There is a road in the Western San Juan Mountains that you can take north from Highway 145 that will lead you to some of the best and most beautiful fly fishing spots imaginable. The trout ain’t large, but they are always a-bitin’. If you take the West Dolores or Dunton Road north from 145 towards the Burro Bridge Campsite, you will be in fly fishing heaven.
I recommend you stay at the Burro Bridge campsite because there is a certain site there with access, albeit steep and treacherous access, to the West Fork of the Dolores River below.
In one day my friend and I both caught 13 Brook Trout. Those fish ate everything we threw at them. But even when we weren’t catching anything, the scenery and the sound of the river is near perfect. You are sure to have the place to yourself.
I used Elk Hair Caddis, ants, a moth, black flies, and a ton of others (I wish I knew the actual name of these patterns). It didn’t matter what we threw in there, they took it.
There is every type of water flows in this stretch of the river north of the Dunton Hot Springs and South of the Burro Bridge.