Colorado Luxury Ranch Resort | Vista Verde Ranch

Ben Martin

General Manager
Wilderness First Responder
Hometown: Terre Hill, PA

This is Ben’s 16th year at the helm of Vista Verde Ranch, where he oversees ranch operations and keeps the staff focused on the VVR ethos of servant leadership and life change. When he is not at the ranch working, as he says, “with the best folks a guy could ever ask for,” Ben enjoys time at home with his wife of 23 years, Holly. These days, they are empty nesters, with two kids off in college and two living and working in Denver. In addition to VVR, and his golden retriever Finn, Ben loves his Philadelphia sports teams, listening to and playing music, coaching track and field at Steamboat Springs High School, and playing on the North Routt softball team. Fun Fact: Ben is the youngest of 49 grandkids.

Charlie Cammer

Director of Ranch Operations
CPR & First Aid Certified
Hometown: Windham, NY

Charlie has been in Colorado since he was 24 years old and gradually worked his way up to Clark. Before coming to Vista, He was the manager of Round Mountain Ranch. Charlie’s been a part of the VVR team since the late-90′s and quietly keeps the ranch running as the master organizer of our team. He and his wife Barb enjoy spending time with their grand kids, as well as road biking. He rides a brown 1974 Motobécane and Barb rides a silver 1975 Motobécane. He also enjoys barbecues outside on the patio of their timber frame house he built looking out on Farwell Mountain.

Stephanie Wilson

Marketing Director
CPR & First Aid Certified
Hometown: Woodside, CA

Steph takes care of all things related to getting you here, and then making your experience as wonderful as possible at the ranch. She is a California native who came to Colorado following graduation from UC Davis with plans to stay a season or two, and has never left. She found the perfect combination of her background in the horse world along with an agricultural business degree in the dude ranch industry. As a mother of two, Steph loves to spend time with her daughters, as well as riding horses, mountain biking, practicing yoga, and skiing. Steph’s husband, Todd, is a former Olympic skier and now coaches ski jumpers in Steamboat Springs.

Bill Backer

Properties Manager
Hometown: Clark, CO

Bill has been around Vista Verde for over 25 years now! In his free time, Bill enjoys fixing up old, damaged cars and is also a highly skilled furniture craftsman. In fact, much of the beautiful log beds and other pieces in our cabins are his one of a kind creations. If you want to make friends with Bill, bake him a pie. His favorite is rhubarb pie, and you should see the rhubarb he grows in the ranch gardens!

Devyn Cordes

Director of Hospitality and Reservations, Yoga Instructor
CPR & First Aid Certified
Hometown: Louisville, CO

This is Devyn’s 14th season at VVR! In grade school she was constantly reprimanded for too much chit chat and now she gets paid to talk to people! Devyn is a certified RYT 200 hour Baptiste Yoga instructor. She is also a Colorado native who spends her winters skiing and summers hiking and fishing. A graduate of Boston Conservatory, Devyn is a singer and loves to sing the Star Spangled Banner.

Zach Wingo

Human Resource Manager
Wilderness First Responder, USCG Certified Captain, CPR, AED
Hometown: Annapolis, MD

Zach is a dedicated outdoorsman who has been chasing anything with a set of gills or pair of antlers since he was 2 years old. Growing up on a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, he enjoys fishing for striped bass and sailing during the summer months. In the fall, he can be found bowhunting for whitetails and sika deer. Zach is also a proud USC Gamecock and looking forward to an awesome winter at VVR! Fun Fact: Before joining us at VVR, Zach sailed 1,900 nautical miles from Annapolis, MD to the Bahamas with his father.

Mette Rousseau

HR Staff Relations & Development Manager
Wilderness Advanced First Aid, CPR, AED
Hometown: Bellingham, WA

Mette was born and raised in the beautiful PNW where she spent summers sailing the salty seas and winters sitting by a fire after a long day cross country skiing. In the past few years, Mette has studied in Guatemala, worked in Uganda, backpacked Europe, volunteered with Young Life, and clam farmed in the Salish Sea. Most recently, she lived in British Columbia managing a sea kayaking operation and mountain guiding for a wilderness ministry. She heard about Vista Verde while backpacking in New Zealand and is excited to explore the heights of the Rockies, the crispness of CO winters, and the depths of VVR community!

Nate Margason

Safety Manager
CMC EMT Program
Hometown: Elgin, TX

Nate is officially our Safety Manager, but that is just the start of what he does at the ranch! When not fixing things or overseeing our fleet of 14 hot tubs, or guiding, or wrangling, he finds time to pursue his hobbies that include hiking, playing softball, dancing, and horseback riding. Nate really enjoys playing on Vista Verde’s intramural softball team during the summer and volleyball during the winter. For his first job, Nate was involved in restoring a 1939 Cadillac LaSalle. He is a volunteer with North Routt Fire Department as an EMT and Firefighter type 2. Finally, Nate married our own lovely Melissa in October 2016 in VVR’s Great Room!

Shannon Neff

Events Manager
CPR & First Aid Certified
Hometown: Fort Collins, CO

We are so excited to welcome Shannon back for her fifth season here at Vista Verde! Shannon graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Natural Resource Tourism and she is so happy to call the ranch home. She’s passionate about horses, and spends most of her free time riding, caring for, or thinking about horses. Additionally, Shannon loves to spend time with friends, soak up the winter sunshine, and read!

