Big Iron Ranch - Watkins, CO

 

Moving on to Big Iron Ranch in Watkins, Colorado. We are about 30 miles east of Denver.

The horses have lovely 10' x 10' box stalls with no run out. So again, they are in cramped quarters.

No trails off the property, so we plan to trailer out to ride.

The weather finally cleared up and it looks like sunny weather in the low to mid 70's the rest of the week.

Horses are in the barn on the left. RV/LQ parking is on the right.

We have water and electric hook-up, but no sewer. No RV dump site on the property and we haven't found one near by, so we will be "on the hunt" when we leave for places to dump.

We also need to refill one of our propane tanks as it is empty. We have roughly 40 hours worth of propane left. We use propane to heat our water and for cooking on the range.

There is a menagerie on the ranch. There are goats, lambs, a pig, ducks, geese, turkeys, and even a newborn foal.

Here is the newborn foal with her mom. They are stuck in a box stall as well.

Turkeys, ducks, chickens...they make a lot of noise and our horses aren't quite sure what to do with that.

There are also several friendly dogs who are very anxious to enlist people to play fetch with them. Click the link below to watch the video. 

Dog insisting Ari play fetch

Garden of the Gods - Colorado Springs

 

Well, I went grocery shopping and I stopped at the meat counter at Safeway and a couple of the items on offer surprised me. It is not unusual to see alligator meat or frogs legs at the markets in Louisiana, but a Safeway in Colorado Springs?

And then, a fellow in the campground stopped me while I was loading up feed for the horses.

He offered me this t-shirt with his logo. Apparently, he photographs rodeos for a living. He showed me some of his portfolio and he is quite good. For some reason, he says he is blacklisted from the circuit. So, there is a back story, I have no idea about.

Any way, I got a free t-shirt.

On my bucket list - riding at the Garden of the Gods park. After yesterday's yoga lesson, Ari and I drove into the park to scope out places to park. We found a lot that has horse trailer parking. We decided our best chance of nabbing a spot would be to go during the week and as early as possible.

So, Monday morning bright and early, we headed out with the horses and the lot was empty when we arrived around 9:30 in the morning.

We hadn't had breakfast, so after we parked, I made breakfast in the LQ. It feels a bit decadent to be able to drive somewhere and have a kitchen and bathroom with you.

Breakfast was egg and cheese croissants with turkey bacon and a glass of orange juice.

Views from the trails were spectacular. The trails were actually pretty easy to ride. There was some up and down and some rock face, but, overall, it was a pleasant and fun morning. 

A hiker was kind enough to take our picture...a rare one with both of us. Check out the hoo-doos behind us.

Back in the parking lot

The weather held. There were a few sprinkles as we were loading up to head back to the campground. It kept threatening to rain, but held off most of the day.

Tomorrow we head to the Big Iron Ranch near Denver, CO.

Norris - Penrose Equestrian Center - Colorado Springs, CO

 

Our current stop is the Norris-Penrose Equestrian Center. This is a view of the barns from the upper parking area.

There is an RV dump on site...which has no signage and no markings, so it is a bit tricky to find.

It is located in the parking area between the large community hall and the barns.

The horses are inside the barn in 10' x 10' stalls with no runs. These are cramped quarters, but the horses are out of the rain.

We have water and electric hook-up, but no sewer - hence, the stop at the RV dump on our way in.

Spots are pull-through and it is pretty nice. Good internet, good cell service. Not too noisy, although we can hear a train horn every so often.

With rain storms threatening, we decided to ride in the afternoon. There are trails off the property into a park and open space. The views at the top were pretty awesome.

You can see the storm clouds overhead.

No rain during the ride, but it started about 10 minutes after we got the horses back in their stalls.

Because of the rain, I booked us a drop-in yoga class at the SunWater Spa. This place also has hot tubs, massages, and facials, but unfortunately those services were booked.

