Colorado River at Gore Canyon is the stuff dreams are made of

 

Editor's note: Third of a four-part series focusing on some of Colorado's best wilderness areas and the conservation efforts to maintain them against potential threats.
GRAND COUNTY — From above and below, it's easy to imagine how the rapids known as "Fisherman's Nightmare" got their nickname.
The chaotic jumble of rocks and water (also known as "Applesauce") that serves as sentinel to the Colorado River's Gore Canyon drops precipitously from the placid, pastoral flats surrounding the Blue River confluence at Kremmling and marks the start of the steepest and most technically challenging whitewater of the entire Colorado River. An unwary angler drifting into the Class V canyon can expect a frightening wake-up call.
Beneath soaring cliffs up to 1,000 feet tall, the river's gradient shifts radically from a flatwater nature float to an adrenaline-soaked plummet of some 115 feet per mile over the next 4 miles.
It's a little-known secret that the remote ravine shrouds some of finest fishing along the Upper Colorado, since access is largely limited to ...more