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  • Season’s End at Rainbow Trout Ranch, High in Southern Colorado

    By admin on September 30th, 2012

    The view from my office! Afternoon break on our last ride of the season, here at Rainbow Trout Ranch, our dude ranch located at 9000ft in the southern Colorado Rockies.

    The view from my office! Afternoon break on our last ride of the season, here at Rainbow Trout Ranch, our dude ranch located at 9000ft in the southern Colorado Rockies.

     A week ago, I took an all-day ride to the back-country high above and behind our Colorado dude ranch.   It was a simply glorious day to be riding good horses in spectacular country.  We came back, seventeen miles and packed-lunches later, tired, sore but on a truly natural high fostered by the sheer beauty around us.  Not to mention the camaraderie that only a dude ranch setting  can inspire.  As my father-in-law and the ranch’s owner, Doug, has often said:  when you ride together, eat together and have fun together, you truly get to know people; you arrive as strangers and leave as friends.

    In the week since, we’ve said goodbye to the final guests, and a few days later to the remaining staff.  We’ve worked hard but I can only echo what I heard a fellow dude rancher say at the Colorado Dude and Guest Ranch Association Board Meeting the other day:  “We had a good season but even if we hadn’t, the staff was so great that it was an awesome season.”

    The other night, before the mass exodus of staff on all manner of road trips and adventures, we discussed the highlights of the summer. Each story would trigger more and it wasn’t long before a couple of hours passed in laughter and memories.  Everything from Shakespearean plays, July Fourth celebrations, spectacular rides, Elvis performances, pool throwing-in sessions and so much more was brought up.

    A great dude ranch has a great staff. And we truly had an awesome staff this summer.

    A great dude ranch has a great staff. And we truly had an awesome staff this summer.

    And the next afternoon everyone stood on the lawn far past their intended leaving time, talking and laughing and bidding one another and us teary goodbyes.Yesterday, the last four staff members and most of our family went for a ride in the late evening.  We moseyed for a couple of hours, winding through the aspens, golden above and below us.  The two dogs were with us and on the return we rode through the main herd, turned out to pasture after a wonderful summer–we will move them down to winter pasture next month.  Seeing a hundred or so contented horses in the evening light with the canyon walls turning to reds and grays and the fall color exploding around us was both humbling and inspiring.

    Fall colors provide a glorious backdrop as we head out for an evening ride here on our southern Colorado dude ranch.

    Fall colors provide a glorious backdrop as we head out for an evening ride here on our southern Colorado dude ranch.

    We’ve had emails and Facebook posts and calls from guests–booking for next year or just calling to say thank you.  Conversations are cheerful and we can bring each person’s face and family to mind and remember fun times with them.

    I love the whole tradition of dude ranching, and I love that we can live it each day here at the Rainbow Trout Ranch.  Thank you, everyone for a fantastic twentieth year here in Conejos River Canyon.

    It is truly magic.

    Happy Trails,
    Jane

    Can there be anything more beautiful than riding through the aspens in a Colorado fall, here at Rainbow Trout Ranch?

    Can there be anything more beautiful than riding through the aspens in a Colorado fall, here at Rainbow Trout Ranch?

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    Our Posts

    • Horse Vocabulary – Part 1
    • Thank you, Chris Collins
    • Wintering the Horses
    • A Great 2020 Season
    • Cheyenne & Her Legacy
    • Key Western Tack & Their Purpose
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    • “Little Britches” Book Series
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    • Branding: History & Today
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    • Movie Confessions: City Slickers
    • 2020 Resolutions
    • 2019 Summer Recap – Horses
    • Christmas in July
    • Photo Blog Highlight: Emma
    • What ARE those? Chaps vs Chinks
    • Foals of 2018
    • Interview: Julia & the Cowpokes
    • Spring on the Conejos with Sam
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    • New Horses on the Ranch!
    • Interview: Lauryn & the Teens
    • September at the Ranch
    • Ranch Raised Horses
    • Friday Night Fun
    • Everybody Swing!
    • Wild, Wild… Rags?
    • Faith, Hope, & Charity
    • Dude Ranch Family – Braden
    • Wintering Horses
    • Working at Rainbow
    • Staff Map 2018
    • “Linda Clean”
    • Pink Friday Tradition
    • Staff Spotlight: Hannah
    • Unplugging at the Ranch
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    • Ready for June Fishing!
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    • A Week at the Ranch in Video
    • What if I Don’t Ride at a Colorado Dude Ranch?
    • Colorado Dude Ranch: Five Ways to Choose a Guest Ranch for Your Family Vacation
    • Rocky Mountain Adventures on our Colorado Dude Ranch
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    • The Wonderful Life of a Dude Rancher
    • September 2014 Here we come
    • Top 10 Reasons to go to a Colorado Dude Ranch, not on a Cruise!
    • Dude Ranch “Super” Marketing
    • Zorro: The Southern Colorado Dude Ranch Legend
    • A Very Special Dude Ranch Horse Story: Mikey
    • Riding Western in the UK – getting ready for our Colorado dude ranch visit
    • Summer Season 2012 Wrap-Up
    • At Rainbow Trout Ranch at last
    • Season’s End at Rainbow Trout Ranch, High in Southern Colorado
    • Food glorious food………………. Rainbow trout delivers!
    • 83 days to go until I arrive at Rainbow Trout, my Colorado Dude Ranch
    • Spring at this Colorado Dude Ranch: Getting Ready for Guests
    • Getting to the Ranch…
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    • More Getting Ready for My Colorado Dude Ranch Holiday
    • My Favorite Colorado Dude Ranch Horse and More
    • Blog of an RTR Guest
    • Teens at the Dude Ranch: The Transformation from Surly to Happy
    • Dude Ranch Dogs
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    • Dream Trip to our Colorado Dude Ranch Inspired an Article
    • Pagosa.com article on Rainbow Trout Ranch
    • Teen Program at Rainbow Trout Ranch
    • Peanut Butter Jelly Time!
    • Colorado dude ranch ride coming in
    • A Guest of the West
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    • Spring is coming to the ranch


     
    Dude Ranch.com Signature Ranch
    American Quarter Horse Association
    Conejos River Anglers
    Colorado Dude Ranch and Guest Association
    Dude Ranch.com
    Dude Ranchers Association
    Dude Ranchers' Educational Trust and Western Museum
    Dude Ranchers' Educational Trust and Western Museum
    Horse Vocabulary – Part 1

    Learning the vocabulary about and around horses is one of the first steps in knowing more about these wonderful animals. This winter we are going to do multi-part posts on horse knowledge!

    Thank you, Chris Collins

    A man of many talents, we were lucky to have Chris Collins visit us this summer! Thank you to Chris Collins for sharing his time and efforts with us this summer.

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