Caribou Ranch

My aunt and uncle invited us up to their friend's house outside of Nederland, CO to do some snow shoeing the day after Christmas. We love this open space area called Caribou Ranch. It is an easy path for hiking and also for snow shoeing. No dogs are allowed, so it is not crowded like most other hiking trails in and around Boulder County. It's a quick jaunt up Boulder canyon and through cute little Nederland to get there. I've know the history of the open space for a few years now. Producer James William Guerico owned 4000 acres and had a recording studio built. There were also houses and things scattered across the land for the musicians to enjoy. If you hike far enough, you can still see some remnants today.


My aunt's friends Carol Ann and Kathy bought one of the houses and a plot of land a few years back and have been restoring it. The land was parceled and sold from 1996 - 2001 privately and to the county of Boulder for open space. You can read more about it on Wiki here. We arrived at the house, got geared up and enjoyed a two mile romp around their 40 acres, no trail, only fresh powdery deep snow, the sun, the trees and great company.



When we got back, they took us for a tour of the house. It used to be the main party house for the musicians visiting and recording. They said originally it didn't have many windows and the guy that sold it to them stated it was because the people "living" there wanted a lot of privacy. There was a lot of drug use, partying, and impromptu shows that happened there. The house is really cool. They added a ton of windows and took out some walls. In one section there is little semi-circle theater where people can sit on the stairs in front of a fire and enjoy the music. They also took us to the "group shower" area which they have now converted to two amazingly beautiful bathrooms with steam shower and deep water jacuzzi.







As we sat around enjoying homemade tomato soup and hot chocolate they told stories of Elton John, who recorded around 4 albums there, notably "Caribou". There is a really nice website that has pictures, shares stories, and lists the artists that recorded here; a few to mention are Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Chicago, The Beach Boys, Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart and many others. The link to the website is here. Carol Ann and Kathy also shared some funny stories about the apartment downstairs and what the preferred drug of choice during certain recording sessions. They learned all of this from the seller as he was one of the original owners and keepers of the ranch. 

Pretty cool to be so close to that piece of history. I had no idea that it was so rich in detail and so close to home.

Swimming in this Sea of Life,
La Sirena