Riding and Rafting The Rockies with Rawah Ranch
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"What happens at a dude ranch?", he asked the clerk who was helping Bob buy new cowboy boots. She said that her husband had been a wrangler — a horse handler — at a dude ranch for years. We were at Big R. in my hometown of Greeley, Colorado, just a couple of hours east of the Rawah Guest Ranch. The farm and ranch store, Big R, is something of a local institution. It's where you take your out-of-town guests to buy cowboy hats and boots. On the other side of the store is all manner of hardware for repairing your Zimmatic irrigation equipment, watering tanks, corrals and fences, and lots of riding mowers and tractors. It's Home Depot for ranches. Bob strolls around the aisles before setting to the task of boots. Now he is asking the simplest of questions, and one of the slipperiest of answers. What exactly does happen at a dude ranch.
The clerk said: "It's a resort with horses." It was a great place to start our exploration.
Rawah Ranch is counter sunk in
the Laramie Range of Colorado.
Rawah Ranch (pronounced RAY-wah) is nestled in the Colorado ’s Laramie River valley, adjacent to the Rawah Wilderness, an enormous area of pristine mountains. Named for a Ute word for "abundance," the wilderness is available to everyone who is on foot or horseback only. Wildlife is all around the ranch. Moose, deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, big horn sheep are in the backyard.
Rawah Ranch hosts a maximum of 32 guests and boasts a high staff-to-guest ratio, with 20 on staff. Our week, we are outnumbered because we arre among only 19 guests. We drop off our luggage in our cabin and change for the pre-dinner reception. With so many boots and hats, it is difficult to distinguish the guests from the staff. We first meet a large man in an apron. He thrusts out a meaty hand and says, "I'm Ray. Welcome! How would you like your steak cooked?" A friendly hello followed by a dinner order. Things arre shaping up quite nicely.
We also meet Nick, who is a wrangler and had worked the previous year at Rawah on the grounds crew. Equally welcoming is Ben, the head wrangler who orchestrates our rides for the week. Pretty quickly, we meet all the staff and our fellow guests. If we had been the least bit nervous about spending a week with a bunch of strangers, we quickly realize that we aren't going to be strangers for long.
At 6:30 the dinner bell rings as it will for breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the week. We sit at the table with one family from Massachusetts, who are returning for their third vacation at the Rawah Ranch. Kathy and Steve brought their two sons, Jeremiah and Josh, who are both in their early twenties. It makes me wonder, when was the last family vacation I took with my parents and siblings? I couldn't remember.
"We like it because it's not all tarted up," Kathy said. "It's the closest to the real thing that you can get." Rawah Ranch offers something that almost no other guest ranch offers: custom rides every day. At many ranches, the rides are prescribed. Thursday might be the all-day ride day. Not at Rawah. Each morning and afternoon, we have the choice of two half day rides, a full-day ride, or a riding lesson. Then we tell Ben what type of scenery we want to see, and he recommends a particular ride. Often there are multiple full-day rides going to different places. And of course, we always have the option of not going. We try to do it all!
What about the steaks? They are cooked to perfection and served outdoors on the back picnic tables along with potato salad, rolls, salads. The Laramie River gurgles happily in the background. We chat with the other guests: Steve and Sheri are from southern California; Cathy and Steve, and their children, Matt and Kristen are from Pennsylvania, as well as Sue and Cindy from a nearby Pennsylvania town; and Pat and Jon and their children, William, Nicole, and Chris, who turns out to be the charmer of the group. I was the closest thing to a local, having grown up nearby and hiked and camped in these mountains as a kid.
Just before we turn in for the evening, one of the kitchen folks asks if we'd like coffee and cocoa delivered to our room in the morning before breakfast. Now that's about as civilized as it gets.
Every morning, Pete's daughter, Kristin, and Ray, cook a hot breakfast to order. You can go all-cowboy and get eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, along with cold fruit, cereal, juice, coffee and tea. And each morning features a different special of the house — breakfast burritos, chorizo (a Mexican sausage), Eggs Rawah, omlets, and so on. By about the third day, we realize we can not eat everything they have to offer, and slow down considerably on the beefy breakfasts. It is already too late. We have each gained at least 10 delightful pounds.
After eating at the main lodge, we gather at the stables to get a refresher course on horsemanship basics. My one and only riding lesson was when I was 11 at Girl Scout camp, so I am happy to be reminded of how to walk around a 1,200 lb animal and how these particular horses like to be handled. We all are assigned a horse for the week. Jasper is my horse, a reddish Appaloosa, who had been Pete's horse when he rode more often. A few years back, Jasper lost an eye to cancer. The wranglers worked with him, and he returned to regular service. Universally, the wranglers thought he is among the best horses at the ranch.
We go for a short meadow ride where we see two huge moose lying in the field. Moose can easily weigh more than a ton and stand more than eight feet high. We arre awed and reminded that we are 60 miles from the nearest town, out in the wilds of northwestern Colorado. A wave of respect and humility moves through the group.
Lunches are the most casual of the three meals. A buffet of soups, sandwiches and salads are placed on a sideboard and we tend to ourselves. For those who have gone on an all day ride, a cold lunch buffet appears after breakfast where we make our lunches for long days.
After lunch, we ride out to the Lily Pond, an easy afternoon hike as well. We are reward with peaceful surroundings, and a stunning view of the Laramie River Valley. We return around 4 p.m., giving us plenty of time to soak our city-slicker behinds in the hot tub, catch a quick nap, and dress for appetizers and conversation at 5:30 p.m. The dinner bell rings at 6:30, and we line the tables in the Main Lodge for a family-style dinner. Pete tells us that the ranch has arranged top-flight entertainment for the following evenings, and we should enjoy Monday evening, as it is our only evening free.
We collapse into our king-sized bed with crisp white sheets and slept like the out-of-shape cowboy wannabees that we are.
I can't tell you how wonderful it is to never be on a nose-to-tail ride the entire week. Our riding groups are usually 4-8 people, just enough to have wonderful conversation, but not too crowded. Every day we ride with different guests and wranglers, and get to know everyone. There is never any pressure to ride or do anything at all, so Bob takes the morning off, and I ride the Skyline Ride. What amazing views of the valley, the 240 acres the ranch owns and the millions of acres of the Rawah Wilderness, and Roosevelt National Forest. A well-maintained dirt road leads to the ranch, making access easy in any type of car.
All week, we encounter absolutely bizarre weather for August in Colorado — frequent daily showers. On a typical Colorado day, you get a 20-minute shower, a thunder and lightning storm around 4 p.m. But we have spring like rains all week. At a time when everything should be brown and readying for autumn, crazy mountain flowers are still blooming all over the place and grassy meadows ache in green. It is wonderful, and worth all the ponchos, soaking hats and gloves and mud.
When we discover at lunch that one of our riding options is to skip a trail ride and get a riding lesson, we leap at the chance. Another wrangler, Annie, shows me the correct way to ride when the horse is trotting, something called "posting." It turns out that in my one riding lesson, oh so many years ago, I had learned incorrectly. She is such an incredibly talented teacher, and she gives us simple pointers that make the rest of the week go much more smoothly. I highly recommend taking a lesson ride early in the week.
It's Wednesday: We Must Be Rafting!
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By Cymber Quinn, Hawaii Correspondent, Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
About the Author
Cymber Quinn - Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo at www.jetsettersmagazine.com