Colorado Trails Ranch

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Durango, CO
Colorado Trails Ranch

We are Guest Ranch and event center in Durango Colorado. Cabin rentals, horseback riding, fly-fishing, shooting, archery, hiking, and more!

Come experience the Colorado Rockies in style!

12/14/2025

The season turns, the work changes, and the woodpile grows. Each piece stacked with purpose, waiting for cold nights, early mornings, and the steady glow of a fire that keeps the ranch moving through winter. colorado

12/10/2025

The herd voted… snow days are absolutely their favorite.

12/06/2025

Winter rolled in this week and gave the ranch a whole new kind of beauty.
Fresh snow on the fences, quiet trails, horses puffing steam into the morning air…
It’s peaceful, simple, and exactly what this season at Colorado Trails is all about.

12/01/2025

“There’s always a special feeling on winter turnout day.
The halters come off, the gates swing open, and the whole herd knows exactly what’s coming, fresh pasture, and a season to recharge.
They carried our guests all summer long. Now it’s their turn to rest.”

11/27/2025

We sure are thankful for this place and all of the people it brings together to make lasting memories.

11/16/2025

He says he’s certified to run heavy machinery. I asked who certified him… he just squinted at me and flicked his tail. .

11/11/2025

This Veterans Day, we pause to honor those who’ve stood watch so we can enjoy the simple moments time with family, time in nature, and time spent free.
Thank you to all our Veterans, past and present. …..

11/05/2025

There’s something about summer at the ranch early mornings by the pond, curious little hands, and the thrill of that first catch. Already counting down the days ‘til next season. 🌾🎣

10/30/2025

It’s that time of year in the high country. Horses loaded, gear packed, and the cool mountain air setting in. We’re hauling hunters deep into camp where the only alarms are bugles in the distance and the coffee tastes better by the fire.
🏔🐴

10/23/2025

Sometimes the best reminders come from the slow-moving parts of life. Just like this creek steady, calm, and always finding its way. 🍂✨

10/19/2025

Little moments like this remind us what makes this place so special 💛
One of our young guests sent Tango a box of his favorite peppermints a sweet surprise from a new friend he made this summer. 🐴
It’s these kinds of connections between horse and rider that stay with you long after you’ve gone home.

10/15/2025

🌱 From garden to table, nothing goes to waste here at Colorado Trails Ranch. 🌿

Our chefs work hand-in-hand with the garden, bringing fresh ingredients straight into your meals. What doesn’t make it onto your plate gets repurposed whether it’s compost for next season’s soil or feed for our animals.

We’re proud to be a no-waste kitchen. It’s just one way we care for the land that gives us so much and share that goodness with our guests. 🥕🍅✨

Address

12161 County Road 240
Durango, CO
81301

Telephone

+19702475055

Website

http://www.coloradotrails.com/

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Our Story

Every dude ranch has a story behind it, and each is unique.

Colorado Trails Ranch is different from all of them and a very special place. Rather than being an adaptation of some sort of former ranch, ours was built to be a dude ranch from its very beginning in 1960.

Prior to any original construction, there were only two buildings; a tiny old barn and the anteroom portion of what was once Coney Cove dance hall, built around 1912. This log structure is still in use today as wrangler staff housing. The first few years there was only the new lodge and six Alpine cabins. A lot of growth and change has taken place over the past half of a century on this guest ranch.

In early years, guests made up their own brand, which was burned into the timber posts in the lodge. Those brands are still there, but this practice came to a halt many years ago. It was a sad end to a great Colorado Trails Ranch tradition, but necessary to protect the building from burning down.

Each year, the ranch comes alive in May with the arrival of our staff from all over the country, and sometimes from around the globe. CTR would not be the special vacation spot it is without the liveliness, and vitality, of the staff.

We’ve enjoyed thousands of new friends through the years.

Five decades of our staff and guests who came to work and play. Every wall holds millions of warm memories left by those who had fun within them. No matter how advanced the world may become technologically, the magic of this dude ranch remains quite the same.

Guests find it hard to leave, and many return over and over again. Past staff members return as guests, introducing their new families to the wonders of dude ranch vacations.

For Jeanne Ross, our General Manager, the CTR experience has never ended. She came to work as a staff member in 1966, and has yet to find a reason to leave. Over the years, she has filled lots of support roles including housekeeping, kids’ counselor, cooking/baking and running the office.

Mike North is also a longtime figure here at Colorado Trails. Since 2002, he’s overseen all physical aspects of the ranch. Mike applies his many skills and talents very well as our head of maintenance.

There’s one very special week we are extremely proud to be a part of.

It isn’t a vacation style of dude ranch event, but the Equine Investigator’s Academy. Colorado Trails Ranch has been hosting this event since 1984, first under the American Humane Association, and with Code 3 Associates since 1996. This national school teaches animal control officers, and other animal professionals, how to recognize and investigate horse abuse. Today, we host two levels of this class which are accredited by Colorado State University.