Come join us and relax over a long Holiday weekend. Let us cook and clean! A Christmas Eve Seven Course Dinner, a Family Style Christmas Dinner of Turkey carved at the table; a Champagne Breakfast on Boxing Day: family fun, including for mom!.
Some typical Morning Activities:
Trail Riding, maybe in the snow! With lessons available.
Your hostess, Ellen, on the front steps!
And available Afternoon Activities:
Trap and rifle shooting
Trail Riding, maybe in the snow!
Horse back riding lessons & coaching available
Make and decorate Holiday/Christmas cookies
Decorate the tree (help us find and bring home just the right tree)
Hiking
Pool Table & Foosball Table
Disc Golf?
Sledding?
Trap and rifle shooting every afternoon
Evening Activities we are planning:
Square Dance (if we have sufficient number of guests)
Cowboy Christmas Music with Lars & Amy
Star-gazing with our family telescope
Evening soak in hot tub
Parlor fireplace
Pool Table & Foosball Table
Hot chocolate & cookies
(Murder Mystery Possible!)
Wine, spirits and beer available at our liquor store.
Hot where you are? Dani & Alex & Montee cooling off in the Sundance Trail pond.
We are actively booking the 2013 season,
but there are still some rooms available the weeks of
7/15/12
7/22/12
8/5/12
8/26/12 and
9/2/12 (Adult Only week) and we are offering deep discounts!
If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to call us at 970-224-1222.
Dude Ranch Vacation Events near the Sundance Trail Guest Ranch
Lots of great summer family adventure vacation opportunities coming up this summer. Here’s just four:
#1 Greeley Stampede June 22–July 4, 2012
Rodeo Events at Sundance Trail Guest Ranch
Dust off your cowboy boots for one of Colorado’s largest summer festivals and rodeos. Dating back to the 1800s, Greeley’s Fourth of July celebration puts the “Yeehaw!” in Colorado’s western culture. Justin Moore, Credence Clearwater Revisited, Montgomery Gentry and Luke Bryan will headline this year’s Stampede.
greeleystampede.org
#2 Colorado Brewers’ Festival June 23–24, 2012
If you’ve tasted a Colorado-brewed beer, then you know why Colorado Brewers’ Festival is wildly popular. 30 Colorado breweries, showcasing more than 60 cold and fresh handcrafted beers, fill Fort Collins’ historic downtown. Summer has never been more refreshing than at this beer-lover’s paradise.
downtownfortcollins.com
#3 Cheyenne Frontier Days July 20-29
Thanks David Hobby!
Cheyenne’s world-class rodeo is truly the Daddy of ’em All. Known for its fast pace and large number of contestants, the CFD rodeo ensures that visitors see more rodeo action (over 40 bulls and 70 saddle and bareback broncs daily) than they can see at any other rodeo. Every event is performed in each of the nine daily performances, so any day at Cheyenne Frontier Days is a good day to see an exciting, action-packed
rodeo.http://www.cfdrodeo.com/
Family Time -- Roman's Gang
#4 Larimer County Fair & Rodeo August 3 – 7th
The Ranch 5280 Arena Circle Loveland, CO Mary Starck, 5280 Arena Circle, Ste 100, Loveland, CO 80538 mstarck@larimer.org (970) 619-4009 Aug. 3-5
www.larimercountyfair.org
Is this a Bed & Breakfast wedding with a Murder Mystery Game?
or a
B&B Murder Mystery Weekend with a wedding?
Most people elope to a dude ranch to get away from their family and friends. They want a relaxed, very simple ceremony and a fun weekend getaway horseback riding.
Country Inn Wedding
Well, Joel and Sheri decided to have a simple, relaxed ceremony, but brought their family, including all the kids and the dogs.
Why? They had an opportunity to tie the knot while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and were married while visiting the Sea of Galilee. Wow!
But what of mom and dad? And what of the gang of brothers and sisters and the small herd of nephews and nieces?
What to do?
Cocoa Tasting Her New Creation
Sheri is a brilliant woman – she brought the family together for a re-do and just for fun a murder mystery game for the weekend! Joel’s a pretty smart guy – he married a brilliant woman! Twice!
Despite the Dog's Best Efforts, Cocoa Dies
Everyone had a great weekend except Cocoa. Poor Cocoa!
She takes one taste of her new candy, and dies! Dead as a doornail, despite the dog’s best efforts at muzzle to mouth resuscitation.
Two Suspects: Princess Leia & Luke Jr???
Who did it???
The list of suspects includes almost everyone who attended the wedding!
So here’s a small collection of some of the pictures from the murder mystery game and the wedding.
Kids, dogs, dead bodies... what a wedding!Mom doesn't watch the high-jinks, she CAUSES the high-jinks!Is Wally Winker Cocoa's Wacker?Murder Didn't Affect Anyone's Appetite for Cake!A Cup of Wine, Thee, and a Murder MysteryFamily Adventure
When at Sundance Trail Guest Ranch, either for a summer dude ranch vacation or Fall/Winter/Spring B&B stay,
2. And Mocha?
you will spend lots of time with our horses (and donkeys!).
