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The mountains of Colorado have both the terrain and water necessary for incredible canyoning adventures. You just have to know what to look for. Steep flowing streams are the easiest part to find. After all, we're in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. But we're not looking for your basic trout stream here. We're looking for the ones that fall steeply out of the mountains from above timberline and rage down steep gullies dropping over cliffs. The San Juans, the Elks, Rocky Mountain National Park - the potential is endless.

I've even managed to find a canyon with great potential here in my own back yard. A twenty minute drive from Boulder up Highway 119 is Boulder Falls, a popular attraction for visiting tourists. A short, five-minute walk upstream from the parking lot brings these visitors to a view beneath beautiful Boulder Falls. The most adventurous part of the hike for these folks is dodging cars as they cross the highway.

The tourists don't know it, but you can enter this canyon from above. The trail down from Sugarloaf road is used almost exclusively by rock climbers approaching Dream Canyon, and members of Boulder's gay community, who hang out, skinny dip and sun bathe on the smooth granite boulders bordering the creek.

I was rock climbing in Dream Canyon one afternoon this past summer and decided to check out the terrain for canyoning possibilities. I knew Boulder Falls and all the tourists lay downstream but didn't know what else the canyon might have to offer. I knew Dream Canyon wasn't very long, but I figured it still might be fun and hell, there's a nice waterfall at the end.

I made my way downstream, hopping from boulder to boulder, trying to keep my shoes dry. I was wearing my good approach shoes and so was reluctant to swim. The voices of climbers faded behind me and I was soon engulfed in the cool, verdant setting of this beautiful canyon. I was completely alone.

Scrambling over boulders and traversing above deep pools of clear water, I made my way slowly downstream. Since I was a kid growing up in central Missouri, I've loved to boulder hop down streams. As kids most of us played this game. The goal, of course, was to make steady progress without getting your feet wet. If you fall in, you loose. As I approached the next emerald green pool I spied a steep slab on the far side of the creek that I knew would get me past this next obstacle.

Using my best French Technique, I walked flat-footed across the slab, then scrambled up and over the top of a huge boulder. As I popped over the top, I startled a group of about twenty naked men sunbathing on a huge, flat granite slab. They weren't the only one's startled. I think my eyes bugged out as big as theirs.

"Pardon me gentlemen, may I play through?" was all I could come up with to say. "Certainly" was their awkward yet polite reply. They were all just sitting there, talking and swimming in the water. I'm just glad I didn't surprise anyone doing anything else. I hurriedly continued downstream, chuckling with the knowledge that I wasn't the only one a little unnerved by the encounter.

Not far down the canyon I came across a cool little slide with potholes full of water and little waterfalls connecting them. Nothing too technical, but as beautiful a spot as I've seen anywhere in the mountains. A Water Ouzel bobbed up and down on a boulder in the center of the stream and then dove in, "swimming" under water to chase down some tasty morsel. Around the next bend I could hear the thunderous roar of Boulder Falls. I climbed up and over another huge boulder expecting to get a view of the tourists below the falls and was surprised to see no one. The place was totally empty!

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