Road Trip--Days Gone By

Some days we take road trips to places we know about and others we find along the way.

Republican River west of Bonny Reservoir

 Last Sunday we decided to travel to Bonny Reservoir and see how full it is.  It looked much better than last year at this time, but there is still a long way to go before it is full again.  The drought took a toll on it and everything else in this part of eastern Colorado.  The reservoir was built to protect Kansas from floods.  Now Kansas is suing Colorado and making life miserable for those of us who irrigate using deep water wells in the Republican Water District.  While we are paying a $15 an acre tax for a pipeline that should not be built.  Those living along the river in KS continue to dig pits and little playground areas, draining water out of the river as it flows to the point in NE where it is recorded to met our compact compliance.  What a joke!!!  Nothing is done to stop this action.  Some days I wish they would just get rid of the dam and if KS gets flooded so be it.  They seem to want it both ways.  We feel the only thing they are really after is money.   Apparently no one has told them that as far as the state legislators of Colorado are concerned, we don't exist out here.  There will be no help from Denver. 
  Aside from the controversy that surrounds the reservoir it is a special place.  In years gone by we and thousands of others have fished and played on or around the lake.  It is sad to see only a hand full of boats using the lake on a Sunday afternoon now.  In years gone by, one would have to patiently wait ones turn to unload a boat. 

  We enjoyed our sandwiches, looked for birds, went across the dam to the north side, the above photo is of the spillway at the north end of the dam.  The north cove had water in it earlier this spring, but that has since been released down the river.  Odd isn't it that the river flow is measured in NE.  Some more of garbage we have inherited from the idiots who signed the compact and revisited it around 2000.  Oh, yes, Ken Salazar was involved in that.  He loves selling out the residents of Colorado, east slope or west slope, he has qualms about ruining our economies.

Wild turkeys in hay field, north side of dam

Hay field on the east side of the dam