Gone Munching: May 2011

With summer around the corner (and a trip to a tropics looming), I find myself thinking back to the snowy, white days of this past winter. We took a little trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to the Vista Verde Ranch -- our first time out to the Mountain West -- and it was a real treat!

Vista Verde is an all-inclusive luxury ranch. What that means is you get great service, excellent food (really!), and a lot of fun winter activities such as cross-country-skiing, horseback riding (with trained wranglers), tubing and sitting in a hot tub outdoors. Before we arrived, we planned to find ourselves out of the ranch, downhill skiing at the nearby Steamboat Mountain where there is some fantastic skiing on fine champagne powder, but found ourselves instead increasingly drawn to the warmth and activities on the ranch, and rueing our too-short trip here.

Let's start from the very beginning. This was the scene when we left New England - Snow!

Compare and Contrast to our landing in Colorado.. SNOW. That's what I call SNOW!

We saw a couple of planes being de-iced before take-off. Can you even spot the plane under all that?

It was about an hour's drive out to the Ranch from Steamboat Springs airport and we got a chance to drink in the breathtaking, snow-crusted scenery.

There was about a foot of snow on the ground - which isn't bad, considering. Still it was cold, with sub-zero temperatures, so it was great to get in to the ranch, where the friendly welcomes were even warmer than the fires burning in the fireplace. The people at Vista Verde really are a special lot. You feel like you're entering a family, not just a hotel/luxury ranch. Here is the Great Room that greeted us upon arrival. You really couldn't help but be a little wow-ed.

Then we were brought to our Cabin, where the wows continued. We loved the little nods to the ranch culture that was scattered all over the cabin and the main lodge.

Our Giant Cabin - which could have accommodated up to 6 people!

The deck

Bright airy living area

The massive bedroom with locally made wooden furniture

That's what I call a curtain tie

Our very own woodburning stove for heat.

Saddle Seat

There was no tv and very little wireless access within the Cabin, but we didn't mind. There was so much to see and do outside of the cabin that every time we were back, we were just too exhausted.

Horses were a big part of the experience

There are many working dogs on the ranch.

Trying to take a photo over the 4 foot high snow drifts

Right from our living room

Sunset - did I mention the hot tub allowed these fantastic views?

I think Frosty was feeling the chill too.

Frost

I wasn't kidding when I said it was COLD.

Given that it was sub-zero most of the time we were in Colorado, we looked forward to being indoors after a morning and/or afternoon of hard skiing or horse-riding. The main lodge was a really great space to hang out, and also where we took all our meals - all brilliantly executed by the in-house chef Matt (who was also an avid snowboarder). I can get addicted to this lifestyle.

Gotta love the Christmas spirit

So that's where Santa parks it for the rest of the year...

The dining room - check out the cowboy motifs near the ceiling

Two of the four afternoons we had there were spent learning to ride the horses. These were the most gorgeous horses, trained to respond to the rider's every twist and nudge. The whole experience was made more amazing with the indoor riding arena. When you walk in, you see the warmth rising off the hay in the arena. Think the horses were just as glad to be in there in this weather!

Of course, we couldn't resist the chance to go downhill skiing at Steamboat Mountain. OK, this was new level of difficult for a beginner/intermediate skier - everyone moves faster, the mountain is bigger (took me almost 30 mins to complete a full run from top to bottom), and the blue slopes are waaaaay harder out here than the blue slopes out East. Still, skiing through champagne powder was magnificent!

When you go up in Cable Cars.. you know you should be afraid

Yes, of course, I just came down fabulously from that super steep slope. Yes. Of Course.

Ski Area Boundary - probably because of the sheer drop and the trees, and that the rest of the area was a national park. This was how it looked half-way up the mountain. That's how high it was. We didn't take pictures from the top because had we tried, we would have (a) been run over by crazy skiers and boarders or (b) our fingers would have dropped off from the cold. Your first instinct from the top is to flee to a place where you can feel your fingers and toes again.