Posts Tagged ‘Creede’
January 5th, 2011 by 4ur admin
We are pleased to announce that we’ll open our 2011 season with a special workshop at our Family Vacation Ranch in Creede, Colorado. Local artist Stephen Quiller will lead the workshop Working Sketches to Finished Water Media Paintings the week of June 5 – 11, 2011.
Stephen Quiller is a gifted artist and teacher who has lived and worked in Creede for more than forty years. Participants will spend time painting both in the studio and outside in the glorious mountainous setting of our Colorado Guest Ranch. Working sketches created in the field will be brought back to the studio and used to develop large finished works.
When not working on art, participants will have time to enjoy the many amenities of our vacation ranch. Hike, horseback ride, bike, and fish your way through your free time. Play a round of golf at the Rio Grande Club, soak in our hot spring spa, or unwind with a massage. We’ll do all we can to make your stay enjoyable and unforgettable.
Please visit Quiller Gallery for more information on Stephen Quiller and to see examples of his work. Contact the ranch for more details or to sign up for the workshop with Stephen Quiller at our Colorado Vacation Ranch.
Tags: Colorado vacation ranch, Creede, painting workshop, Quiller Gallery, Stephen Quiller
Posted in Cultural Events | Comments Off
December 15th, 2010 by 4ur admin
We’re lucky to have a town like Creede so close to our Rocky Mountains Vacation Dude Ranch. For many ranchers, holiday shopping means the internet or days in the car. Not so us.
Hidden wonders in Creede, Colorado.
Creede has been awarded the Governor’s Arts Award for its efforts to improve the community and grow economically through the arts. Creede could have dried up and died with the mine, but it didn’t. Instead, members of the community looked around and saw beautiful land and a great deal of potential.
The Creede Repertory Theatre was established in 1966 to help draw people to the area during the summer; today it creates award-winning production and draws 20,000 theatre-goers to town each year. Artists and authors with international followings live here, along with a talented bunch of artists whose fame is more regional.
Kiera Gibbons, wife of Head Wrangler Damon Gibbons, owns and operates the Creede Beadery. Many guests of our Family Dude Ranch have taken home a piece of wearable art (made by their own hands) thanks to Kiera and the Creede Beadery. In addition, there are ceramics at Abbey Lane gallery and a fabulous collection of jewelry, antiques and rare natural wonders at Rare Things.
We’re lucky we can head over to Creede to shop for Christmas. Many of you will have to wait until next season, when you return to our guest ranch. See you then!
Tags: Abbey Lane, Creede, Creede Beadery, Creede Repertory Theater, Rare Things
Posted in Creede Co | Comments Off
December 10th, 2010 by 4ur admin
A handful of settlers began farming at Wagon Wheel Gap in the early 1840s, and within a few decades, Wagon Wheel Gap was a popular destination for fishermen. Other tourists soon followed, seeking the curative waters of the local hot springs; the original bathhouse from that time is still at our Colorado dude ranch.
Things changed dramatically in 1890, when a high-grain vein of silver was found on Willow Creek. The population swelled quickly to 10,000 (more than ten times what the population of Mineral County is today) as tent camps and towns grew with miners, saloons, hotels, etc. It seemed that fortunes were made overnight, and as long as the mines produced silver and people paid for it, there was prosperity in Creede.
Delve under the rocks of the Southern Rockies.
The last mine in Creede closed in 1985, but the legacy of the Creede silver mines is visible throughout Creede and Mineral County. Consider delving into this interesting subject the next you travel to our Southern Rockies Vacation Dude Ranch. The Underground Mining Museum in Creede was never a functioning mine, but it was carved out of the rock by a few Creede miners. The museum and community center are completely underground, and offer visitors a rare glimpse into the life of a miner.
Tags: Creede, history, hot springs, Underground MIning Museum
Posted in Colorado History | Comments Off
November 2nd, 2010 by 4ur admin
Many guests of our Creede Colorado dude ranch look forward to spending one day of their dude ranch vacation hiking the Colorado Rockies. The La Garita Mountains, a high sub-range of the San Juans, are all around us, and provide many outstanding hiking opportunities.
