Ride Overview
Our ride in Colorado is truly a unique ride and one that you won’t find anywhere else. Located in the Sangre De Cristo mountains of southern Colorado, your base for the week is a private family owned ranch situated on 36,000 acres (private) of preserved wilderness and is surrounded by an additional 500,000 acres of private and publicly conserved lands.
The Ranch is an easy drive from either Denver (4 hours), Albuquerque (4 hours) or Colorado Springs (3 hours) and sits at an elevation is 8,100 feet. The mountain peaks on the ranch reach to just below 14,000 feet and many have patches of snow year round. Mid-summer weather is mild in the valley bottoms so the days of riding and exploring the land on nearly 100 miles of maintained trails and primitive roads are lovely – but be prepared – snow and hail can be experienced any month in the high-country. During the week, you’ll ride some of the best guest horses you’ll find anywhere. They are carefully bred to produce the ideal “mountain horse”, sure-footed enough to handle the mountain trails with ease and grace, steady enough to care for a nervous greenhorn, and athletic and responsive enough to delight a discerning expert.
If your sense of adventure is keen – your week at the ranch can include a 2-3 night pack trip to relax under that stars, experience more remote parts of the ranch and truly get a feel for disconnecting and taking in all the wondrous parts of this range. ***This must be booked in advance, it is not possible to do it onsite.
In addition to riding, four year-round tributaries of the Purgatoire River begin on the ranch and there are several high-country lakes, all of which are favorite destinations for riding, hiking, jeeping and fishing.
Dates: May-October weekly – Sunday to Saturday
Rate: $2,400.00 per person **Note: each room has a sink and 2-3 rooms share a separate bath. There is no room service provided however clean linens are always available.
Included
- 6 nights accommodation
- 5 days of riding
- All meals
- Horse and all tack
- Guiding services
- All local taxes
Not Included
- Airfare
- Travel Insurance
- Transfers to the ranch
- Alcoholic beverages (you may bring your own or use their bar)
- Gratuities for the team at the end of the stay
Sherry & Dick B.
We had such a wonderful time at the BarNI Ranch! We have recommended it as a vacation place to our friends. They gave us our own cabin, while we were there. An unexpected bonus. I say cabin, but it was so much more than that. It is nestled along a babbling brook with a gorgeous view of the ranch. We went over to the main lodge for our meals and for company. Guests came and went during our one week stay. Most of the others were only there for 3 or 4 nights. With the casual dining room atmosphere, we were able to get to know them and hear, about their “real” lives. Very interesting. We love meeting people from all over. I think everyone else had been to the ranch before, and couldn’t wait to get back there again.
The food was fantastic! Colorful and varied, with local favorites part of the menu. All fresh, many of the herbs and vegetables were locally grown. Plenty of it and delicious. We couldn’t have asked for better cuisine. The kitchen staff was friendly and polite, with interesting lives of their own.
The ranch has so many horses! Each one nicer than the next. The wranglers were knowledgeable and helpful. Real cowboys, I have never met anyone like that before. You could ride the same horse or a different one each day. They matched us up with suitable mounts. We participated in two riding clinics with a local natural horsemanship trainer, Ben. An unexpected bonus. We took home some of things we learned to use with our own horses.
The scenery was amazing. It was challenging in places, but all of it was breathtakingly beautiful. We were probably lucky with the weather, it was pretty green out there. They said it had rained more than usual. But we only got a light rain on us in the day time once, I think. Also, got to see the eclipse!
Some of the other “regular” guests shared stories about the ranch and local information about the unique geological structure of the area and about local flora and fauna, including a “swarm” of hummingbirds. We had a visit from a bear. Turkeys everywhere, grouse, and deer.
We both felt so relaxed. It was exactly the type of vacation we were looking for. Thank you for setting this up for us. We loved it!