Welcome to The High Lonesome Ran Journeys
HLR JourneysA compilation of essentials for the adventurer
The latest edition of Journeys is ready for viewing with all of our stories, photographs, specials, and adventures for 2016.
Gorgeous photography, a few choice words to support it, and a real passion for the outdoor pursuits of fly-fishing, dude ranching, and wing shooting tell the HLR story.
Journeys
Welcome to the Ranch
Fly-fishing, wing shooting, dude ranching and more
Why we do this
The evolution, conservation & restoration of a national-park-sized ranch
2016 happenings
What’s in store for our guests this year
Sporting Adventures
The opportunities are many and seasonal
Features
SPRING AT THE RANCH
Everything comes alive in the prettiest time of year.
Spring Fishing
The epic feeding frenzy begins in March.
Main Ranch fishing
Thanks to some overzealous beavers throughout the years, the natural springs that once meandered down the valley have been transformed into a series of productive pools.
Fly-fishing Expeditions
Explore the diversity around the main ranch and be inspired by some of our big beautiful neighborhood.
Journeys
Features continued
SUMMER AT THE RANCH
Jackets in the morning and short sleeves in the afternoon. Perfect for Dude Ranch adventures, camp outs, the opening of our little sister the K-T Ranch in Meeker for some legendary freestone river fishing on the White River.
Dude Ranch Experience
Find your inner cowboy. Explore your western heritage.
New Adult only weeks
Peace and quiet, western adventure, and laid-back luxury for couples, women’s groups, and everyone old enough to need a getaway.
K-T Ranch fishing
The fabled freestone White River rambles through some of Colorado’s most fertile farmland.
Journeys
Vol. I No. 2
Features continued
FALL AT THE RANCH
Colors brighten, temperatures cool, and everyone gets a spring in their step.
Wing Shooting
Make sensory memories of cold mornings that turn warm as you walk, hunt three species of game birds in pristine upland coverts and spend a day with a great dog.
Staff Focus
Meet Marian Cole, Equestrian Director
MEET THE RA
General Manager Scott Stewart
Operations
Maren Smith
Executive Chef
Matt Chasseur
Breakfast Chef
Aunt Linda Doden
Guest Services & K-T Ranch
Amber Shults
HLR JourneysRANCH TEAM
Sales & Reservations
Mark Weaver
Tenna O’Dell
Equestrian Director
Marian Cole
Outdoor Pursuits & Landscape and Maintenance
Greg Stewart
Farming & Ranching
Jason Lynch
Meet the CONTRIBUTORS
Contributing Photographers
Mark Lance, Russ Schnitzer, Isaias Miciu Nicolaevici, Tom Payne, Nancy Anisfield, Barry and Cathy Beck, Jim Rowinski, Brent Steiner, Cristina Eisenberg, Margo McKnight, Karen Mann, Jim Stenson, Tom Stahl, HLR Staff
National Sales
Christopher Pipes
Marketing
Integrated Digital Publishing, Karen Mann
HLR Journeys
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of autumn.” –
– John Muir
The High Lonesome Ranch
Welcome to your western getaway. The High Lonesome Ranch is a guest and dude ranch specializing in outdoor sporting pursuits and adventures.
For intimate parties, sizeable families, or groups of friends and associates, we are the perfect escape. Along the Western Slope of the Colorado Rockies, our 400+ square miles of deeded and permitted lands stretch far and away from civilization and provide a welcome respite. From the mountain forests, grasslands, and alpine mesas to the lush meadows
and cold-water streams, the ranch is a mecca for wildlife. At an altitude ranging from 5,000 to 9,000 feet, this is an ecosystem consisting of a large, central valley with astonishingly beautiful mountains and adjoining valleys, each lush and fertile in its own right. The Ranch is located near the small cowboy town of DeBeque, Colorado, a 40-minute drive from Grand Junction’s Walker Field Airport. This is the place where outdoor dreams can and do come true.
If you enjoy sporting pursuits and the very big outdoors, this is your place. The size and scope of the ranch offer many opportunities. Choose one activity or build your own Colorado
The High Lonesome Ranch
HLR Journeys Photograph by Russ Schnitzervacation including as many as you like. Dude Ranch weeks, Sporting Pursuits, Guest Ranch experiences, Weddings, Corporate Group Retreats, Family Reunions, Hunting Leases, and Personal Getaways are all waiting for you.
