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Upper Dearborn River – Devils GlenLabor Day, 1999: Accompanied by my wife and two donkeys, Banjo and Buddy. They were really well behaved and packed in a large air mattress and a battery operated pump. (Pauline was well behaved as well!) Add the beers
and pop and the good weather and spectacular scenery and the trip was
a
great success. Trailhead: Located on BLM land, the trailhead prohibits over-night camping and offers only an outhouse and a hitching rail. The trail to the canyon and national forest land passes through private property so please stay off the private road and on the designated trail. At the trailhead the USFS sign states that it is 1.8 miles to national forest land. However, at 3/4 of a mile from the trailhead, the trail crosses the Dearborn River on a newly constructed bridge. The property owner’s sign next to the bridge claims 3 miles of private property after the bridge crossing. Regardless of which sign is accurate, the first campsite is approximately 4 miles from the trailhead. Camping: One of the gateways to the Scapegoat Wilderness, the Dearborn River plunges over granite rock out of the Rocky Mountain Front. The mountains command your attention. Steep and rugged, the river carved granite presents a stark contrast to the rolling prairie grasslands and pocket lakes just a few miles away. Crossing the bridge by the last summer cabin a little less than a mile from the trailhead, the trail winds its way up the northern side of the river to the first spectacular view of the canyon. The timeless art of water carved rock inspires a moment of reflection before pushing up the trail. From the trailhead to the bridge is a 25-minute hike. From the bridge to the first campsite is about a 45-minute hike. About five minutes up the trail from the first campsite, the trail forks down to the river past a second nice campsite. Just past this campsite on this spur trail, the trail crosses the river to a large flat area, which can accommodate a number of campers. Another mile or two above this fork, the trail climbs up a steep-walled canyon past Devils Glen, a carved canyon of granite at the base of Steamboat Mountain. After you cross a steep slide of shale, the trail follows close to the river again and offers a number of shaded campsites in a narrow part of the canyon. The trail offers an easy to moderate hike for all ages. Fishing: Although this actual creek-size river appears to be a sterile environment of rock pools and slides in gin-clear water, the fish are fairly abundant. However, do not come looking for the more common riffle-pool-run. Instead plan on fishing pools and pockets with very short riffles in between. The pools, with vertical rock cliffs on both sides, appear to be narrows. Scrambling around the ledges, hide behind rock outcroppings and make your first cast be your best shot. If your cast is delicate, you may raise a small 10-12 inch rainbow fanning just under the surface in the shadows of a sheer rock ledge. If you are lucky, you may bring up one of the big boys hugging the bottom of the pool, ten to fifteen feet below your fly. The best time to fish this giant rock garden is late August through September, when detours up and around these mini canyons is minimized and the hoppers are crackling everywhere. I found the fishing to be both challenging and novel. Although I never succeeded in bringing up one of the big rainbows from the bottom after fishing for about three hours, I did talk to a fly fisherman who had landed an 18-inch rainbow on a hopper towards evening.
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