Home On The Deranged

Bear Basin offers a variety of quality outdoor adventure vacations for all ages and abilities. They ride alpine trails, explore lush valleys and remote mountaintops, all on Colorado mountain trained horses.

On their three and five day camp trips, the camps are comfortable and the food delicious. They offer information on  the history, flora, geology and wildlife of the ancient Wet Mountains, the towering Sangre de Cristos and the mysterious Great Sand Dunes National Park. You can ride or raft and relax around the campfire afterwards. The wrangler guides are educated, dedicated, experienced leaders.

Driving through Westcliffe, Colorado, you get an idea of the rugged terrain ahead of you when you glimpse the dramatic Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  For my first ride  I was generously offered Amy's grey mountain paso Centenillo, who you could describe as an SUV with four hooves and a gait. I mean this was no spindly paso fino, this was a chunk, with developed chest and hip, a smooth reaching gait, and the sure-footedness of a mule. I was glad for that as we climbed high into some very high, very rugged cougar country. Rock walls rose hundreds of feet above us, decorated with the black-eyed caves of bear and mountain lion. Gary carried his pistol at his side, just in case.  

A bear threatened a neighbor that night so the next day Gary and I saddled up and rode far across the ranch to check on his cows and calves. We passed a historic mine and cabin, The Bluebird Mine, and several old mine entrances, one of which had swallowed up a horse the year before. The ranch has a rich history, from being the summer hunting ground of the Utes, to mining and potato farming, to being the home of horse trader and trainer Lee Jones, Gary's mentor.  

Wherever we went following us was a giant black Great Dane named Guinness, who added to the moveable eye feast in an odd, big-dog way. We located the cows and calves in a draw and started to push them back to a big pasture nearer ranch headquarters, where they could be kept track of better. Guinness helped, or so he thought. Mostly he terrified the momma cows who thought, rightly so, that he should be out lion hunting (since that's what Danes were bred for). Every time he came near their precious calves, about half his size, the momma cows whirled and ran at him. His big ears would flop and flap as he wheeled grinning away from them. Then he'd go slop around in some arroyo water and drool for a while. Life is good for a dog on Bear Basin ranch.

As we drove the desultory cattle back at their glacial pace, Gary and I talked about ranch history and horses, my favorite subjects. It was a long ride, and that night I welcomed a cold drink on the porch of their 1886 farm house. You couldn't find anything more delightful than sitting on that porch, looking out at a huge meadow or rich green grass dotted with fat horses and mule deer wandering down from the pine trees. The sky darkened and the stars came out in the trillions. We kicked back and listened to Gary strum his guitar and sing some old songs.

I bunked down with a view of the mountains and the smell of saddles to go to sleep to. I woke up to seeing a big handsome bay momma mare come in to the corrals with her beautiful colt at her side. It's hard for me to get those images out of my mind - the dramatic mountains, the green meadows, the rushing rivers, the slick, contented horses in every color....

Check out Gary and Amy's horse trips at http://bearbasinpacktrips.com/horse-adventures.html or http://www.adventurespecialists.org/colo.htm