New Snow!

With 18" of new snow in the last 24 hrs. and more currently falling it looks like this winter is shaping up to be one of the best early ski seasons in years.

Combine that with our Eldora Mountain Resort ski and boarding packages (www.alpsinn.com/ski.htm) and that makes great skiing & great lodging at an affordable price!

See you on the slopes.

Our family has grown.

We've been "horse people" now for a number of years. That's a funny term for describing what might be medically diagnosed as a serious mental condition or illness.

Our daughter Alexis has from the point she could first express herself as an infant expressed an overwhelming love for horses. She began western riding lessons at 4 yrs and was loping and showing horses at age 5 in competition with adults.

Our venture into horse stewardship began unexpectedly several years back when Jeannine and I attended a charity auction event and they led in a beautiful paint mare and her 7 day old colt. Now known respectively as Lakota and Comet. This was our first introduction to "Friends of Horses" a south Denver horse rescue foundation. We later adopted another paint mare Sierra and her colt Scout as well as a dapple grey gelding Silver bringing us to a total of five adopted horses all previously headed to the slaughter house.

Jeannine and I were quite confident that five horses was "plenty of horses".

This winter we noticed our two mares Sierra and Lakota beginning to look a little pudgy, both we later discovered ended up with unexpected pregnancies. (I'll explain how this happens in a future post) Not knowing when the frolicking took place it was anybody's guess as to their due dates.

Sierra decided to foal 3 weeks ago in the middle of a late night blizzard and Lakota after laboring for several days foaled this last Saturday on a beautiful starry night.

I was fortunate to be able to witness this miracle when Sierra gave birth to a little fillie we named Apache. My daughter Alexis and I waited with Lakota all day and at 11:30pm the two of us decided to take a break. When we returned 45 min later we found Lakota had given birth to another little fillie we've named Dreamer.

Both moms and their fillies are doing well. This has been a great experience for our kids. Jeannine and I have both enjoyed helping and caring for the new arrivals.

This was it! We elevated our status from having a handful of horses to now running a herd. Jeannine put her foot down, our adolescent stallion has taken a ride to CSU's veterinary hospital in Ft. Collins and has come home a little less of a man.

Oh well, mom says absolutly no more horses. Don't tell Jeannine but the kids and I are looking forward to having puppies.

You can tell it is spring time at the Alps when...

The many signs that spring has come to the Alps Boulder Canyon Inn.

Yesterday temperatures were in the mid 70’s; the Hummingbirds were back gathering nectar from our bountiful crop of spring daffodils and hyacinths. The bear had been back to his usual tricks attempting to raid our “Bear Proof” dumpster with no success, all was right with the world.

We woke today to a heavy spring snow. It has been falling so hard at times it has been difficult to make out the trees on the opposite side of the canyon.

The hummingbirds, who knows where they’re hiding? The bright colors of our spring blooms stand out against the snowy white backdrop at least until they are buried.

Late last night around 1:00am I let my companion “Mattie” out one last time before we both called it a night. She took off down the drive and started creating quite the commotion. I went to investigate. I had a difficult time at first recognizing what I was seeing. The scene was somewhat surreal. Our dumpster had been moved out of its enclosure about 60 feet and was on its side in the driveway. The very heavy steel lid had been bent back against the chain that restrained it and trash was strewn all around.

Standing there was the biggest bear I have ever seen outside a zoo with my 40lb dog standing her ground against it. Luckily Mattie came when I called and we beat a hasty retreat deciding to deal with the mess in the morning.

My new philosophy, “Got a bear proof dumpster to rob, get a bigger bear”.

The snow shows no sign of stopping. I better go find the shovel.

Welcome to the Alps Boulder Canyon Inn Blog

Welcome, this is the first post in our Alps Boulder Canyon Inn Blog.

The Alps staff and I are excited and see this as a great opportunity to share with you our guests and friends. Our hope is that we can use this medium to share our thoughts about our Inn, provide up to date travel information and comment on the enormous number of things to do and see while visiting the area.

Being new to the blogasphere myself and getting a little long in the tooth, you'll need to bare with this old horseman as I try to get a handle on it.

As always we try to treat our guests as we'd like to be treated ourselves, we do like to hear what you've liked about your stay, the Inn and our staff. Many of us are born Coloradans. Combined, we try to share our knowledge of local travel favorites and "hidden gems". Please don't ask us to show you the secret native handshake however.

Along with knowing what we've done right we do want to know in what ways we were not able to meet or exceed your expectations. We do take it personally and we strive every day to improve our level of hospitality, our facilities and our guest's experience.

Jeannine and I have owned and operated the Alps Boulder Canyon Inn for 18 years. Owning and operating a small inn is a lifestyle we enjoy. We believe the Alps attracts a wonderful clientele that share many interests in common with our own. We owe our continued success to our loyal following of repeat guests and your continued "Word of Mouth" advertising.

Knowing that a guest enjoyed their stay enough to recommend our property is very rewarding. We will continue to work to earn your approval, your return and your friendship and your recommendation.

It's our hope that this blog will help us keep in touch and keep you informed while creating an interactive forum of thoughts and ideas.

I look forward to hearing from you!

John Vanderhart
Alps Boulder Canyon Inn