![]() You might get burgers or chicken, always three or four tasty salads to sample, and a delicious soup to start. One of the best morning treats of the cowgirl weekend was port-macerated cherries drizzled over tangy organic yogurt (oh, what a beautiful morning that was!).Īnd for the record, coffee at Smith Fork Ranch is dark and French-pressed, not boiled over a campfire in a tin pot.Īround noon, just about the time a cowgirl has worked up a serious appetite with a morning ride, perhaps followed by a fly-fishing lesson, the fires come up on the outdoor grill. Your-ribs combinations of eggs and flapjacks, locally made sausages and bacon. You can serve yourself from a buffet heavy with fresh fruit, camp-made granola, cold cereals and tender pastries. It’s a smallish, wood paneled room, lined with booths, but cowgirls fuel for the first ride of the day together at a long table down the middle of the room. Executive chef Bob Isaacson broke culinary trail for the ranch and Patrick Walley followed with a repertoire of fine cuisine made from locally sourced, mostly organic ingredients.īreakfast is served in the funky Dinner Bell dining hall. Like everything else at Smith Fork, meals are a sophisticated take on classic Western cooking. Those people move on to the Smith Fork, which is considered some of the Western Slope’s best trout waters.Īlthough cowgirls are called to their three squares with the clang of a huge, forged-iron dinner bell, you can hardly call it grub. Several in our group manage to catch – and release – even though the pond we worked held the most savvy trout on the ranch. The next lesson is on the stocked trout ponds. A guide gathers guests on the lawn, where they learn the casting motion in the hopes that eventually the coveted J curl will gently unfurl, carrying a line across the grass.Ĭowgirls are advised not to worry about “catching” a too-interested barn cat the line is hookless while on land. Gunther has a bunch of plastic steer heads affixed to hay bales, and he and the other wranglers patiently explain how to create a loop, wind it up over your head and let it fly, overhand, toward the bale.īeginning fly-fishing starts much the same way. Still, wranglers can work on your horse-handling skills if you’re uncertain in the saddle.Īnd you can learn to properly toss a lasso on the lawn in front of the lodge. They’re there for team roping shows by a neighboring rancher and his son, and for team penning attempts by cowgirls brave enough to race on horseback from one end of the arena to the other. ![]() In truth, the only cattle at Smith Fork Ranch are a dozen roping steers that hang around the arena. ![]() Not that a cowgirl really wants to spend all her time in bed. In the bedroom, thanks to a thoughtfully placed window and a dresser mirror tilted just so, guests can snuggle between a featherbed and a thick, down comforter and get a clear view of aspen-covered Saddle Mountain without raising their heads. The slate-tiled bathroom is stocked with fluffy robes and plenty of towels, and fragrant creams and shampoos made by Leroux Creek Vineyard in Hotchkiss, scented with clove and rosemary and infused with grape-seed oil and red wine from their vines. Inside the two-room Spruce Cabin, the smallest guest building on the property, the sitting room is furnished with comfy cowgirl-style sofas and chairs. They carefully stabilized the shells of the historic buildings and filled them with restored period furniture and antiques, making sure each guest room included a really great bathroom. Linda Hodgson says she was tempted to summon the bulldozers when the family contemplated purchasing the ranch, but her husband immediately saw cozy potential in the three ramshackle log cabins and aging lodge buildings. Though Bar X Ranch founders Grant and Mamie Ferrier often found themselves spreading out a bedroll under the shelter of a giant spruce tree, the current conditions at Smith Fork Ranch are far more inviting. Between courses during dinner, ranch manager Chuck Gunther visited with all of the guests, sizing up them and their riding skills and sussing out their interests, gently suggesting a schedule that would allow them to sample everything offered during the annual Cowgirl Adventure without going bonkers.īy the time dessert was served and a two-piece combo had finished the night’s entertainment, everyone was ready to hit the high-altitude hay. The first day, a handsome cowboy was waiting to carry each cowgirl’s bag to her room, where a sweet bentwood basket was waiting, filled with homemade cookies, fresh plums and apples, and a welcoming note handwritten by Linda Hodgson.Ĭocktail hour was handled by vintner Eames Peterson, who talked about wine made at his place, Puesta del Sol in Paonia. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
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