An unapologetic plant geek shares advice and opinions on gardening, the contrived and the natural landscape, as well as occasional topics from the other side of the gate.

August 26, 2009

The Never Summer Ranch

Near the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park lies the Kawuneeche Valley. Towering over the valley are the Never Summer Mountains, which I think is a great name even though summer does pay a visit, albeit brief. In 1917 German immigrants Sophia and John Holzwarth settled here after their Denver bar was closed due to prohibition. They soon turned their working ranch into a dude ranch named appropriately enough The Never Summer Ranch. Here they hosted city folk who wanted to hunt, fish, ride horses and generally play cowboys and cowgirls. In the early seventies the ranch became property of the National Park Service, which has now designated it as the Holzwarth Historic Site. Several of the older buildings from the original home site have been preserved and are open for tours. However, the newer lodge buildings located in the meadow were removed so the area could return to its natural state.

The first shot is looking south down the valley, across the meadow towards the town of Grand Lake. I kept expecting to hear dramatic music rise as Lorne Greene approached on horseback.


This little stream is actually the Colorado River only a few miles from its source. The picture below and the one that follows it were taken within yards of each other. Looking north a fast approaching storm was moving in, and to the south postcard skies.





Ligularia bigelovii - Bigelow's Groundsel

Oxytropis splendens - Showy Locoweed

Potentilla fruticosa - Shrubby Cinquefoil

Further up the valley we stopped late in the day at an area called Beaver Ponds. The setting sun was playing off the water and illuminating the emerging insects into little points of darting light.




Next Colorado Post: Lost Among The Lodgepoles

30 comments:

  1. You will have us all heading to Colorado, Les. Coming from Austin, I have to say that "Never Summer" sounds pretty good to me.

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  2. It does look very Bonanza-ish. Les, the photos are wonderful. I love those blue skies.

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  3. Now when my family had to close down their booze and brothel.....they just started a home brew business up in the hills of NC. I don't think they lost any customers.

    I've been to your Bonanza sight and I think I took the same picture of one of the rocks in the stream. I recognized the it.

    Excellent post! Extraordinary pictures.

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  4. I agree with Phillip that it looks like the set of Bonanza. The first photo of the Beaver Pond is really really pretty.

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  5. I love the name Never Summer too. I especially like the 3rd photo -- so spectacular, the clarity of the water, the majestic mountains, and the dramatic sky.

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  6. Pam,
    My friends in Co. said that the state was unusually popular with Texans.

    Phillip,
    The skies were indeed beautiful. I am glad you liked the photos.

    Anna,
    I hope your family's enterprise is still working out. I bet you were able to see a lot more of Colorado when you were stationed there.

    Janet,
    The Beaver Pond was a last minute stop and ended up resulting in some of my favorite photos.

    Sweet Bay,
    Thanks for the compliments, I really appreciate them.

    Les

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  7. Early in my marriage i tried to talk Mr I into moving to Colorado...It still looks great to me Les. Your photos are wonderful! gail

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  8. !!!!!!

    Beautiful post. I almost forgot I was stuck amid the muck and the humidity of Virginia!

    Hey, what Kraftwerk album should I start with?

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  9. Tracy,
    I would love to be "stuck" outside of C-ville. Definately start with Kraftwerk's Autobahn. It will sound better in a German made care travelling on the interstate. It is not necessarily good couch music.

    Les

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  10. Hey Les, I'm an old friend of yours. I just ran across your blog and your pix and the accompanying writing which is all beautiful. I didn't get a summer vacation this year so the Never Summer tag seems to apply to me. Thanks for sharing your good times. Send me an e-mail sometime. Your old buddy, Mariellen

    www.mariellen.com

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  11. Hey Les, I tagged you for a Meme award. Please visit my blog today. H. P.S. it was kinda hard to do, but rewarding.

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  12. Les — I haven't been to Colorado for more than 30 years and your series has me longing to return in a way I never would have expected. I know the views and scenery are spectacular in themselves, but I don't think you've taken a bad shot yet!

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  13. Les, your photographs are stunning works of art, several of which look like a painting. The Pacific northwest offers much in the way of spectacular also.

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  14. Mariellen,
    I so glad you found this spot! I will be in touch.

    Helen,
    Thank you, it is very flattering and I will link a previous meme from last year.

    Linda,
    Thanks for the high praise. After seeing some of the scenery we saw, it is hard to get back into the more mundane routines of daily obligations.

    Di,
    I have always wanted to visit the great northwest. I would love to see the coastal areas, Seattle, Portland, British Columbia and the natural areas inbetween. Please come back and visit again.

    Les

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  15. What a gorgeous state. As someone who has never been out west I appreciate the vistas you shared. I too am looking for Lorne. Sure he wasn't around?:)

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  16. What beautiful pictures. In 1968 when I was 13 years old I stayed at the ranch with my family and we went riding in the mountains and beautiful surroundings everyday. I have many times thought of that ranch and that I'd like to go there again and visit it with my own family. We live now in Stockholm, Sweden. Today I found the name of the ranch and suddenly got the urge to look for some information on it on the webb. Maybe next summer we can try to find it even if we cant stay there.
    /Christina

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  17. Christina,
    I am so glad that I was able to help you conjur up some wonderful childhood memories. Although the buildings you probably stayed in are gone, the valley and the mountains are still stunning.

    Les

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  18. Thanks so much for posting this.

    I worked for the Holzwarths at the Never Summer Ranch when it was for dudes, in the summer of 1964, and I leaped that river a few times.

