Chick Vacations

You might have heard people you know talk about visiting guest ranches and how they return year after year to the same spot to relive vacation memories. There are certain areas of our great USA that are hot spots for guest ranches, including: Texas, Wyoming, Montana, and of course, Colorado. A myriad of types of ranches exist, depending on your tastes and preferences. This particular ranch I’m about to tell you about is ideal for an intergenerational chick vacation. Book a week for grandmothers, aunts, sisters, daughters. Pull on your boots, button up those old blue jeans and cinch up your good ole Western belt.



Rustic Meets Refined
Most of us chicks are looking for a little cushion in our “giddy-up”. The good folks at C Lazy U guest ranch in Granby, Colorado, get that better than most. They have a property built on Western tradition and have added doses of class and comfort everywhere you look. You will wear your boots and jeans everyday, ride horses everyday, get dirty and smell like livestock. However, you will also dine on delicious gourmet food, have free time to do what you like, relax by a pretty (heated) pool and hottub and enjoy cocktails before dinner every night.
Before there were villages and towns, there were settlements; and the people living in those settlements found their entertainment and enjoyment through gathering together for meals, entertainment (storytelling was popular) and fellowship. C Lazy U ranch was built around these same foundations. Play hard, saddle up, eat great meals and tell stories!

Boundless Recreation
One of the aspects that you and your girls will enjoy is that you are introduced to your schedule upon arrival, your younger chicks are introduced to the children’s program (where they will spend most of their time), and you’ll settle into your routine for the week (guests arrive on Sunday and depart the following Sunday).
After breakfast with all your chicks, the younger ones will mosey over to meet up with their counselors with whom they will spend the day riding horses, doing crafts, playing games and eating meals. The counselors, primarily college-aged young men and women, have a nice handle on this program. There’s plenty to entertain the younger members of your group and you know they are safe and being taken care of.
You will head over to the barn and get outfitted with your horse for the week. The wranglers do their best to match you with a horse that fits your skill level, size and personality. There’s a morning ride and an afternoon ride each day (many guests go on the morning ride and choose to do something else in the afternoon.) For your trail ride, you can choose from slow, medium, advanced and instructional rides. You might find, with various ages in your group, that you choose different levels of rides.
The biggest problem we encountered in terms of recreation was that it rained the first afternoon we were at the ranch and we quickly realized that all activity at the ranch is outdoors. Therefore, we were forced to stay inside our cabin all afternoon. However, that was the only day that happened and the other afternoons we enjoyed a sampling of their activities: tennis, fishing, volleyball, biking and archery. There is also a ropes course and zip lining for those adventurous chicks.

Lazy You
C Lazy U boasts one of the most unique spas I’ve ever encountered (and I’ve reviewed many spas!). One of the most recent additions to the ranch, the staff did a great job of blending the relaxation a spa offers with the scenic landscape and Western tradition of a 90-year old ranch.  The Lazy You Spa sits on the backside of the ranch and looks like an encampment of settlers. However, when you get a closer look, you notice how they’ve incorporated the spa suites to look like individual tents on a frontier.
The most unique aspect of this spa is that a few of the suites have clear bottom floors so you can lay on your stomach on a massage table and look down into the running river below. The oh-so-peaceful feeling envelopes you as you get the ultimate cowgirl rub-down while watching the trickle of water underneath you.
The most unique treatment at Lazy You Spa has got to be the Moonlight Soak, very popular with chick vacationers. Many women who visit enjoy going out to the copper tubs laden with essential oils, soaking in a hot tub after a long day in the saddle. Relaxation is topped off with candlelight, wine and a natural viewing of the starry skies.

Culinary Cowgirl
C Lazy U is known by generations for its bountiful outstanding cuisine. This is no pork-n-beans from the cookie by the campfire! You will be impressed and delighted at the quality of fresh food at each meal. At breakfast, you can help yourself at the continental bar and then order a hot dish from the menu, such as the loaded breakfast burrito or the Eggs Benedict. (And, ladies, you can ask for egg whites.) At lunch, you’ll serve yourself at the buffet line but you will have many options such as salads, soups, and entrees with sides.
After cocktail hour (alcoholic beverages are one of the only items you pay extra for—everything else is built into your weekly price), you will enjoy a delicious dining experience. Some dinners are outdoors at the Patio House and others are indoors at the Lodge. Here’s an example of one of the dinners we experienced:

• Asian vinaigrette on mixed greens topped with fried carrots and radishes
• Blackened scallops with citrus buerre blanc
• Over roasted ferra major (beef) with carmelized pecans and Granny Smith apples
• Sugar snap peas with bell peppers and mushrooms
• Wild mushroom three cheese risotto (one to write home about!)
• Pecan pie

Feeling Completely at Home
Each evening after dinner, you’ll gather for the nightly entertainment, which could be: a campfire, a talent show, a dance and a slideshow on the last night. You’ll develop friendships with the other guests and many people feel compelled to return the same week year-after-year to reunite with the friends they met on their initial visit. It’s not unusual for there to be 10-20 families at the ranch each week that have been coming the same week every year. They end up bringing future generations out to the ranch to experience the same “home away from home” that they grew up on. In fact, the week we were at C Lazy U, we were only one of four families out of about twenty or thirty that were there for their maiden voyage.
I realize a week might feel like an extravagant chick vacation; however, you’ll revel in the ability to both have a schedule, yet relax each day of your stay. You have ample time to enjoy each other’s company, relax, catch up and be as active as you like. Pack plenty of clothes for cool weather, plan to take a lot of photos and build memories that will last your lifetime and beyond.
C Lazy U Ranch
Granby, Colorado
www.clazyu.com
(970) 887-3344
Written By :  Marika Flatt