Home on the Range

The Mister and I are off to Steamboat for the weekend to visit Little Sister and BIL. We have a hectic weekend of nephew-cuddling, hiking, BBQing, and sleeping in planned.

BIL's family has been ranching in the Yampa Valley since the late 1800s. His Grandma is the Grand Dame of Steamboat and is regularly profiled in magazines and newspapers. BIL's family is committed to preserving the ranching traditions in an area that has very quickly become a popular tourist destination and a town where you have to have at least a million dollars to get into the housing market. Here are a few pictures:

Little Sister and BIL got married in the meadow. This is where they had their ceremony.

The cows live on some very valuable and beautiful real estate.

This is the original homestead (built in the late 1800s). It's known as "The Bunkhouse". Little Sister and BIL lived there for a year before they bought their house. You can see the chinking in between the logs. It's heated in the winter by a cute little cast iron stove.


This is one of the barns on the property. It's in a bad state so they use it only for hay storage. BIL hangs Christmas lights off of it during the winter because you can see it from across the valley.

I will take more pictures this weekend. Grandma's house (the main building) has a wonderful story and history, too. Then of course there's the hot springs, the marmots, T-bone the crazy ranch dog...it's a good thing our camera holds lots of pictures!