Hasty, Colorado

By Danielle Simone

The Stilling Basin is shallow and calm this early November sunrise.  It holds a mixture of reflection and rocky reality. Normally a churning mixture of foam and water, it stands quiet, in the fall .

John Martin Stilling Basin

The reservoir holds only 23,400 acre feet of water today. The Corps of Engineers is not releasing any water into the Arkansas.

A lone Blue Heron stands in the water, hoping for breakfast.  Pelicans share the water at the reservoir with ducks, grebes, geese and gulls. Today, they seem to revel in the water…that is not yet ice.

Fall colors fill the surface of Lake Hasty Campground in a perfect reflection.

Lake Hasty Campground Reflections

The Arkansas runs low and quiet as it leaves the park, it too, reflecting fall colors along it’s banks.  Fall fills us with introspection, gives us an opportunity to look over our lives, review our blessings.

The Arkansas River

Atop Red Shin Standing Ground

From atop Red Shin Standing Ground, the dam stands  guard over an empty campground.

Are you looking for a place to recreate? The weather is lovely, 60 degrees or so for the rest of the week.  Charge your camera battery,  pack your picnic basket, grab your hiking shoes, take a drive.  Turn south at Hasty and you’re at John Martin Reservoir within 2 miles.

John Martin Dam, in all it’s  grandeur, is always camera-ready.   Beauty, quiet, sunshine and plentiful wildlife await you for the small cost of a park’s pass.

Enjoy the fall, on the high plains of southeast Colorado…at John Martin Dam.