Annie Wingo

Store Manager
Hometown: Greeley, CO

Annie is a Colorado native who has been with us at the ranch for over 3 years! Annie came to the ranch after finishing cosmetology school and is married to our HR Manager, Zach. Zach and Annie met here at the ranch, and they now have an adorable son named William (Willy for short!). In her free time, Annie loves to spend time with friends, cook delicious meals and listen to country music. Annie is a gifted artist and she specializes in watercolor and calligraphy.

Phil Brinkley

Financial Controller
CPR & First Aid Certified
Hometown: Fort Worth, TX

Phil spent 30 years in the corporate world as an electrical engineer before joining VVR this year as our Financial Controller. He loves to tell about how something he designed is on Mars… deeply embedded in Mars because it crashed there. It’s not all that reassuring to know that our finances are in the hands of a failed “rocket scientist”, but we’re happy to have him on the team anyway. Phil is married to Sara Brinkley, our massage therapist, and the two of them live very cozily with their dog near Sand Mountain in a small homesteader’s cabin that they restored. They have two kids who are now married and living abroad in Spain and Australia.

Sara Brinkley

Licensed Massage Therapist

CPR Certified

Hometown: Clark, CO

Sara lives in Clark with her husband Phil, our Financial Controller. She is passionate about caring for others and found her path to do so as a talented massage therapist. Prior to working with our guests, she was the Aquatics Coordinator at an Athletic Club. Fun fact: her stepdaughter lives in Mallorca and is married to a Spaniard, and her stepson is married to an Australian, and living Down Under!

Sarah Stebbins

Front Desk
Hometown: Amarillo, TX

Sarah joins us in the office for her second season at VVR after working this past summer with our friends at 4UR Ranch in Creede, CO then jumping in to help the housekeeping crew during our Fall season. An MBA graduate student at West Texas A&M University, Sarah grew up spending time with her family in Colorado and absolutely loves the mountains. Now, she’s looking forward to her first true Rocky Mountain winter! Fun fact: She loves cats and dogs and has extensive experience in the pet-boarding business. We’re pretty sure she’s made fast friends with Bandit and Blue.

Mike Clasing

Front Desk
Hometown: Chesapeake, VA

Mike headed out west to join us for his first season at the ranch after spending the last several summers working in the Outer Banks of NC and his winters at ski resorts in Vermont. A graduate of Old Dominion University with a degree in History, Mike proved his dedication to helping others early on, as an Eagle Scout! He’s looking forward to getting out this winter and exploring all that our local area has to offer. Fun fact: Mike used to be a karaoke host, with the stage name “Open Mike”.

Ranch Hands

Steph Shreve

Ranch Hand
CPR & First Aid Certified
Hometown: Oakland, MD

Steph is joining the ranch hands for her seventh season at VVR! Steph is the go to lady because she has worked in just about every department at the ranch. Before coming to the ranch she graduated from West Virginia University. She then worked for an organization called Young Life in Buena Vista, CO. This winter you will find her playing in the snow and reading as many books as she can. Fun fact: when Steph was young she dreamed of winning the popular TV show American Idol!

Rick Herrero

Fleet Manager
Hometown: Miami, FL

Rick spends his days taking care of our fleet of vehicles. Prior to VVR, he gained experience as a jet mechanic, among other things, and while we don’t yet have any flying vehicles, we keep him plenty busy with tractors and snowmobiles! When he’s not working on engines, he’s taking them out to play. As he says, his fun runs on liquid petrified dinosaurs.

Heyward Harrison

Ranch Hand
Hometown: Louisville, KY

Heyward, a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, is back for his second season at the ranch. Before coming to VVR, and before the pandemic, Heyward was working in Australia as a swim instructor. He enjoyed living abroad, and hopes to do so again in the future, but meanwhile we’re happy he’ll be enjoying his first Rocky Mountain winter with us! Heyward is interested in media of all kinds, and in his spare time you can find him reading fiction and philosophy.

Ross Pearson

Ranch Hand
Hometown: Rochester, IN

We are happy to have Ross back with us for his second season after joining the crew this fall! He grew up on a farm in northern Indiana where his family raised livestock, including show cattle, then earned his degree in Agricultural Management from Purdue University. After spending a summer on another Colorado ranch in high school, Ross knew he wasn’t done scratching that itch, so to speak, and he’s looking forward to lots of opportunities for snowmobiling and improving his horsemanship skills with us this winter!

Levi Bryant

Ranch Hand
CPR/AED & First Aid Certified
Hometown: Marion, IL

We are thrilled to have Levi join us this season! After studying film at Savannah College of Art and Design, Levi embarked on seasonal adventures, spending last winter at the lifts in Copper Mountain, and the summer as an AmeriCorps volunteer, doing wilderness/trail conservation in Colorado Springs. An avid snowboarder, he’s looking forward to trying out some backcountry skiing and honing his horseback skills with us this winter!

Justin Tracy

Ranch Hand
CPR/AED & First Aid Certified
Hometown: Lake Tahoe, CA

We welcome Justin for his first season here at VVR. Prior to Vista Verde, he worked as a Chronic Wasting Disease Technician for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. A Texas A&M graduate, he’s worked for various state agencies doing wildlife management. Justin is passionate about wildlife, habitat conservation and he lives for the outdoors. He loves hiking, hunting and exploring and photographing sights across the U.S. Ask him about his next marathon – he’s run one each year for the past three years!