3530 County Road 83, Tabernash, CO 80478, 970-726-5632,
Rates: Standard lodge rooms start at $210 a night; two-bedroom cabins at $475 a night. Check online for deals; during October, they were offering lodge stays for $75 per night; during November, it’s $175 per night in the lodge and $350 a night for a two-bedroom cabin. Parking is free; the lodge offers free valet parking too.
Stay here if you: share the owners’ vision that it’s possible to strive for harmony with the environment and impact it as little as possible while still enjoying the outdoors and a pampering getaway.
It’s close to: Winter Park, 10 minutes away.
The rooms are: among the most comfortable you’ll stay in anywhere. Clearly, much thought went into the choices — distressed-leather furniture, oak tables, wool blankets, thick, soft pillows, spacious bathrooms with oversized soaking tubs, fuzzy bathrobes and the softest towels imaginable. The management carefully investigates all of the products used — for instance, they are rethinking Aveda because of its use of unhealthy parabens in some of its bath products — and staff members are not only knowledgeable about items, but also uncharacteristically proud of them.
They put all of the money into: seeking out sustainable resources for their building materials and heating, and building a big, beautiful new spa. The recently finished lodge is a marvel, with its walls made from beetle-kill pine, the two-story fireplace in the restaurant was crafted of rocks from an area slide and other beautiful touches gleaned from renewable sources. The 52-room lodge features a game room with a mini bowling alley and non-electronic games, such as foosball, air hockey and shuffleboard, and they built a 40-seat private theater where they screen nightly movies — and you can bring your own DVDs for them to show, as well. The outdoor heated swimming pool and hot tub offer views of the surrounding mountains.
The bottom line: Owners Suzanne and Bob Fanch have expanded Devil’s Thumb slowly and thoughtfully, and it shows. While they’re experiencing a few growing pains — most notably that the place seems to be a bit caught between its former beloved status as a folksy, homey spot and its newer, more glitzy feel — the Fanches are famous for working past bumps in the road. My only complaint is that if you’re staying in the lodge, you don’t have the option of making your own breakfast as you do in the cabins or enjoying the complimentary and very tasty continental one they used to offer over at the saloon — now you have to pay for the also tasty but pricey one at the new restaurant, Heck’s Tavern. In addition, the lodge rooms don’t have coffee makers, so again, you have to buy it at the new coffee shop. But this ranch is truly one of Colorado’s best properties, and you get what you pay for: Dinner at the Ranch House Restaurant was out of this world (they use organic and local when possible), and their horse program — with English-style, custom-made saddles, patient, kid-friendly wranglers and a serious commitment to getting you spread out on their 5,000 acres — is unparalleled. And if you’re looking for a spot for a bridesmaids or girlfriends weekend, the Cowgirl Getaway, with four treatments and a cheese plate and wine, is a steal at $295 per cowgirl. Not to mention their hundreds of miles of cross-country skiing and ice skating pond, sleigh rides . . . it’s just hard to leave.
Kyle Wagner
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it misstated the rate for a standard lodge room at Devil’s Thumb Ranch. The rate is $210.
