For Throwback Thursday I would like to go back to one evening in the year 2007. We were on a weeklong trip around Colorado to celebrate our 25th anniversary, and this particular evening found us in Hot Sulphur Springs. We’d booked a couple of nights at the resort there, and after discovering that the springs themselves were actually rather creepy we decided to take a walk. The town is situated along the Colorado River, and a fairly busy rail line parallels the water, which tumbles into Byers Canyon just west of the resort.
So as dusk approached we strolled along a dirt road at the mouth of the canyon when suddenly my wife says, “Are those otters?” Sure enough, in a flat pool in the river were a couple of river otters, standing on a rock! I scrambled with my camera and got it aimed, just in time to record a splash. No otters in that photo. (My camera was a low-end Konica-Minolta digital cam, new to me but not particularly up-to-date. It took great photos but had very slow shutter response.)
Now we were riveted with excitement, and scanned the water. Immediately we spotted the head of a swimming otter. This time I successfully snapped off a photo.
The otter also spotted us, and gave me a very direct stare as she turned in the river. I didn’t notice at the time that she was not alone, but check the photo above.
Suddenly, a pair of otter pups popped out of the water and clambered back on the rock we’d seen before. Judging by the wetness, they had been using this rock as a diving board for a while. The first otter, whom we could now see was larger than these pups, turned out to be mama.
The otter kids wriggled and preened on the rock for a few seconds, long enough to notice the two humans spying on them…
Quickly, the one with the crooked tail dove back into the water, soon followed by its sibling.
The whole time, Mama Otter kept a close watch on us. Personally I was glad that she kept her distance; I would not want to tangle with her.
On the opposite bank was an abandoned beaver lodge, and our guess was that the otter family had moved into it. For now, though, they were enjoying their evening ablutions. Our presence seemed to make them wary because the whole clan moved to the south side of the water. We eventually counted five pups and two adults.
In seven magical minutes we were treated to a rare and beautiful sight. We’ve seen otters before but never this close.
(August 8th, 2007, location on the map below.)
Action Road 