Snow Mountain Ranch, Colorado - January 8th to 11th, 2024
Snow Mountain Ranch is a YMCA retreat in the mountains near Granby, Colorado. In the winter, there are lovely snow shoe and cross country ski trails to explore, with lodge rooms and cabins to rent for overnight stays. We rented a cabin for three nights, sharing it with our friends Dave and Sandy.
Monday morning, we headed up to Snow Mountain Ranch. On the way out of town, we stopped at Jax to pick up a couple of items, most importantly hand and foot warmers. The weather forecast called for cold temperatures.
There was a light dusting of snow on the ground when we left home. The roads were not too bad. They were dry in some places, wet in other places, and snow-packed in yet other places. Being a weekday, the traffic was not as heavy as it can be on weekends due to the ski traffic. The other vehicles threw a lot of dirt and moisture onto our windshield. We went through a lot of windshield washer fluid as we were constantly cleaning our windshield so we could see.
The worst road conditions were up and over Berthoud Pass. As long as we took it slow, it was not that bad. The hair pin turns require low speeds anyway. The road is much better now than when we first moved to Colorado back in the 1990’s. Back then, it was a narrow, two-lane road with no guard rails along the steep drop offs. Berthoud Pass was one of our first experiences driving in the mountains, in snow storms. We remember how nerve wracking that was. Now the road is wider, even three lanes in many places, with wide shoulders and guard rails. The pass seems so much easier to drive now. Of course, part of that may be due to all of the mountain driving experience we have accumulated over the years since then.
We reached Snow Mountain Ranch around lunch time. Our cabin was not quite ready yet, so we couldn’t check in. We had driven Heidi, our VW ID.4 EV vehicle. The charge was down to 44%. Snow Mountain Ranch provided some Level 2 chargers a quarter of a mile down the road from the Admin Building, free of charge. So we hooked Heidi up to a charger and walked back to the Admin Building to have lunch. Temperatures were in the low teens and we didn’t have our warm clothes on yet. Thankfully, it was a short walk.
In the Admin building are also lodge rooms, a gift shop, and the Buckboard Grill. The grill had hoagies and pizza along with a few other items. We both chose a hoagie for our lunch. They were pretty tasty. Before we finished our meal, our friends Dave and Sandy showed up and joined us.
After lunch, we drove down to the Nordic Center to check it out. The Nordic Center building was previously used by Camp Chief Ouray during the summer. Both of our kids went to the summer camps when they were young. Plaques still hung on the walls with the names of the participants in the summer camp counselor training programs. We found our daughter’s name on one of the Wrangler In Training (WIT) plaques. That brought back wonderful memories.
While we were at the Nordic Center, we got a call that our cabin was ready, so we drove back up to the Admin Building to check in. By the time we got settled in to our cabin, there was only about an hour of daylight left. Dave decided to throw on his gear and go for a quick ski. The rest of us decided to just go for a short walk.
The trails were not far from the cabins. There were a couple of places where you could cut over to the ski and snow shoe trails from the cabins, some were easier than others. As the sun started to set, we headed back to our cabin.
The cabin is pretty nice. The one we rented was a three bedroom, two bath cabin. It is larger than what we needed for the four of us since it sleeps seven, but none of the smaller cabins were available when we made our reservation. The cabins include linens and a fully equipped kitchen along with a gas fireplace and wifi. There was even an outside outlet where we could plug Heidi in. This is not roughing it by any stretch of imagination. The icing on the cake were the views from the cabin. They were spectacular.
After dinner, we played Chinese checkers. Our friends brought along a nice handmade wooden Chinese checkers board. We haven’t played Chinese checkers since we were kids. It didn’t take long to remember how to play. Thanks, Sandy and Dave, for bringing back such great memories and creating new ones.
Tuesday, we all got outside to ski and snow shoe, but not all together. Keith signed up for a cross country ski lesson at 11 am at the Nordic Center. He drove Heidi over there for his lesson. Dave and Sandy skied from our cabin over to the Nordic Center along the trails and met Keith for lunch before skiing back to the cabin. After lunch, Keith went back out on the trails for a little bit to practice what he learned during his lesson before driving back to the cabin.
Meanwhile, Ann went snowshoeing. She doesn’t ski anymore, downhill nor cross-country, because of a bad knee that she doesn’t want to risk re-injuring. She decided to snow shoe the Nine Mile Mountain snow shoe trail, starting from the cabin. Since she was by herself, she took along her Garmin InReach (paid link) so she could keep Keith informed of her progress.
She started out with foot warmers in her boots, but only needed her lighter gloves, ski mask and head band instead of her warm mittens and thick hat. The trail was uphill all the way to the top. Ann was feeling the altitude. We were close to 9000 feet in elevation and she was feeling it on the way up. Ann needed to stop frequently to catch her breath.
