Rawah Guest Ranch from the eyes of an 8 year old

This post was written by Allison’s 8-year-old son and was typed as he dictated to her. 

I went to a ranch called Rawah Guest Ranch in Colorado.

The Drive to Rawah

If you don’t like really windy roads and if you worry about driving off the side of the road you might not like the car ride to Rawah. Sometimes your ears will pop when you get higher up. If you need to kill some time on the way to Rawah there is a carousel and places to get your fishing license on your way there.  Rawah is at a really high altitude.

The Dogs at Rawah

I really liked the dogs. The dogs live at Rawah and one of them named Loki will chase a stick all day. There is a dog named Bear and he will stare at the creek and jump in it. There was a dog named Maverick and he’s pretty chill. There is a dog named Goose, he’s kind of wild. Maverick tried to catch a Marmot when we were over by the chicken coop.

Horse Riding

There is a lot to do at Rawah. You can go horseback riding, they have trail rides for experienced riders and arena rides for those who are just getting started riding. My horse’s name was Juan, for the time that you are at the ranch you get the same horse the whole time. Marcus and Maggie are the head wranglers, but I went on rides with Sawyer and Sarah and Eliza. It is a lot of fun to watch the Wranglers let the horses out at night and bring them in from the pasture in the morning. You can tell the guides how long you want your ride to be. (Mom edit: the maximum length is 2 hours) There are some really cool trails to go horse riding on, I even saw a moose when we were riding.

Shooting at Rawah

You can go shooting, I shot a shotgun and a .22, I even hit the target with the .22! Joe helped me learn to shoot, he helped me learn how to hold the gun and he showed me a few stances. When my dad was shooting clay pigeons I got to launch them. They only do shooting in the morning because people are sometimes taking a nap in the afternoon. They have archery but we didn’t have time to do that.

The Food at Rawah

They have really really really really good food. I tried food that I had never tried before like lamb chops, a steak sandwich, a bratwurst. The chicken fried chicken was really good, it was my favorite meal. Every Friday they do a cowboy breakfast, you get to ride your horse across the river to where they have breakfast set up. I was sad that I didn’t get to do the cowboy breakfast because we had to leave.

In-Cabin Activities

At the beginning of your stay, a box of activities are brought to your room and you can play with them in your room while you are staying at Rawah. Just make sure to bring some crayons, some of the activity books we could have colored in but we didn’t have any crayons. We played Scrabble and a really fun game called Beat The Parents.

The Game Room

There is a game room that you can go to. You can play pool, you can play shuffleboard, you can do foosball and they had darts. Every Wednesday you can go and watch a movie. The movie was the only time that I watch TV while we were there. They have no Wi-Fi or cell service, it makes me feel good that they don’t have these things because people can’t just play on their electronics the whole time. I liked that my dad didn’t play on his phone the whole time, he does that a lot.

Kids Club

Tim and Meg are the managers of the ranch. They made me feel so good. Tim took us on some really fun adventures! We got to learn how to make a lean-to, we made moccasins and we learned that Rawah means “meeting area.” Tim took us pond fishing and my brother caught a really big rainbow trout and none of the fish boys had caught a fish in that pond yet. Tim let us collect some of the eggs from the chicken coop in the morning and we got to feed them. We fed them some dried up worms. Goose (the dog) ate some of the chicken food!

Fishing

We got to go fly fishing and I caught two fish! They didn’t have waders that fit me, so I stood on the bank of the river. There was a really big fish in front of me and he was asleep and I scared him away and didn’t get to catch him. Fly Fishing is different because you use a fly instead of normal bait. All of the big fish were across the river but, with the fly fishing rod, you can reach further. In the pond, my brother just tried to get over the weeds.

Life at the Lodge

On Thursday nights they have a cowboy that comes to sing. He lives nearby. Inside of the lodge, you can play games there and you can even take them back to your room. In the activity box, you will have some games too. My mom read a book while we were there and left it on the bookshelf for someone else to read. We did a puzzle together as a family in the lodge.

The Cabins

They have really nice cabins. The cabins are sometimes connected and some aren’t (Mom Edit: none are connected to the main lodge but some are set up duplex style, so there might be another family on the other side of the wall). You can get coffee (and hot chocolate!) brought to your room before breakfast, but we always were up so early that we had coffee and hot chocolate in the lodge. There is a cabin called Cowboys and Indians where you can sometimes see wildlife from the back porch like moose and deer.

Everyone should go to Rawah

The morning that we left, 2 of the donkeys and 2 of the horses got out and we watched them get them back into the corral. On the morning that we left, Bear (the dog) got into the hammock with us to say goodbye. I was really sad when we left. If I was talking to my friends I would tell them to get their parents to take them to Rawah.