anglers have the opportunity to catch the rare but spectacular Rio Grande cutthroat trout.

 

Two watersheds in the dunes are home to trout. The best-known and easiest to access is Medano Creek. Access to this drainage can be from either the top of the watershed (via the Wet Mountain Valley and Medano Pass) or the bottom (via the main park entrance and a sandy four-wheel-drive road). A good four-wheel-drive vehicle allows you to drive alongside a good portion of the stream. There are great backcountry campsites that come equipped with solitude and bear lockers.

 

In the 1990s, both Medano Creek, including its tributaries, and Medano Lake were reclaimed in order to reestablish populations of the native Rio Grande cutthroat trout. These populations have persisted and thrived, and despite a major fire, they remain in good numbers.

 

The fish in the creek are spooky but readily eat if they don’t see you, and fish up to 12 inches are fairly common. Medano Lake is a pretty strenuous hike that begins near Medano Pass, but the hike is worth the view alone. Of course I am talking about the huge Rio Grande cutthroats (up to 5 pounds) that cruise the shorelines and are perfectly visible in the crystal clear water. Even a glimpse will provide memories to last a lifetime, but holding one of these beautiful natives is something that will last for generations of campfire fish tales.

 

On the remote north side of the dunes you will find Sand Creek. This spectacular basin is accessed most easily via the Music Pass trailhead (four-wheel-drive vehicle mandatory) from the Wet Mountain Valley side of the Sangre De Cristos.

 

Music Pass proper is a 1.5-mile hike and offers a breathtaking view of the watershed. From there, a 1-mile downhill hike will get you to the creek and a junction of two trails leading to either Lower Sand Creek Lake or Upper Sand Creek Lake. From here, each lake is a little over 1 mile.

 

The upper lake has fewer but larger fish with primarily Rio Grande cutthroat genetics, and the lower lake has tons of smaller fish dominated by Yellowstone cutthroat genetics.

 

Sand Creek itself is often overlooked by anglers heading to the lakes, but it holds some very nice fish and the geology lends to spectacular waterfalls and deep plunge pools.

 

Downstream several miles, and then up and up and up several more, will get you to a remote lake called Little Sand Creek Lake. This natural lake at 12,000 feet is precariously clinging to a vertical cliff but the views are amazing (although not recommended for people afraid of heights). The fishery in Little Sand Creek Lake is unpredictable and the population numbers are low, so don’t expect a lot of fish and maybe plan on not catching any just in case.

 

Sand Creek is currently home to mostly non-native trout with hybrid cutthroats in the upper watershed and brook trout in the lower watershed. The cutthroat hybrids are mostly Yellowstone cutthroat leading back to a fish known as the Pikes Peak Strain that were stocked in the 1970s through the early 1990s. In 1998, stocking with the native Rio Grande cutthroat began, adding to the wacky genetic structure.

 

The National Park Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the USGS, and Trout Unlimited are currently working on a landscape-scale project to reclaim Sand Creek for the Rio Grande cutthroat. This project will not only restore this true native trout to its historical range, but it will also ensure that this beautiful fish remains on Earth in a place protected and managed on behalf of all Americans — a place where we will always be able to bring our friends and families and fish for Rio Grande cutthroat trout.