Flowing from the San Juan Wilderness in southern Colorado north of Chama New Mexico to the Rio Grande on the new Mexico Colorado border the Conejos provides fly fishing anglers excellent rainbow and brown trout fishing.

Nearby towns of Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico are home to the historic narrow guage steam powered Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Tickets my be purchased in Antonito or Chama for this spectacular mountain railroad train ride.

The Conejos River is a tributary of the Rio Grande, approximately 92.5 miles long, in south-central Colorado in the United States. It drains a scenic area of the eastern San Juan Mountains west of the San Luis Valley.

It rises from snowmelt along the continental divide west of Conejos Peak in western Conejos County, approximately 15 miles northeast of Pagosa Springs. It flows briefly northeast, through Platoro Reservoir, then southeast through the Rio Grande National Forest, then east along the New Mexico border through a scenic canyon. It enters the southwestern corner of the San Luis Valley from the west near Conejos and joins the Rio Grande from the west approximately 15 miles southeast of Alamosa.

The beautiful, remote Conejos River Valley, just west of tiny Antonito, Colorado, is home to rugged cliffs, including The Pinnacles (a popular whitewater rafting destination), and wide-open meadows perfect for casting. It’s basically home to every type of trout imaginable, and it’s not hard to see why fly-fishermen come from all over the American West to check out the Conejos.

There’s tons of public access to the river near Antonito and few regulations, so avid fly-fishermen can have a choose-your-own-adventure experience in the region, thanks, also, to the fact that the area doesn’t see a ton of visitation. Several types of trout make their homes in the Conejos, but the Antonito area is primarily known for its rainbow, brown, and cutthroat fishing. (The brown here, especially, tend to be bruisers.)