The High Lonesome Ranch packages are oriented toward year-round outdoors activities. Options include a full dude ranch program, fly-fishing, wing shooting, hiking, mountain biking, big game hunting, nature tours, white-water rafting trips, wild-horse tours, golf, cooking classes, and winery tours.
At The High Lonesome Ranch’s epicenter are the ranch headquarters and cookhouse where we serve warm hospitality and local, farm-totable contemporary western cuisine. Both log buildings are from an authentic, pioneer homestead. The Lonesome Outfitter shop has all the hard and soft goods you’ll need if you’ve forgotten anything from home. Happy hour is held by the stone hearth on the living room’s leather chairs and couches or in the new barn-sized pavilion for larger groups. A private guest business center in our headquarters is complete with a computer and a hard phone line as well as WIFI. There is Internet access at most of our guest quarters. You can choose to be out of reach or in touch. Rough and tumble outdoors complement western luxury accommodations. Exactly as wild as you want is what we promise.
Our Dude Ranch Experience gives you the time and place to explore your family’s western personality. The High Lonesome Dude Ranch is the premier place to make memories that will last a lifetime. The nostalgic
“Exactly as wild as you want is what we promise.”
The High Lonesome Ranch
combination of a Rocky Mountain view with the size of a national park, equestrian activities and culinary adventure creates the perfect setting to discover true western tradition and please everyone in your family. We have an assortment of equestrian activities for riders of all levels. During the week, your family will reconnect and by the end of the western adventure everyone will have a newfound bond. In addition, you will have a new “ranch family” that includes other guests, your wranglers, and especially your horses. Our goal is to provide you with a wonderful trip, great memories, and good stories to share with your friends and family.
To provide a context for the ranch and its goals as an outdoor sporting destination, we have to tell a few words about the bigger
picture. In order to ensure a lasting landscape to share with adventurers as well as our own future generations, we have always been deeply involved with conservation and stewardship.
The ranch became highly attuned to the needs of the land and wildlife through our baseline studies, habitat assessment, and real applied science. Inviting nationally renowned scientists, universities, and conservation groups to partner with us, we are working to create a model of sustainability. A plan that preserves stewardship of this large western landscape, maintains biodiversity and ecological connectivity, enhances the lives of wildlife and fish, and preserves and restores degraded habitat is key.
Our goal is to accomplish all of this while actually using the land
The High Lonesome Ranch
and welcoming a mix of uses. Those are primarily ranching, recreation, and research. That’s a big job. This mission led us to the creation of the High Lonesome Institute, the first institute in the intermountain west for leading universities, scholars and professionals to conduct science studies on a multiple-use working landscape of this size. It is an onsite, world-class institute dedicated to wildlife, wetlands and resource management research, education and outreach.
As the home of the institute, The High Lonesome Ranch will become North America’s largest private land multiple-use outdoor laboratory for the nation’s most prestigious universities. The science being conducted here will have impact far beyond this ranch and even other western lands, providing a forum for dialogue among diverse groups, creating common ground on conservation and sustainable development. Together we can do this. Having shared our bigger mission in the mix of what and who we are, we invite you to come visit us and experience all the ranch has to offer. A national-park-sized landscape and intimate accommodations make for a very peaceful space-to-person ratio. While you’re here, we’ll do our best to make you feel like you own the place.
The High Lonesome Ranch
We are much more
We are a large west
HLR Journeyse than a guest ranch
Guest Ranch because we believe in stewarding this estern landscape and sharing it with others.
recreation
The High Lonesome Ranch
We have a working model of sustainability that maintains biodiversity and ecological connectivity, enhances the lives of wildlife and fish, and preserves and restores degraded habitat. All this is the goal while promoting a mix of uses – primarily ranching, recreation, and research. We want to expose as many people as possible to the ways we do this.
HLR Journeys
Large, resilient ecosystems and committed land stewards are among the best tools we have to conserve biodiversity against a backdrop of rising resource consumption, population growth, urbanization, and climate change. This is why we are here. This is what we want to share.
ranching
rch
The High includes much conservation strategies; an independent Institute engaged in applied science and research; a forum for international dialogue; a leadership role in the Western Landowners’ Alliance (representing over 20 million acres of private land being managed for conservation outcomes) and numerous active partnerships with universities, non-profit organizations, business leaders, policy makers, legislators, and others.
SPRING FIS
The most exc
What’s exactly as wild as you want.
ALL ADULT Opening Wee adult getaway
NEW DUDE
Find your inne in new ways.
K-T RANCH
The White Riv about the Fou
WING SHO
Three species great dogs, se
HLR Journeys’s up in 2016
FISHING
xciting time of year starts in March.
