Paddling by God's Wonders on the Dillon Reservoir

We've been driving by the Dillon Reservoir for a week as we explored the mountains around our campground near Dillon, Colorado. We've seen the lake from almost every angle, and this morning it's time to see it from the water level.

This reservoir is almost five miles long, spanning all the way from Dillon to the town of Frisco. We had many options for launching points, but we picked the little ramp just a mile from our campground. That put us on a nice calm neck of this big lake, with mansions above us overlooking the water.

Paddling down that neck, we looked up to find this hawk in the tall pines over the water.

It's a two-mile paddle to get to the entrance of the big lake, and to begin to see the mountain views.

We've lived here long enough to recognize Buffalo Mountain (12,777 feet) on the left, but we still don't know the names of the rest of the Gore Mountain Range mountains on the right.

We don't often kayak such big lakes. But this one is ringed by miles of snow-capped mountains and the water is beautiful this morning. We were enjoying this view this morning, as we watched an osprey dive into the water, then fly away with a sizable fish in his talons. We wish we had that National Geographic moment on video!

We'll have to paddle almost all the way to Frisco, because our destination is to go around some of the islands in the lake. We took pictures as we approached this sizable island in the middle of the lake.

We are surprised to see so few boats on this big lake. But this is one of the major water sources for the city of Denver, and they have a "no-bodily-contact" rule. That eliminates swimmers, water skiers, and jet boats, so most of the boats we saw today are kayaks and sailboats.

As we circled our first island, we saw an interesting white-headed bird in the top of that dead pine tree.

We got our first close-up of an adult bald eagle for the summer.

We had been paddling for a couple hours by now, so we picked another island to beach the kayak and stretch our legs.

We walked around the little island, then headed back to our boat. But what's that in the water?

We were uninvited guests to that little remote island, and we must have startled a doe. She decided to swim across the water . . .

to the next island where kayakers wouldn't interrupt her day.

The clouds are building, so we know we need to be heading back to our protected harbor before the afternoon storm hits. But then we spot dots of color close to the Dillon Marina.

We found out that the Dillon Junior Sailing Club was out practicing, and the afternoon winds were great for filling their sails. With snow-capped rocky mountains in the background, isn't that a lovely place to learn the art of sailing?

We managed to get off the water before the waves got too big. We paddled over seven miles today--a long ways when compared to our usual small lake kayak trips. Our arms were tired when we got back to Lowry Campground. We still have a sky-full of those puffy clouds, but a slit of sunlight makes for an interesting picture. It's another great day of wandering God's wonders in the mountains of Colorado!