Horses communicate with body language. (Is this why women so often understand their horses immediately, and why guys are so often clueless?) Their faces, and especially their ears speak volumes, once you learn how to read them.
3. And Rose Blossom?
Here’s a quick primer on some easy to recognize “expressions.” Have fun!
Answers to each of these facial expressions are listed at he bottom of the page!
4. What is Apache saying here?5. What is Khalli doing?6. And Rusty?7. What is Calamity Jane saying here?
1. Stevie is ANGRY!!! She is having a bad hair week. Spring snow has melted and she want’s to party, and the geldings around her are all nerds or something!! Dude ranch horses are supposed to be romantic!!! None of these guys want to dance!!! Best to just leave her alone for a few more days…
She is clearly saying: “keep your distance or I will bite you!!!”
2. Mocha is taking a nap, or maybe she is meditating. Nope, she’s sleeping, in fact, she is snoring! One of her back hooves is up on the toe, her ears are flopped off to the sides, and her eyes are soft, gently starting off into the distance.
3. Rose Blossom is definitely sleeping! She’s still a baby, so she sleeps a lot. She even has her eyes closed, which only babies do – adults sleep with their eyes open.
4. Apache is awake, alert, and wants the cookie in my pocket. He is demonstrating interest and is interacting.
5. Khalli also wants the cookie in my pocket, but at the same time she is listening to some interesting gossip BEHIND her! Yes, kinda like radar dishes, horses’ ears can pivot front to side to back; even in different directions. Yes, if she wanted, Khalli could listen to two different conversations at once!
6. Rusty is actually sleeping. one of his hind feet is up on the toe, his ears are flopped off to the side, and his eyes are softly staring off into space…
7. Calamity is not happy that she is the last picture. She is small, but she is VERY bossy!
–After successfully keeping momma black bear and her cubs out of the dumpster and the kitchen all summer, Sundance Trail Guest Ranch has been been completely overrun with bears… and mooses*!!
-Take home a bear as a memory of your ranch vacation! Or maybe a Christmas present from your family vacation. Looks like there’s a whole herd of the critters hiding in the gift shop, next to the Jackalopes, water bottles, disc golf Frisbies, and elegant Colorado hand carved bowls.
Bears Hiding in our Dude Ranch Gift Shop
-Our neighbor, Rob, is a chainsaw artist, and he make some of the finest carvings we’ve ever seen!
-Our dude ranch has become a gallery of finished pieces!
-Rob’s work shows the demanding control and precision needed for this unlikely art form.
Itty Bitty Dude Ranch Bear & Kleenex
Big ones, little ones, some holding signs, some holding tables, some just sitting on a table top being cute.
Sundance Trail Guest Ranch Front Porch Greeters!
Most of these are bears, but there are cubs and mooses* as well.
He takes custom orders for wood carvings of any kind; including bears, bear lamps, Eagles, Indians, Cowboys, Santas, pumpkins, …you name it!
Bears Protecting Ranch Dining Room Fireplace
Rob’s prices vary, depending on the size and difficulty of the piece, and whether any museums or fine arts galleries are bidding for the piece.
Colorado Ranch Vacation Hugs 5 cents!
Generally, small bears & mooses*, about a foot tall, start at $35 or so.
If you have something special in mind, please feel free to email the ranch and Rob can give you a quote.
Also, Rob said he’s open to demonstrating his art here at the guest ranch if you have a group that would like to watch & learn more.
Guest Ranch Horseback Riding is seldom as intense as Dorothy May Winfield expresses here, but this poem beautifully catches those blissful moments of being “in the zone” with your horse. Thanks, Dorothy (and Stewart!) – please say hello to Scotland for us. We hope to see you again next year!
Mounting my quarter horse, I steel myself for the journey,
A ripple runs through him as my legs gently squeeze his sides,
He moves forward, slowly at first.
I feel his power beneath me,
Flicking the reins he gathers momentum
Faster and faster and faster,
He breathes deeply,
Fire bursts from his flared nostrils.
The plain stretches before us like endless time.
hands pull at my hair, my clothes,
Stripping my mortality.
My heart beats to the rhythm of his hooves.
The ball of fire above, now burns my naked body.
The saddle has gone,
There is nothing between us,
We have become one.
Only my senses are alive,
I am lost, deep within myself.
Our Western Horseback Riding philosophy is on our Riding Horses page.
A little while ago, a journeyman square dancing caller named Mark Hammett somehow got entangled with a local group of crazy people, and the result is the Ponderosa Promenaders Square Dancing Club.
The Promenaders meet every week. Cyril somehow managed to get Ellen, Dan and Justin off the dude ranch to enjoy part of the winter in weekly lessons, and we’ve all been having a ball.
In fact, we’re having so much fun that we’ve installed a new dancing floor in the dude ranch recreation room!
Corrine and Mark
Mr. Mark has graciously agreed to call for us this summer!
He and his bride Corrine will be joining us for supper every Monday and then will be teaching us with the beginning of the dude ranch season in late May.
We will be square dancing every Monday night!
All of our neighbors and all “Angels” are always welcome! No experience necessary! There is no charge to dance at the Sundance Trail.