ULT WEEKS
eek of the 2016 Dude Ranch Season will be an way, and again the second week in August.
UDE RANCH ACTIVITIES
nner cowboy and explore your western heritage ys.
CH FISHING SEASON
River and spring creeks make us wait until just ourth of July. And it’s so worth it.
HOOTING
ies of upland game birds, the smell of gun oil, sensory memories of crisp dark mornings.
S porting
Choose from Fly-fishing, Wing Shooting, Dude Ranch Experiences, Big Game Hunting, Hiking, Mountain Biking, Birding, Horseback Riding, Wild Horse Tours, and Sport Shooting. Pick a package or feel free to create your own adventure. We’re here to help you plan a trip that’s exactly as wild as you want.
porting adventures
othing stimulates a healthy trout like spring temperatures. Spring does the same for human souls. This is the most exciting time of year at The High Lonesome Ranch. The western slope of the Colorado Rockies is coming alive. The wild grasses are greening, the wildflowers are blooming, hatches are coming off, and trout are rising. The epic feeding frenzy begins in March.
The epic feeding frenzy begins in March.
Book early to take advantage of Orvis-endorsed spring fishing, because it’s absolutely the most exciting time of year. As soon as the water temps begin to warm the fish come alive and the party begins. Anglers warm up too and finally pack up the gear they’ve been admiring at home just waiting for these first days
out. Our guides help you pick out the biggest cruisers, use your greatest stealthy moves, and have net always ready. When you’re not scanning for a big rainbow, you can look up and out and remember why it’s often said that trout only live in the most beautiful places on earth. Don’t miss it. Call for details.
The High Lonesome Ranch
Early
spring what seems guide how take, which landscape yourself for
Fly-fishing & soul rejuvenation
spring fishing brings the annual epic feeding frenzy after seems like an eternity of winter. It will be up to you and your how to fish each different cascading pool, what approach to which pattern to use. All this happens on a ruggedly scenic that’s one of the prettiest places you’ll ever find to plant for a few days.
The High Lonesome Ranch
Thanks to some overzealous beavers throughout the years, the cold, clear natural springs that once meandered down the valley have been transformed into a series of productive pools. There you’ll land some incredibly large but selective rainbows. Add to the mix a bountiful supply of aggressive browns, a few
HLR Journeysbrookies, and an occasional cutthroat, and on the rare occasion you can complete the grand slam before lunch.
The High Lonesome Ranch is the perfect place for families with kids who want to learn how to fly-fish. At the same time, it can be challenging enough for even the most experienced angler.
The High Lonesome Ranch
HLR Journeys
Access to the pools and creeks is easy and makes them accessible to a wide variety of anglers who would rather fish than tackle the rugged landscapes so typical of some of the larger western rivers. Book your fly-fishing adventure today.
The trout are waiting for you.
The High Lonesome Ranch
HLR Journeys
Expeditions
Explore the diversity around the main ranch and be inspired by some of our big beautiful neighborhood.
Icreating a fly-fishing adventure designed to fit your individual needs and desires.
Now it’s possible. In 2014 the Ranch introduced its new Expeditions Program.
HLR JourneysThe High Lonesome Ranch
When it comes to fly-fishing and wing shooting for individual sportsmen and families alike, The High Lonesome Ranch serves it up with a real western flair.
HLR now features memorable float trips on two of Colorado’s premier fly-fishing rivers: the Roaring Fork and Lower Colorado plus an outstanding hike and wade trip on the Frying Pan. Even though
HLR Journeysfishing these rivers requires a short shuttle, it can all be done while staying at the sprawling main ranch on the Western Slope of the Colorado Rockies.
To explore the best trout fishing in the West, just book one or two days at the ranch, one day at the K-T, and a float trip on the Roaring Fork, or let us help you design your own adventure.
The High Lonesome Ranch
The High Lonesome Ranch
Let us satisfy your angling soul that always wants more. A river is different every time you fish it, but imagine the diversity of three rivers in one trip.
In the height of summer everything is at top performance. The northern hemisphere is running wide open at full speed ahead. Everything is fully alive – the garden is producing, fruits are ripening, kids are out of school, foals are running, grasses are green and lush. The sun is high in the sky and so are our spirits. Summer is a great time at the ranch and it’s in total vacation mode.
