A ranch holiday is unlike any other. We do things just a bit differently. No ball gowns, no big city lights, and we don’t even really make it to midnight. It might sound boring, but we all had a blast yesterday. The evening started out at the Kid’s hut for the first course of dinner.…
With the new Great room, we decided to start a new ranch holiday tradition. Instead of going out and picking a single tree for the Lodge, we brought in a live spruce tree for each family. The other night, everyone gathered in the Great Room after dinner to make decorations and decorate their own tree.…
I was asked to write a quick blog post for Forbes travel guide today. Although we’re looking at a lot of snow and winter vacation visitors right now, I was able to remind myself of the wonderful month of September, and those great adult only dude ranch vacation times. The cattle round up at…
To warm ourselves up for opening day, we decided to open our doors today to the locals. They were invited to come up and ski at the ranch for free and we had a nice group zipping around the trails all day. We did offer that they could leave a donation for the North Routt…
With only 5 days until we open our doors for family snow vacations. Despite the wintery feel outside, the heat is definitely turned up at our dude ranch these days. There really aren’t that many new staff this winter, but most of the return staff are from last summer so that still need to get…
We’ve added some new accommodations to the ranch. No, we haven’t expanded our capacity for people. We’ve expanded it for horses! After several years learning how the beautiful indoor arena fits into our winter program at the resort, we are finding that we need the ability to house more horses indoors. So, this fall, we…
Vista Verde has donated a stay at our luxury winter resort to help raise funds for a local Steamboat couple. Gary Crawford is a coach who works with Steph’s husband Todd at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. A former Olympian, now training young athletes to follow in his footsteps, Gary has helped so many…
November at our Colorado ski lodge means many different things, but in the horse department, it means preparing our herd for the rigors of a Steamboat Springs winter. We’ve been moving horses around from pasture to pasture, building new stalls in the indoor arena for some “5 star” horse living quarters, and also buying, selling,…
Bringing Home Cows On a Cattle Drive Isn’t Like the "City Slickers" Movie – by Dick Friedland Herding cattle back to Vista Verde Guest Ranch in Colorado © 2011 Dick Friedland When I tell my friends I just came back from a roundup and cattle drive the inevitable response includes jokes about playing Billy Crystal in…
Lodging in Rustic Luxury at a Colorado Dude Ranch – by Lois Friedland The cabins at Vista Verde Guest Ranch in Colorado are surprisingly luxurious (c) Lois Friedland I’ve always thought the words "rustic luxury" were overused, but the cabins at Vista Verde Guest Ranch and Resort actually fit this term. Inside, guests curl up on…
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