Rio Blanco Home Sweet Home.

Welcome to Rio Blanco Ranch! First some quick history. because I know how much of you all love history. Originally homesteaded in 1896 by Samuel Himes, Rio Blanco was then named Elk Ranch, until it was sold to a consortium of investors in 1926. At that time the people established the ranch as a corporation and as an operating club. Eighty years later Rio Blanco remains as a premier private hunting and fishing ranch in NW Colorado. You can actually see the ranch on a map or atlas, Seriously! Go ahead and go grab that seventy page Rand Mcnally you have sitting at the bottom of a pile some where in your den, living room etc.. Look for Meeker than head east through the White River National Forest just before Trappers Lake, you will see a peninsula of white surrounded by a sea of green. That florida shaped spire is privately owned Rio Blanco Ranch. The ranches shareholders numbering roughly thirty-one in all, form a board to decide on the introduction of new members into the club as well as make overall decisions of the ranch itself. The ranch holds true to its rustic elegance, unlike many of the ranches we have visited or worked at previously. Rio Blanco has no need for large manicured spaces or finely tuned lawns. The pull here is the fish. Trout inundate the White River as it bends and winds in serpentine fashion through our eleven miles of ranch property. This coupled with Rainbow Lake which teems with fish from every corner creates a fisherman's paradise. Unfortunately, it seems that I have a new set of gear to buy and a new sport to learn. The Art of Fly. Especially if I have any intention to take over a lodge or ranch in the West, I will most certainly need to bone up on my fly fishing. The road from Meeker to the ranch winds you down thirty miles of pristine national forest land or public land, either way you look at it the land of the people. All the while you follow the White River, as always follow the water, the water will lead you home. Once you pass mile marker thirty something familiar happens to the road, the pavement ends and the dirt begins. For me this is always a welcome sight, for dirt roads generally lead to seclusion and beauty, unless however. It seems that this summer will be no different. I haven't had a seasonal job yet that was not located directly off of a dirt road. Perhaps from now on that should be one of my qualifying questions for perspective new employers. Traveling down this dirt and stone covered road I start to notice these little white signs on the side of the road. Spaced apart every twenty yards or so they state "No Trespassing, Hunting or Fishing Private Property. Rio Blanco Ranch Co. Home Sweet Home! Ten miles down the dirt a road juts off to the left and descends further into the valley, the signal that you are apporaching the ranch land is the simply stated RBR on the mailbox at the turn off otherwise you would not know what is there
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Pulling into a new home is always exciting and a little nerve wracking. You have no idea where you are going nor do you really know anyone, aside from the GM but even him you have never actually met before. Pulling up to Rio Blanco was no different. We were arriving early, Angie and I decided to cut our trip a little short, as living out of the car for two weeks can become quite stressful. Especially when you have our life packed in around you as well. We had called the ranch that afternoon to make sure our arrival that evening would be ok. Josh, our GM, stated that of course it was ok but that he would not be there to greet us. However, hopefully there should be someone there to tell us where to go. Great! Our first reactions of the ranch were not as encouraging as Mountain Sky last year. Although the ranch does not have the same manicured well taken care of effect that MS had they seem to like it that way here. We have the money and the manpower to make it that way, but it seems the owners have no need for such a well taken space. The ranch is for the most part brand new, undergoing a near ten million dollar renovation a few years ago. It now has a brand new lodge and a host of new cabins. One of which, Aspen, I sit and write this now. Terrible view I know. Interestingly enough, the new lodge looks eerily like the old lodge. Which begs me to wonder if the owners are so stuck in their ways that perhaps they are merely afraid of change. Maybe, this non-changing landscape of Rio Blanco is almost a welcoming sigh every year. As the world around them continues to forge on through the 21st century, this place will always be stuck in the 20th and that is exactly how they like it.