By JACKIE TAYLOR | June 24, 2026

Drought

It’s hard to think of drought when our county is 29 percent over average rainfall, according to app.precip.ai/locations, 18.66 inches since Jan. 1 of this year. 

I reference drought because I am researching vacation destinations in the next few weeks and Colorado is somewhere I want to take my granddaughter. I grew up there, and, despite its liberal leanings, calls me back – kind of like the Sirens in Greek mythology – only without the shipwreck and death part.

Home is one of those places that stays home forever. Memories are built there, good or bad, and that first place of domicile stays etched in our memories.

When I was a kid, our vacations mainly entailed fishing ventures. I remember my dad hooking on the Prowler trailer and my brother and I would load up to travel to some lake or river where we could camp and fish as a family.

I told my dad on Father’s Day that our fishing ventures usually ended up my brother and I watching my dad catch fish, but we always had fun.

How dad had time to fish I don’t know; I remember one vacation I fell into the icy, cold lake after tripping on a rock. Between bird-nests in our line and lures in trees, I’m sure dad was ready for a trip by himself. But we had fun, and to this day, my brother and I are avid fishermen of many disciplines.

Despite the fact that grass is growing so quickly, and mowing once a week doesn’t seem enough, we are very fortunate in Linn County to have the water we have.

In comparison, a good portion of Colorado is in extreme drought condition. We know what little snowpack we got in Linn County; well, Colorado received record low snow on top of drought conditions and their reservoirs are nearing levels where many hydro-electric facilities may have to shut down due to lack of water.

According to a simple Google search, Colorado’s snowpack is “among the lowest since comprehensive records began approximately four decades ago.”

I was researching camping areas northeast of Denver and pulled back from that; severe drought has caused some of the premier reservoirs we used to fish on to be mere puddles in a high-desert location. The mighty Colorado River is slowed down in places where it is leaving slimy moss ponds rather than pristine trout fishing pools.

So, given extreme drought, not surprisingly, fire danger is super high. Fire danger maps are very colorful as according to burnbound.io, Colorado has “Red Flag Warnings:17, Fire Weather Watches:0, Level 1 Bans:157, Level 2 Bans:52, Full Closures:0.”

What that means to my granddaughter and I is that we probably won’t be eating smores by an open campfire. I intentionally made a reservation at a lower elevation in the event of a fire issue; we wouldn’t have far to drive to be safe.

Despite fire bans for humans, Mother Nature plays by different rules when a thunderstorm rolls in and lightening cracks down to the earth. It wouldn’t take long for thousands of acres to burn when the earth has been thirsty for so long.

So, I’ll continue to mow grass and be thankful for the rain. Millions of people are going to feel the influence of the drought as California, Arizona, Colorado, etc. continue to fight for water. Scary times for the West.