“Miller! Miller! I need a hand with this one,” I yelled. My rod was doubled over. I knew I had the fish hooked on a size 12 San Juan worm, a good sized hook. Still its funny how a large fish in fast water tends to make you question the strength of your line or…
As the last days of the season wound down, these cookies were particularly tempting. I had stayed away from the cookies most of the season, but there is just something about knowing they won’t be there much longer to tempt that creates a sense of urgency. Nonetheless, when I finally buckled and went to get…
The last couple weeks we have spent some time surveying many of our return guests about what direction they would like to see us go with the ranch in the coming years. There were some big ideas, and crazy ideas, and just out-of-the-box ideas that we floated their way to get a sense of whether…
This winter has been the winter of safety training. More specifically avalanche safety training. It really is more of opportunities for training arising than anything, but it has led to a lot of interesting conversations around the dinner table (ok, breakfast and lunch too as we do take gathering to eat seriously here). The course…
We have a new guest blogger! Isaac Ness, who runs our fly fishing program has agreed to pick up the reins of the category of our blog dedicated to anglers. I say dedicated, but it’s been a bit quiet for a while, so we’re excited to start getting some fly fishing content up again. For…
They were drunk. Or something was going on. Why else would there be horses scattered around the arena with their heads hanging low while they swayed back and forth as if on a boat? Rounding the corner, the mystery was solved. It was dental day at Vista Verde! Dr. Courtney and Dr. Sarah had their…
There has been a long running joke at Vista Verde over the years of making up names about the ranch that sound like soap opera titles. As the Aspens Turn, As the Snowflakes Fall, All My Horses, Rides of our Lives, you get the idea. It’s not that life at the ranch is really that…
When you live in a place with limited bandwidth and spotty cell phone service, there tends to be an inclination to either go to the dark side or just read a lot of books. As we prefer the latter option, there tend to always be a lot of great book recommendations that come from our…
With the large staff filled with young people starting off in life, we always have a stream of ranch babies to cuddle and love on. And we’re not even referring to the cute foals that arrive every spring. We’re talking about little people! As one set grows up, another arrives, and 2018 is no different…
It has been fun to ask different guests about what their 5 perfect days at the ranch look like to them. Twelve-year-old Poppy represents the age that I want to be at the ranch–when you get to enjoy all the fun, but don’t have to foot the bill! I interviewed her when she was at…