SUMMER
SUMMER
Imagine a secluded week of all adult adventure. Laid-back luxury for couples, getaways for grown ups, and women’s gatherings. Fresh air, equine exercise, big skies, outrageous scenery, world-class food, adult beverages around the fire after
All Adults Week.
dinner. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Join us for the opening week of our Dude Ranch season the first week of June. We will be doing it again in August, so you can repeat if you like. Call for details.
The High Lonesome Ranch
Find your Inner Explore
Dude Ranch Weeks
The High Lonesome Ranch
HLR Journeys Photograph by Mark LanceYou’ll ford streams, ride miles of mountain valleys and trails, and drive cattle. A trip to The High Lonesome Dude Ranch will bond your family or group like never before. You’ll also bond with your horse, which is handpicked just for you and chosen to fit your riding ability and temperament.
The High Lonesome Ranch
Explore your western heritage
You will also have a new “ranch family” that includes other guests, your wranglers, and especially your horses. It’s a fun-filled time of activities, great food, and western adventure. We are a working cattle ranch and every day will entertain you. If it’s your first time in the saddle or your 50th year, you’ll have a great time. First of all, you will really get to know your horse and will build a bond learning to work together.
HLR Journeys Photograph by Mark LanceThe High Lonesome Ranch
HLR Journeys Photography by Isaias Michiu Nicolaevici, Mark Lance and othersDude Ranch Weeks
The High Lonesome Ranch
Our Dude Ranch weeks give you time to get to know your horse and form relationships. Our Tenderfoot Experience is an abbreviated trip, and we offer two Adults Only weeks this year. With any choice, you’ll bond with your group and make new friends.
Learn new skills
a western obstacle course, participation in a real cattle drive, team penning, roping, fly-fishing, sporting clays, wild horse viewing, picnics, rafting, swimming, wagon rides, and wildlife viewing. There will never be a dull moment, but you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the company of friends and family, great food. restful sleep, and lots of laughs.
HLR JourneysDude Ranch Weeks
Every day concludes with dinner and a social then a story or game around the fire pit. These are great times to share your day’s adventures. It’s all about making memories that will last a lifetime for you and your group. Call for details.
The High Lonesome Ranch
HLR JourneysPhotograph by Mark Lance“A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautifuland it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence.”
– Pam Brown
The K-T Ranch located just outside Meeker, Colorado, has some mighty special trout water – private spring creeks and big stretches of the fabled White River. Twists, turns, braids, deep cuts, rip rap, seams and under cut banks – its all here. Anglers are drawn to the K-T in early July right after runoff from the winter snows. Big grasshoppers are also drawn to the neighboring farmers’ drying
Knee deep in bliss.
K-T Ranch: A world-class fly-fishing lodge
fields around cutting season. They are plentiful and so are the trout that feast in a frenzy on their annual arrival.
All this plus a comfortable Victorian Lodge with friendly, hospitable staff and hearty meals made from scratch have all the makings of a dream trip.
The High Lonesome Ranch
An intimate freestone
The Ute Indians called River.” Steam rises from fishing during those evenings. In-between
freestone river
called the misty stretch of the White the “Smoking Earth from the river in the spring and in the fall, and anglers those times are shrouded in fog in the mornings and the In-between times are a little slice of magic.
The High Lonesome Ranch
There are seven plus miles of private fishing on the White River, including spring creeks, braids and beaver dams at our K-T Ranch just outside of Meeker, Colorado.
The High Lonesome Ranch
There you’ll discover the White, a freestone river that meanders through some of Colorado’s most fertile farmland. The White is not your typical sprawling western river, it’s an intimate freestone stream, and the fishing is outstanding. The real treat in store for you
HLR Journeys
are the various spring creeks that feed the White. Find aptly named beats like Oz, Jurassic Park, and the Stream of Broken Dreams. Here you can fish for some of the largest specimens of browns and cutbows in the state.
The High Lonesome Ranch
The legendary freestone White River meanders through some of Colorado’s most fertile farmland.
The High Lonesome Ranch
Colorado means color in Italian. In Spanish it means red. In September and October at the Ranch, both meanings apply. From colorful aspens to shorter and cooler days, and red-hot bird hunting in the sage flats, creek bottoms, and oak brush, fall is also a perfect time to fish. The trout are getting ready for winter and feed aggressively. Their colors are beautiful, too, and when you hook one it fights like a champ.
