This week’s dream: learning to fish in the Rocky Mountains

The appeal of fly fishing can baffle the uninitiated, but devotees talk about it in near-mystical terms (for the poet Ted Hughes, it provided a sense of “communion” with “the whole living world”). To try it in grand surroundings, says Georgia Grimond in The Daily Telegraph, head to Colorado’s Taylor River Lodge. Cradled in a steep-sided canyon far up a little-used road, this “exceptionally peaceful” cluster of low timber buildings opened this year under the auspices of Eleven Experience, an American travel company that combines “extreme adventure” with “the comfiest of accommodation”. Guests receive expert instruction in the sport at a trout pond surrounded by “a cathedral of conifers”, releasing any fish they catch immediately back into the water.

Casting a fishing line is a delicate business – you must “present the fly with the touch of a feather” – and quick reactions are needed should a trout bite. Beginners are bound to lose most, and the sense of frustration can be intense. But the rhythm of casting, drawing the fly back and casting again can also induce deep “contentedness” (at least in such a glorious setting) – and by the time you’ve caught a fish, felt its “silken scales and huge strength” as it struggles in your grip, and sent it weaving off into the water again, chances are you’ll be “hooked”.

But if you’re not convinced, try combining fishing with a stay at the same company’s Scarp Ridge Lodge, an “impeccably designed” five-bedroom house with a saltwater swimming pool in the town of Crested Butte. Activities there include stand-up paddleboarding, hiking, mountain biking and, “for the intrepid”, a chance to climb (with professional guides) to the 2,715-metre summit of Crested Butte mountain, which commands spectacular views of the “snow-tipped” ridges all around.

Eleven Experience (00 1 970 349 7761, elevenexperience.com) has a seven-day trip from £2,885pp, excluding flights.