    The first few days at the ranch, climbing one flight of stairs left me breathless, for the elevation is quite high, and I came from Minnesota to the mountains.

    For the guests, we campfire cookouts with folk songs and guitars, Wednesdays were turkey soup and sandwiches, and Saturdays it was steaks, grilled by Johnny Holzwarth himself. The picnic spot was some distance from the lodge, and everyone traveled there by hay wagon. As cook's helper, I sliced gallons of tomatoes and onions for those steaks in a bun that summer. The wranglers were in charge of building a fire, about 5 feet in diameter for the cookouts, starting early in the day so that by dinner time Johnny had a beautiful bed of coals for grilling the steaks. Every cookout, we had a cauldron of corn on the cob and lots of melted butter!

    Mrs. Holzwarth had lots of Navajo rugs in the lobby. The rugs were never vacuumed..they were swept ...and with snow in the winter to clean them. Every morning, we put a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice in the refrigerator for her. The girl staff mangled the dinner napkins just so...a job Mrs. Holzwarth was particular about..and not everyone was good at it.

    Each morning, the wranglers drove horses in from the pasture, hooves clattering past my cabin. On arising, we built a fire in the cabin fireplace, or turned on the small oil heat stove to take the chill off ..... i.e.,...it was never summer.

    A great treat for the staff was the privilege of a number of hours of horseback riding, and each of us got to go on one trail ride into the mountains with Johnny, the wranglers, and the guests. We rode up to the snow line and had our lunch there, sitting on rocks, eating from the ..I forget what we called them...camp kitchens??... they were metal boxes that were strapped to one of the horse's.

    On my time off one day I found enough wild strawberries across the road in the official "park" that the staff had berries and cream for dessert at dinner. Hiking in the park, I found the mountain flowers were extraordinary, delicate, nearly invisible until you got down close to the ground, and an inspiration to artists whose works I found in the shops in Grand Lake.

    The mountain pass on the Estes side of the park closed early at the end of the summer, and the ranch closed to guests for the season, in time for me to get back to college for the start of classes in September.

    That valley...exhilarating.

    Yes, all these comments about longing to return...definitely. The memories I have of that summer, 46 years ago, continue to bring me joy and pleasure. It's a remarkable place to be.

    The day I left, we drove 5 miles an hour on the road to Grand Lake....elk were moving that day, too.

    Marian in Minnesota

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    1. I just read your post - what great stories you shared! My family stayed in a log cabin there when I was 8 - summer of 1960, I think - and it's still one of my favorite memories.

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  19. Marian,
    In the few minutes it took me to read your comments, my trip to the Never Summer Ranch became much more special. Thank you for opening a window into another time.

    Les

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  20. Hi Les,

    I don't log in to my gmail account nearly often enough....just read your reply and revisited the ranch in my head. Love that mountain air.

    Marian

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  21. My family stayed at the ranch when I was 13, in the early '60s. A few of your pix brought sensory memories flooding back. Thanks very much! It was a wonderful place.

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  22. Anonymous,
    I am glad I could bring back some memories for you.

    Les

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  23. I was there with my parents in the mid 50's,but we just visited the ranch for a day as we were with some rancher friends of my Mother's that knew the Holzwarths.We were there on a tent camping trip and camped somewhere around Estes park,then on the top of the pass and then at grand Lake on that trip.I was back there in the 80's and got stuck at the top of the pass in a 3" hail storm. I stopped at the rest area at Never Summer and walked across the valley and jumped the river just to do it again.There were several moose along the river till lightning struck a plow out in the of that field and chased us all for cover.They had Sani-cans at the parking area as the restrooms were closed and while I was in there it started to bounce around and there was this weird snuffling sound till I yelled and it stopped.Waited a couple of minutes and opened the door and there were folks in the parking lot just cracking up. Seems as a bull moose decided to rub something off his antlers and was using the sani-can to do it..
    Will be going back to the park again this summer and will do the trip over to the ranch again.Thanks for the pix as mine show much the same.

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  24. JonP,
    I am glad you stumbled upon my Never Summer post. Just as we were about to tour the Holzwarth ranch with a NPS guide, a severe storm blew up and we were encouraged to get back to the car, as quickly as possible. On the way back we ran through a hail storm as well. There was so much on the ground that it looked like snow - and it was late July!

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  25. My father was a Park Naturalist in Rocky in the late 60's, early 70's. Like others, I remember Johnny and the stories he'd tell. I particularly remember the story he would tell about the wild elk that would sneak in his barn at night to eat hay with the horses. What a guy Johnny was. One of the last of the old western cowboys. It was a sad day when the Holzwarth's sold the ranch to the Park Service. As I recall, they sold it for 1 million and 1 dollar. They wated to be able to say that the ranch brought "over" a million dollars.....

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    1. I am sure it was sad when they sold, but at least they sold it to the Park Service and not a developer who would have surely razed the cabin and put up something ugly. Now it is preserved and all can see it.

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  26. The Park Service was going to take the ranch one way or another. Johnny had no choice, he'd been fighting them off for years. I was there in 1960 while he was trying to hold off the NPS.
    Bob L

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  27. My family spent an August week in a log cabin here in 1960 - your photos of the valley, the river and the mountains are exactly as I remember them! I will never forget thundering alongside the river on horseback after a trailride with my Dad and brother as our horses realized it was feeding time and we were going to be late - glorious! Thank you for the memories!

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed this post. From it I have made contact with so many people who spent time there. I also was able to reconnect with a very good friend I had not seen in 30 years who was just looking at the photos before she realized it was me.

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