Some thirty-five years ago, in another life, one of my hobbies was to guide small groups on canoe/kayak trips down the Colorado River. On this particular trip, my friend Gary and I made the run from Plum Park to La Grange. It was an was an easy one-day float, passing by many interesting historic and geological features along the way. We were nearing the end of the trip, having run the only stretch of white water in the County, and explored Robbers Cave at the base of Chalk Bluff. With the La Grange railroad bridge trestle in sight, I led the tired paddlers to a small sandstone ledge along the western bank of the river where we disembarked for our last break of the day. Standing there securely on the ledge, I tell them of the 1839 river trip of William McKinstry, whose 1840 booklet, Colorado Navigator, described this ledge as a landing for Colorado City. We were on that stretch of river just below the Fair Grounds where it makes a slight “jog” to the west, as if trying to avoid some unseen obstruction in its path. The terrain to the east was all uphill, while to the west the tree line flowed gently along with the river, lower on the horizon. The banks here were lined with river ferns, emerald green, growing wherever they caught the morning sunlight. I made a mental note of the location as we headed on to our destination.
