Still struggling to regain the business they lost after 9/11, Colorado’s dude ranches are looking in their own backyards for visitors to fill their bunkhouses.
“The past three years have been tough, which is why we’ve been thinking outside of the box,” said Karen May, co-owner of the North Fork Ranch in Shawnee. “Every dollar helps. You need to change with the times.”
It’s still unclear whether the quest for in-state visitors – and other out-of- the-box revenue-boosting ideas – will solve dude ranches’ problems. Three guest ranches are currently for sale, and if mountain land values continue to skyrocket, experts say, more may follow.
Colorado dude ranch owners say the “real Western” experience they sell is still a valuable commodity, offering guests the chance to ride horses, fly-fish and go on cattle drives.
But with an average price of $1,600 per adult per week, the experience is not cheap.
The Colorado Dude & Guest Ranch Association’s 34 member ranches average 500 acres and have a total bed capacity of 1,600 guests. During the 13-week prime summer tourism season, the association’s members gross a total of $21 million, Henry said. Some are open year-round; others close or offer limited services in the off-season and winter months.
Between 2000 and 2002, however, their occupancy fell 25 percent, mirroring a statewide tourism drop caused by drought, an economic downturn and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Like others in the tourism industry, dude ranches’ figures are slowly improving, with occupancy rates up from 60 percent in 2002 to 70 percent last summer.
“We’ve all been slowly working our way back,” said Bob Foster, owner of the Lost Valley Ranch in Sedalia. His business was closed for more than two months during the summer of 2002 by the Hayman fire. “I still didn’t make any money in 2004, but we’re taking good steps forward this summer.”
Colorado, Wyoming and Montana hold the country’s three largest concentrations of guest ranches, said Colleen Hodson. She is executive director of the Cody, Wyo.-based Dude Rancher’s Association, which represents 114 guest ranches in 12 Western states and two Canadian provinces.
Traditionally, 85 percent of those who visit Colorado’s ranches come from out of state, but the number of in-state visitors has grown steadily over the past decade. Although the upper Midwest, California and Florida provide the largest numbers of guests, Colorado ranked fourth in 2004.
The growth is due to several factors, including the Front Range’s increasing median household income and an influx of new residents. Roughly 800,000 people have moved to Colorado in the past decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
“Many of them came from our traditionally strong sources of guests,” said Charles Henry, executive director of the Colorado’s dude ranch association. “If people used to live in Chicago and always wanted to take a dude ranch vacation, and now they live in Colorado, they’re still going to want to take a dude ranch vacation.”
These guests, on average, are college- educated, own a home worth $350,000 or more and have a median household income of at least $100,000, Henry said.
To supplement the income those customers provide, however, ranch owners are casting wider nets and broadening their offerings.
At North Fork Ranch, for example, owners Dean and Karen May are making the most of their location. They recently teamed up with three metro-area fly-fishing shops to offer day trips on their private shoreline along the North Fork of the South Platte River, charging fees that range from $150 to $300 per person.
“We have fishermen on the river every single day, and we’re booked many months out right now,” said Karen May. “Some of them have even become North Fork guests.”
Many ranches are hoping to attract Colorado residents with single-night and shorter-stay packages. At $280 per night, they’re considerably more affordable than North Fork’s average $1,700 weekly rate.
Michigan transplants Jim and Amy Potter spent a night at North Fork in late April, specifically to take advantage of the fly-fishing.
“We’d always wanted to have a dude ranch experience,” Jim Potter said. “We thought it was out of our price range, but that’s not true. You feel like you’re really in the rustic West.”
The Potters, now Denver residents, plan to return in the fall.
Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch, west of Loveland, is targeting corporate retreat business with a direct-mail campaign aimed at Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins companies. It also is promoting itself as a wedding destination and has hired a local Internet marketing firm to help drum up new business.
“We’ve done quite a bit of Internet marketing, and I think that gives us an advantage. It’s a very efficient way to advertise,” said Mary Bahus-Meyer, the ranch’s sales and marketing manager.
As a result, corporate and wedding business is up more than 5 percent this summer, she said.
The C Lazy U Ranch north of Granby invited Denver residents up for an open house in June, offering attendees the chance to win a $10,000 weeklong vacation for four. C Lazy U’s average rate is $2,250 per adult per week, or $900 for a three-night stay.
And for the first time since it opened in 1946, last spring C Lazy U aired television commercials in Jefferson and Douglas counties touting its shorter three-night stay package.
The promotions didn’t result in immediate bookings, said general manager Tim Hennen, but C Lazy U’s owners are doing better as land developers. Brian and Karen Murray have found a way to help sustain their business by taking advantage of rising land values.
Over the past five years, they purchased several thousand acres of adjacent land and divided it into 18 private homesites that range in price from $900,000 to $1.3 million. Homebuilders are required to abide by strict design guidelines and must pay roughly $15,000 in annual membership dues, which grants them access to the dining room and all the ranch facilities.
Of the 12 homesites that have been sold, two were purchased by Front Range residents.
“The future for this ranch is to combine our guest ranch operations with the more steady revenue flow from our homeowners,” Brian Murray said. “It protects us from the ups and downs of the tourism industry.”
And although membership in the national Dude Rancher’s Association has held steady for the past 20 years, escalating mountain real estate prices are having an effect on the industry.
“I think that is part of the reason some ranchers are selling. Some of these developers are making it very difficult to say no,” said Hodson, the group’s director. “Add a couple of bad business years, and it’s even more difficult to refuse.”
John and Suzanne Munn want to retire, and their children don’t want to take over the family’s Vista Verde Ranch near Steamboat Springs. So this year they listed the 540-acre property for $14.5 million. It comes complete with a nordic center, equestrian facilities and nine guest cabins.
“If you think about it, all ranches are for sale,” said John Munn, 72. “Real estate keeps appreciating and people are sitting on a lot of worth. In a sense, it’s a cash-poor, asset-rich existence.”
Munn said he isn’t selling solely to cash in on high land prices. “My reason is very singular – I’m an old geezer,” he said. “There comes a time when you have to get your ducks in a row.”
The ranch can host 40 guests per week and charges $3,000 per adult per week in the summer. Munn said he’s ambivalent about the future use of Vista Verde.
“We’re very proud of it,” he said, “and sure, we’d love somebody to take care of it going forward.
“On the other hand, maybe not everybody is as crazy as we were to get into this business in the first place. There are a lot of other things you could do with this property. Who am I to speak for the next owner?”
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