The yoga studio is gorgeous. Ari and I were the only ones in the class - with a couple of people joining on Zoom. It was like getting a private class - and it was only $14 per person. It felt wonderful to be able to stretch out.

This is the view from the yoga studio balcony.

There is a food truck outside the SunWater Spa called Teva. I ordered beignets (3 for $5). They were burnt. We complained and the guy said that they were cooked properly. I am sorry, but they were NOT cooked properly. They were burnt. He refused to make the order correctly. I will be reporting him on Twitter later.

After the burnt beignets, we scoped out places to park if we want to ride at Garden of the Gods. I am hoping the weather is clear enough tomorrow morning we can get a ride in. Fingers crossed!

Finally, arrived at South T Bar in Canon City

Our best meal so far this trip was at the Lost Cajun in Salida, CO.

http://thelostcajun.com/

I was super impressed that they have this little sample board where guests can try samples of the gumbo, the etoufee, etc. prior to ordering.  Ari gobbled up the samples.

They also serve beignets!  We ordered hush puppies on the side.  They were different from the hush puppies we've had in Virginia and the Carolinas, but still very good.

The chef was extremely interested in how we liked the food and came to check on us more than once.

This place is worthy of a detour if you are ever in the area.

Upon arriving at Rob & Robin's place at the South T-Bar ranch, we promptly discovered we were down a SECOND tire on the trailer.  Rob helped Ari put on our spare tire which is a real tire, not one of those half-ass tires, and even taught him a couple of tricks on how to tighten lug nuts and mount a tire.

So, we have now replaced 50% of the tires on the trailer.  Keep in mind that we took the trailer in in April to be checked and the guy said at the time that the tires were fine.

So, I am going to have to add tire replacements to our traveling budget for future long trips.

The tire had a nail in it, but didn't have enough tread left to make it worth patching.  We ended up replacing it at a Walmart tire center in Pueblo after we left Canon City.

Rob & Robin have a beautiful mountain home at South T Bar ranch.  They have a view of Pike's Peak right from their living room.  Robin has done an amazing job of decorating the guest rooms.  We had the entire basement to ourselves which included a lovely guest room, a kitchenette, and a full bath.

Robin and Rob are both open to hosting horses and their owners.  They are just lovely people.

Here's Robin holding on to the horses while they graze on her grass.

Here's Rob filling up the stock tank with water so we can put up our portable corral.

The horses were in heaven with all the grass to eat and feeling extremely happy.

You can see Pike's Peak in the distance from Rob & Robin's property.

We have owned property at South T Bar for almost 20 years, but this is the first time we have been able to attend a POA (property owner association) meeting.  It was interesting to me.  There were about 60 property owners in attendance.  They started the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.  I can't recall the last time I recited the pledge and was surprised I actually recalled the words.

But, when I recited "with liberty and justice for all" I almost teared up, because right now, we do not live in a country with liberty and justice for all.  We live in a country where people of color are incarcerated at a rate of more than double that of whites.

https://www.openinvest.co/blog/statistics-prison-america/

We live in a country that is imprisoning babies and children who have committed no crime other than the crime of not being white.  Seeking asylum is not a crime.

We live in a country where white supremacists are empowered to enact mass shootings against Muslims, gays, Jews, and African Americans and not be treated as what they are - domestic terrorists.

It could be argued that America has never been a country "with liberty and justice for all".  After all, we have a history of slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, Irish and Catholics need not apply, Japanese internment camps, Jim Crow, etc.  But, at least we aspired to be better.  

Following the POA meeting, we were served fresh pizza from a portable pizza oven.  That was pretty cool.  We basically got pizza to order.

I enjoyed talking to the other property owners and hearing why they purchased on South T-Bar, whether they were full-time residents or part-time, what their plans were, etc. When Ari & I purchased our land, we envisioned a horse community.  We thought most of the property owners would be equestrians.  Turns out we are pretty much the only equestrians on the ranch.  Most of the property owners are interested in hunting.