The panoramic views from the trail were breathtaking. Ann stopped at the top to eat a quick snack. She took off her gloves a couple of times and her fingers quickly started to get cold and numb. Since she would be going downhill on the way back, she switched to her warm mittens and added hand warmers to get her fingers warmed back up. She also put up her puffy coat hood to trap in more heat. It took a little while, but she eventually warmed back up on the climb down. She didn’t have to stop as often on the way back as there was no need to catch her breath.
In total, Ann went 3.6 miles with an elevation gain of 758 feet in two hours and 42 minutes. It took her an hour and a half to reach the top and only an hour to come back down. Even though Keith was not with her, she counted it as hike number one of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2024. She figured Keith did approximately the same amount of effort while he was skiing.
In the evening, we all enjoyed a couple games of Euchre, a card game popular in the mid-west, where all four of us grew up. Even though it had been a while since we’ve played, all our old strategies quickly came back to us. We ended the evening in a tie, so we agreed to resume our friendly competition the following evening.
The temperatures were about the same on Wednesday, but the winds were gusting in the morning, making it feel like the temperatures were below zero. Dave and Sandy ventured out to walk the roads around the cabins. They were bundled up enough that they remained comfortable. We decided to wait until after lunch, when the winds were predicted to calm down.
After lunch, all four of us braved the cold. Keith drove over to the Nordic Center to ski the easy green trails to practice his technique. Dave and Sandy donned their skis and hit the trails right from our cabin. Ann snow shoed the trail that led to a waterfall. There was a fresh layer of snow on the trails and she was the only one on the snow shoe trails that day. Breaking trail took more effort and slowed down her pace. She didn’t make it to the waterfall before she decided she needed to turn around. She didn’t want to be caught out in the cold as the sun set. Her trek was 2.9 miles with an elevation gain of 282 feet which she completed in two hours and 26 minutes. She recorded it as hike number two of our 52 Hike Challenge.
On the way back, Ann crossed paths with Dave and Sandy. They decided to follow Ann on the snow shoe trail back to our cabin. Ann appreciated the company. She tried to keep up a good pace, thinking she would be slowing down Dave and Sandy and she didn’t want them to get cold. When we got back to the cabin, she found out that they were tired and struggling to keep up with her. How funny!
Keith soon joined everyone back at the cabin. We had another evening of good food, good conversations, and good Euchre playing. We turned a stick into a Euchre trophy where we kept track of who won each game.
Check out time was 10 am on Thursday. We managed to have our cars packed up by 9:30 am and drove over to the Nordic Center to get a quick ski and snow shoe in before driving home. Sandy was considering snow shoeing with Ann, but didn’t feel very well that morning. Instead, Sandy hung out inside the Nordic Center. Ann would have loved Sandy’s company, but it wasn’t worth getting her sick.
Keith and Dave skied together. They went over to the biathlon shooting range, pretending to take shots at the targets. Then they skied a couple of penalty loops before moving on down the trail. Keith has been a long time fan of the biathlon starting when he was a kid.
Ann snowshoed up to the Gold Mine on the Totally Wired Trail. She didn’t see where the mine was, but there were expansive, gorgeous views from the trail where she turned around. There was even more fresh snow on the trail that morning which gave her quite a workout. She sunk down into the snow about a foot or more in places. She covered 2.6 miles with an elevation gain of 276 feet in just over two hours. Even though it was short, it was a lot of effort, so it became hike number three of our 52 Hike Challenge.
We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the Nordic Center before hitting the road. The cafe was closed, but there was a microwave, so we could heat up the soup we had with us. However, we didn’t have utensils to eat it with. Luckily, Sandy had brought plasticware from home that she let us borrow. Thank you, Sandy!
Despite the snow that had fallen the past couple of days, the roads were not bad. In fact, the roads were in better condition than on our drive up on Monday. The sun was shining as we drove over Berthoud Pass. The sun, coupled with the fresh snow covering the tree branches, made for some spectacular views. The perfect ending to a wonderful trip.
As a side note, we really noticed the difference in elevation gain during the drive up versus the drive back home. Heidi got us home while using only 40% of her battery power, while she needed 66% of her battery to get us up to Snow Mountain Ranch. According to Google Maps, the drive is about 90 miles with an elevation gain of about 8500 feet to get there with only about 5000 feet of gain on the way back. We normally just drive Heidi around town, so it was interesting to see how she did on a longer trip, especially over mountain passes..
We had a wonderful time despite the cold temperatures. Ann’s toes are sensitive to the cold, but being prepared and being smart about it, she didn’t have any problems. Enjoying the outside, even in winter, is what we like to do. Sharing the experience with friends makes it even better.
Check out our related video: Snow Mountain Ranch, Colorado
(Ann)