FALL
Fall makes the best memories. Crisp cold mornings with some wispy clouds give way to warm afternoons. Pull on your cold boots, smell the gun oil, finish your coffee and head out. Hunt pheasant, chukar, and quail in tons of acres of pristine upland coverts with a great dog or two. We typically use a brace of dogs–English Pointers and Labrador Retrievers who are perfectly suited to the ranch’s hunting conditions. The diversity of terrain can take you through tall wheat, sorghum, and
The High Lonesome Ranch Days
HLR JourneysPhotography by Mark LanceDaysAfield
Shorter, cooler days, tall grass, and hundreds of acres of pristine upland coverts give a hunter and a dog some of what really matters.
The High Lonesome Ranch
Spectacular large-scale scenery feeds your soul at The High Lonesome Ranch. Western luxury lodging and contemporary farmto-table dining feed your desire for great comfort. Our five-star guest services team is committed to making your trip exactly as wild as you want. Hunt three species of birds in the hundreds of acres of well-established upland coverts. Anticipate rising birds that range
from the wily pheasant to the covey-oriented chukar. Our landscape features quail as well, and enthusiasts have an opportunity to hunt our wide variety of hard-flying game birds every day. HLR
Expeditions now add Fin & Feather Expeditions to the number of options so guests can explore the diversity of other rivers around this big beautiful neighborhood and hunt on the same trip.
The High Lonesome Ranch
“All the sounds of this valley run together into one great echo, a song that is sung by all the spirits of this valley. Only a hunter hears it.”
– Chaim PotokPhotography by Nancy Anisfield and Mark Lance
The High Lonesome Ranch
HLR Journeys
Marian Cole
The High Lonesome Ranch
HLR Journeys
Marian was born and raised in San Francisco. As soon as she could, she made her way to the back of a horse, and that is where she has spent most of her time. Born to ride, Marian made equestrian life her own. She has always been able to build relationships with her horses and has an innate sense and that helps guests feel comfortable on theirs, whether it’s child riding for their first time or a seasoned adult. Marian came to us in our 2012 Dude Ranch Season while still a student at Colorado
State University. She has now earned two degrees as well as our respect and admiration and we are pleased to have her as our new Equestrian Director. Marian has Bachelor of Science Degrees in both Equine and Animal Sciences as well as a minor in Business Administration, she has the credentials as well as the personal charisma, drive, and knowledge of horses we need and appreciate.
"Our guests are always very quick to comment on her knowledge, her caring attitude toward them and our stock and especially her infectious smile and positive attitude," said Scott Stewart, President, Ranch General Manager.
Please join all of us in welcoming Marian to a role that will allow her to continue to win our guests' hearts and be part of their lifelong experiences!
HLR Journeys2016 Adventure
March Spring Fishing, Main Ranch
Fishing, K-T Ranch
Equestrian & Guest Ranch visits
April Spring Fishing, Main Ranch
Fishing, K-T Ranch
Equestrian & Guest Ranch visits
May
Fishing, Main Ranch
Fishing, K-T Ranch
Fly-fishing Expeditions
Dude Ranch Season Kickoff, All Adult Week, June 5-11
Equestrian & Guest Ranch visits
June
Fishing, Main Ranch
Fly-fishing Expeditions
Dude Ranch
Equestrian & Guest Ranch visits
July
Fishing, Main Ranch
Fishing, K-T Ranch
Fly-fishing Expeditions
Dude Ranch
K-T Ranch summer
Equestrian & Guest
August
Fishing, Main ranch
Fishing, K-T Ranch
Fly-fishing Expeditions
Dude Ranch
All Adults Dude
August 16-20
Equestrian & Guest
September
Fishing, Main Ranch
Fishing, K-T Ranch
Fly-fishing Expeditions
Fin & Feather Cast n Blast
Equestrian & Guest
Adventure Calendar
October
Ranch Ranch
Expeditions
summer fishing opens
Guest Ranch visits
Fishing, Main Ranch
Fishing, K-T Ranch
Fly-fishing Expeditions
Fin & Feather Expeditions
Cast n Blast
Wing Shooting
Equestrian & Guest Ranch visits
ranch Ranch
Expeditions
Dude Ranch Week, 16-20
Guest Ranch visits
November
Fly-fishing Expeditions
Fin & Feather Expeditions
Wing Shooting
Equestrian & Guest Ranch visits
December
Guest Ranch visits
Holiday visits
Ranch Ranch
Expeditions
Expeditions
Guest Ranch visits
Wing Shooting
THE HIGH LONESOME RANCH
Journeys
HLR Journeys
“There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholoy, and its charm.”
–Theodore RooseveltPhotograph by Isaias Michiu Nicolaevici