Riding in South T Bar

After the meeting, Ari and I did a ride around the ranch - something we had dreamed about ever since we bought our property there.  We rode an ATV trail.  The horses struggled a bit due to the high altitude, but both horses put out their best effort.  

I am so impressed with Mercutio.  He has come into his own as a solid trail horse.

After the trail ride, we drove into Canon City.  I wanted to see how much it had changed since our last visit about 12 years ago.

The downtown has added some cool public art.  I had hoped that the downtown would have improved some, but it actually is more run-down.

We had hoped to join some neighbors for a party Saturday night, but by the time we got back to the ranch and located the party people were packing up to return to their homes.

Sunday morning we reluctantly said our good-byes to Rob and Robin.  Before we left the ranch, we stopped at our parcel.  Twelve years ago, we had brought Isaiah to the ranch and we planted a bunch of trees and shrubs.  We wanted to see if any of the plants had survived.  Imagine our surprise to see an entire grove of trees we had planted looking healthy and beautiful.

Tonight the horses are at Bruton Stables in Raton, New Mexico.

https://www.horsemotel.com/A1MobilePages/A3MobileNewMexicoJacksonStables.html

They have traded in the cushy grass on the South T Bar Ranch for dust and dirt, but they are in a nice large enclosure with their food and fresh water.

This fellow checked us in.  I got a real kick out of him.  He is a chatty Texan, wearing boots, spurs, and cowboy hat.  

Tomorrow we hope to ride in Sugarite State Park before heading to our next stop...Santa Fe.

We are heading home.

Riding Soap Creek on the way to Gunnison, Colorado

Colorado is really a beautiful state and we always enjoy visiting here.

This morning we left Montrose and headed to Gunnison.  Along the way, we stopped at the Soap Creek Horse Campground to ride in the West Elk Wilderness part of the Gunnison National Forest.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/gmug/recarea/?recid=33534

There are four horse corrals available for campers.  Frankly, they were all filthy and I wouldn't have put my horse in any of them.  There was a set of pit toilets, but no water that I could see and no picnic tables.  There were fire rings at most of the campsites.

I had considered booking this campsite, but Ari wanted to stay at hotels as much as possible, so we are only tent camping in areas where I couldn't find an alternative.

I'm glad I listened to Ari because this would have been a pretty miserable place to camp.  Although we probably would have opted to use our portable corral.

We rode the Coal Mesa trail through the West Elk Wilderness.  The trail was mostly hard pack and not too rocky or steep.  There were sections that were so narrow, I thought we would have been better off with mules.

Getting the horses ready to ride.  The one advantage of starting at a horse campsite is that there is plenty of space for a horse trailer.

To get to the trail head, you ride down the road towards the non-horse camp. Check out the rock formations on the right.  You take a bridge over Soap Creek to enter into the wilderness area.

We had several water crossings on Soap Creek.  The water was flowing really high and fast with the snow melt.  Lennox was a bit nervous crossing the water, but Mercutio took it like a trooper.  A few times, he stuck his nose in the water to check how deep it really was and when he realized it wasn't that deep, he was fine.

Here's Ari and Lennox approaching another water crossing.  We are riding through Ponderosa pines and wild flowers.

Driving to Gunnison, we passed Blue Mesa Dam.  It was really quite breath-taking.

Tonight the horses are guests of the Lost Miner horse motel. They are getting good grass hay and plenty of space to move around.

https://www.lostminerranch.com/

Ari and I had a nice dinner at The Gunny Sack in downtown Gunnison and then walked around the downtown - where the shops close at 5 pm.

There was a lot of public art, but you really had to look hard to locate it

This statue is called "My Dear, My Deer" and had a price tag on it of $4375.  This is the first public art I have seen with the price listed.

This statue is called "Friends" and is a little girl hugging a kitten with another kitten close by.

Tomorrow we head to the South T-Bar Ranch, where we own our parcel.  We are staying with a neighbor. We are looking forward to experiencing what it is like to live at South T-Bar.

It will help us decide whether or not we want to build on the property.