What comes to mind when you hear the term "Guest Ranch"?

If you're like most folks, you probably have images of cowboys and saddles, horses, ropes and cattle, chuck wagon dinners and campfire sing-a-longs.  But Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch is so much more!

Today we're going to explore the Top 10 Things to Do at 
Sylvan Dale on "Ridin' for the Brand"!

In today's show ranch owner Maurice Jessup's daughter, Susan Jessup, shares Sylvan Dale's early days when her family first encountered this little bit of Paradise on Earth, and reads the inspiring story of "How the Ranch Was Won - The Sylvan Dale Story", as told by her mother, Mayme Jessup.

Welcome to "Ridin' for the Brand", Episode 2!

Episode 1 – (Pilot Episode) “Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch – A Place Like No Other – Experience the Legacy”

“Nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains just west of Loveland, Colorado lies a little piece of Paradise.  It has been called a “jewel”, a treasured place protected from the encroachment of civilization, over-expansion, and from the tragedy of what John Denver once described as “more people, more scars upon the land…”  

It is a place filled beauty and wonder, joy and tranquility, cerulean skies, clean mountain air, spectacular sunsets.  A place teaming with an abundance of wildlife, including – Elk, deer, big horn sheep, bobcats, and even bears and mountain lions.  Horses graze and freely roam the lush, open valley as the clear, rushing water of the Big Thompson River winds through over 3,000 acres of a little bit of Heaven on Earth.

Welcome to Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch, a place like no other!  This is its story…

The year was 1934, when an ambitious Kansas kid working his way through college, arrived in the Loveland valley for a summer job and caught a vision of what a little ranch on the Big Thompson River could someday be.  America had danced through the roaring twenties, and then suddenly suffered through the stock market crash of 1929.  The ensuing years known as The Great Depression had destroyed millions of lives, leaving the hopes and dreams for a brighter future dashed, and spirits at an all-time low…

People were looking for heroes, for comfort and hope, and for a safe a place, a safe haven, to rest weary minds and stressed out bodies…  Just such a place as the jewel called Sylvan Dale.

But to understand the importance and rich meaning of this place, we must start at the beginning…or at least a millennia before… 

Enjoy today's show!

Thanks to the Jessup’s vision and its longevity, families have gathered together at Sylvan Dale for up to four generations!  They come for the safe environment where family members of all ages can bond through wholesome, old-fashioned fun with a wide array of activities, including horseback riding adventures, hiking the trails, exploring the ranch, catching rainbow trout in the river, playing family softball, tennis, horseshoe and volleyball, swimming in the heated outdoor pool, and raising the roof on Western dance night, and maybe best of all, cultivating a deeper passion and respect for Western culture and history from horsemen, ranchers and Cowboy poets and singers, along with local historians and Native American storytellers.

You are invited to come to Sylvan Dale and experience the legacy first-hand!

For more information you can visit sylvandale.com.  Or call 970-667-3915

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