A below-than-average snow pack for January isn’t always a bad thing. At least not when it motivates places like C Lazy U Guest Ranch and Resort to offer discounts designed to lure visitors. Colorado’s most family-friendly luxury dude ranch has a new Winter Wonderland package worth mentioning: get four nights for the price of three.
I jumped on the package right after the holidays, while the kiddos were still out of school. The conditions weren’t quite ready for snow cat skiing, but C Lazy U’s 8,000 acres were otherwise in full winter operation—tubing, sledding, ice skating, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hot tubbing, and horseback riding. Interestingly, our two middle schoolers (perhaps spoiled by Winter Park season passes in recent years) weren’t interested in the skiing options. Instead, they were all over the snow sports they don’t get to experience, like whacking tennis balls with hockey sticks on the ice skating pond, riding horses on snow-covered trails, and getting whipped around the meadow on an intertube towed by a snowmobile.
We stayed in the Willow cabin, perfect for a family of four who want both together time, and private time. The Willow is a standalone cabin with two bedrooms—each with a five-piece bath and seating area in front of a fireplace—connected by a hallway. The adult bedroom features a king-sized bed, while the kids’ room has two twins.
Our favorite family activity was downhill tubing. The afternoon we tried it, there were two dips just after the steepest stretch, which sent people flying—literally. As the four of us peered over the sketchy run were about to descend, Felix suggested that maybe “C U Die Ranch” would be a better name for the resort. At the same time, he seemed awfully excited to meet his demise. As a precaution, the kids made the adults go first. They had each only lived barely a decade, after all, while we’d had close to 40 years. Jean-Francois and I decided that was fair. And because I’m an adventure travel writer by trade, we chose to ride together in a double intertube, which picks up even more speed with twice the body weight.
I’ll spare the details of the descent, other than to say I screamed my head off. And swore. Twice. Pretty much the worse swears you can say in a family setting. I know this because it’s been forever preserved on video, much to the children’s’ delight.
Rates are $325 per adult, per night, and $125 per child, all-inclusive—that’s three gourmet meals per day in a rustic dining hall, snacks, ranch activities (including all gear ranging from skis to snow mobile helmets to good snow boots should you not have a suitable pair), and a bend-over-backward staff who knows you and your entire family by name from the first day. Good through March 24, 2013.