One of these is nearby Phoenix Peak, also called Creede Crest or Gwynedd Mountain. Since it doesn’t have one specific name it is officially known as Unnamed 13895; it is also the second highest unnamed peak in Colorado. Whatever you call it, it is located just south of the continental divide in the La Garita Wilderness of the Rio Grande National Forest.
Read the rest of this page »
Tags: Creede, hiking, La Garita Wilderness, Phoenix Peak, Rio Grande Naional Forest, rocky mountains
Posted in Family Ranch Vacation | Comments Off
September 20th, 2010 by 4ur admin
The last week of the 2010 Season at our Family Dude Ranch is also the last week of the 2010 Season at the Creede Repertory Theatre.
Stephen Cole Hughes in The 39 Steps.
We feel so fortunate to have such an outstanding theatre company so close to our SW Colorado Guest Ranch. It makes it possible for our guests to spend a day out in nature and still catch a show in the evening. Given the remote locations of many guest ranches, we’re lucky our guests can fly fish or horseback ride by day and spend the night at the theatre.
It is possible to attend three different plays at the Creede Repertory Theatre this week. If you can’t decide, see them all.
The 39 Steps is based on the novel by John Buchan, the movie by Alfred Hitchcock, and an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. Four actors take on 150 + characters in what the New York Times has called an “absurdly enjoyable” spoof. It runs the 21st and the 23rd at 7pm, and the 25th at 2pm.
This Day and Age, by Nagle Jackson, is a “smart comedy about family, independence, and 30 year-old adolescents returning to the nest”. It runs September 22 and 24 at 7pm.
Finally, The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, by Quincy Long, is “an existential odyssey worthy of the Coen Brothers”. It will bring tears of laughter to your eyes September 22 and 25 at 7pm.
For more information about the Creede Repertory Theatre, or to purchase tickets, please visit their website.
Tags: colorado, Creede, Creede Repertory Theatre
Posted in Cultural Events | Comments Off
May 20th, 2010 by 4ur admin
Hello to all of you! We are really getting into the swing of things here. It is only a few more weeks until we start hosting Dude Ranch vacations in the lush valley of Goose Creek. In preparation for all the great new and returning guests, I thought it would be a good time to post a map with some of our favorite places to spend your time regionally, if you can manage to drag yourself off the guest ranch. We are looking forward to the summer, and hope you are too!
View Creede CO Points of Interest in a larger map
Tags: arts, Creede, map, off-ranch, recreation, Southern Colorado
Posted in Community Outreach | Comments Off
October 1st, 2009 by 4ur admin
Fall is in the air! At 7,500 feet elevation, you can feel it come on quick here! It is crisp everywhere, and our Hot Springs are more and more delicious in the cool evenings.
Soon it will just be our core staff at the ranch, and the horses of course. This is an important time to allow for Goose Creek to re-coop for next summers Fly Fishing Vacations. Soon the town of Creede will be reduced to the few steadfast year-round residents.
The Creede Repertory Theater closed at the end of August, so all the big stars are out of town as well. Soon we will have the San Juan Mountains all to our self. We work hard to maintain this precious land for the year to come. We want the fields to be green and plentiful to supply the horses in the spring and throughout the summer if possible. Plus, the better care we can take, the better the valley will look for horseback riding vacations in the summer.
A wet winter and spring make for wildflowers and green hillsides
Soon the snows will come, and there will be a whole new reason to visit Colorado! The skiers and snowboarders will ascend the mountains in search of thrills. We will watch our beautiful valley change as the snows come, and wait, not too differently from hibernating bears, for the spring to come again.
Please feel free to contact us over the winter; we will still be here to answer phones and emails about summertime Rocky Mountain Vacations. We’ll just be carrying hot chocolate instead of ice cold pop.
Tags: Creede, Creede Repertory Theater, elevation, fall, Fly Fishing, goose creek
Posted in Seasons at the Ranch | Comments Off
August 27th, 2009 by 4ur admin
As the summer approaches an end, it can be fun to start thinking about the fun crafts that keep us entertained during the long winter months. For those of us that are artistically inclined, one place you will want to visit in Creede, CO is the Quiller Gallery. Artist, owner and teacher Stephen Quiller is renowned for his work on color theory and watercolor media. His studio is open for classes, has artist supplies and his books for sale and of course pieces of his work for sale. He is best known for his innovative approach to watermedia painting: watercolor, gouche, acrylic, casein and their combinations, and for his use of color. He has written five books in the years from 1983 to 1999, including Color Choices, Acrylic Painting Techniques & Painter’s Guide to Color.
Quiller’s research and development of a color wheel for painters called the “Quiller Wheel” is now used by thousands of painters throughout the world. Similarly, he has painted subjects and locations all over the world, but enjoys most the picturesque Southern Colorado landscapes that make up his home. Quillers’ subjects include beaver ponds, snow shadows, water patterns and wild iris, which are the same natural wonders that our guests enjoy during their Dude Ranch vacations at 4UR.
4UR Ranch: A Potential Stephen Quiller Landscape?
Quiller is a Signature member of the American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor Society, Rocky Mountain National Watermedia, and Society for Painters in Acrylic and Casein, among others. In 1997, he received the Greathouse medal and cash award in the 130th American Watercolor Society exhibition.
Although he is not offering any workshops in Creede before the season ends here at 4UR ranch, taking a trip to the quaint town of Creede is a great activity on your family ranch vacation. Visit his workshop and take home a stunning piece of the San Juan mountains to remember your trip. Quiller does an amazing job at capturing the light on the landscape, and maybe a painting from his painting series will help you remember the relaxing moments by the creek during your Fly Fishing vacation.
Tags: Colorado vacation ranch, Creede, painting workshop, Quiller Gallery, Stephen Quiller
Posted in Dude Ranch News, Guest Ranch News | Comments Off
July 17th, 2009 by 4ur admin
Things at the 4UR are rolling right along through this lovely summer. With July slipping away, we had a great Independence Day here at the Dude ranch; the chef prepared a Southern BBQ with all the trimmings! It was really a feast, and with all the riding and fishing that goes on around here, a good hearty lunch is appreciated by all!
Most of the guests went into Creede for a fireworks show, the town nearest our horseback riding vacation ranch. If you haven’t ever been into the little oasis of Creede, that town is bound to surprise you! It is full of great little artist and artisan shops that reflect the creative and unique community where our ranch is set.
Watching the lights and fireworks playing off the cliffs in North Creede was really a sight to behold!
A Late Summer has left 4UR Ranch green and lush
We, as always, have lots of repeat guests come for their Rocky Mountain vacation at 4UR. Joan Shelton was with us this month. She has been coming to our ranch at Wagon Wheel Gap since she was nine; and now she brings her grandchildren! She is such an extraordinary person, and we were thrilled to see her again! This year we also have new and diverse guests from California, Oregon, Kentucky & Florida. It is great to see the 4UR family grow, and to be able to share this special valley with more folks.
We have had a friendly visitor to our dumpster lately; a bear continues to come scrounging around for scraps, and it is now even showing up in the daylight sometimes! The bear is definitely a fascination to the kids, but our great kids counselors keep them at a safe distance.
It has really started to get hot here in Creede CO. For a few weeks there, we were wondering if Mother Nature had decided to skip summer completely and just go straight from Spring to Fall. The pool is becoming a very popular spot! We have a Mexican food lunch out there on Wednesdays, and it is becoming quite the Fiesta!
Tags: BBQ, bear, colorado, Creede, dude ranch, Horseback Riding, Rocky Mountain vacation, summer
Posted in Dude Ranch News, Family Ranch Vacation | Comments Off
