YMCA of the Rockies – Snow Mountain Ranch

Dog sledding was awesome can’t wait til next time the people running the place was so nice very clean and the price was great

The food is disgusting. I would recommend staying here but eating out in Estes and staying in a cabin. The lodges are old and nasty. Nothing feels sanitary. Although the people working here are very nice I will not be returning. The food in the dining hall made me and my family cringe every time. It was cold. Salty. and processed to say the least. Was having my son sleep with the extra blanket in our room. It smelt clean so my husband and I figured it was. He said he felt something crusty so I took a look. There was something either hot chocolate or blood spilt on the blanket. Disgusting when is the last time this was washed or any of the sheets and blankets here

This is a great family destination! We booked a room for one night, and wished we had stayed longer. There was so much for us to do, and our toddler was delighted! She loved playing mini-​golf, taking a twilight hike, and even the church service we attended in the beautiful Columbine Chapel. There is a cute little playground behind Indian Peaks that my daughter loved!
This is definitely a summer camp. Going with that mindset helped me enjoy our time more, since I usually enjoy staying at nice hotels while traveling. I was prepared for rustic, and was happy that even though our room was bare-​bones, it was clean and comfortable.
We had a pizza at the grill, and were pleasantly surprised by how good it was. We also ordered a side salad, and expected browned bagged salad, but everything was fresh and crisp. I didn’t enjoy breakfast in the cafeteria as much. I thought something tasted strange when I took a bite of biscuits and gravy, until my husband told me that it was literally just gravy with no meat. That was a first.
I’m already thinking about our next trip here. We didn’t get to fit in any crafts, any tricycle riding, swimming, or horseback riding– all things we will look forward to doing next time!

We are YMCA members and this will be our 9^th time time staying at YMCA of the Rockies, so I feel I can safely state an unbiased opinion. We stayed in a 4 bedroom cabin for two nights in late June.
Pros:
The mountains are beautiful.
The staff is very friendly.
We took a fabulous 2 hour bike ride.
Cons:
Our cabin, Buffalo, was dingy to say the least. I washed the windows and window screens in the kitchen myself as they were so dirty. There was mold in the downstairs bathroom and the linoleum was peeling up. There were mice droppings in some of the kitchen cabinets.
The cabin needs some serious TLC. The light in the kitchen was burned out. The bedroom downstairs had no light bulb in the lamp. On the deck, the paint is peeling off the doors, picnic table and deck itself in large chunks.
I expect YMCA cabins to be rustic, not gross. I’ve never had an issue with the Estes Park location. It seems as if Snow Mountain Ranch is the poor stepchild of the two – minimal landscaping and maintenance. My family flew out from Ohio for the vacation and I was sorely disappointed that this was what we ended up with. For $ 389/​night I expect a basic level of cleanliness and upkeep. I’ll stick with the Estes location from now on.

Looking for a no-​frills, wholesome place to get away and relax with friends or family? This is the place.
I stayed for the weekend with a group of ladies and the accommodations, while not luxurious, were clean, in good repair, and comfortable. The view of the mountains was awesome and it was so refreshing to unplug from life. (There is cell service and internet if you need it though). Instead of watching tv, we played board games, went for walks, roller-​skated (very hilarious) and made jewelry in the craft cabin. Things you haven’t done since you were a kid at summer camp!
The kitchen was a bit sparse so my only recommendation is to bring any special pans or utensils you might need for cooking.

Our family spent a glorious week in Cabin 26– Cassiopoeia– and enjoyed it so very much! Snow Mountain Ranch is reasonably priced and driving distance to the ski destinations of Winter Park and Granby. Our cabin sleeps up to 10– maybe 12 since the couches fold out, and we made use of the porch (with glorious views of snow-​capped mountains), the kitchen, and multiple living rooms. Snow Mountain Ranch herself was so fun– horseback riding, horse-​drawn sleigh rides, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and crafts. All of these activities do cost an additional amount, but we enjoyed walking to the different parts of the grounds and checking out the options. The scenery is just gorgeous, and we made use of the City Market grocery store in nearby Granby. The opportunity to cook was excellent– we enjoyed cooking together and playing games each evening. WiFi is spotty and TVs aren’t present– which made it truly a vacation:) Highly recommend Snow Mountain Ranch!

This facility is a gem! A four season resort at affordable prices. I ditto the comments from 11÷30÷14 on the lodging, we got more than we paid for.
The breakfast at the Commons was eagerly anticipated daily. A great breakfast buffet with a vast array of choices.
The amenities, the snow shoeing trails and cross country ski trails were kept well groomed for us geriatrics, but you could go off trail on any of their 2000+ acres for an adventure.
The employees were delightful, great customer service.
I can’t wait for next year.

We stayed there for 6 nights in a lodge (Indian Sage) and we loved our experience there. I want to write a review so it’ll help folks who plan to visit YMCA of the rockies at Snow Mountain Ranch in the future.
Lodging: We got a room with a queen bed and 2 bunk beds to fit around 6x people. The room was cozy, clean and nice. Nothing fancy but you get what you pay. Most rooms don’t have TVs, microwaves, nor fridge. We paid $ 99 per night, and got 2 nights free for every 6 nights booked.
Activities: YMCA offers lot of activities for families, kids, everybody. All of these activities have excellent instructors, decent pricing ($ 5-​$ 10), and ample slots. We did the snow-​shoeing, ice-​tubing, skiing lessons. All of these were excellent. YMCA also rents out gears and equipments at a very reasonable price ($ 12/​day).
Food: YMCA offers free breakfast in the morning. The breakfast is simple: provides options for vegans, vegetarians, and meat-​eaters. We also tried the buckboard grill and it is quite decent. They have young kids working there, and they do an excellent job.
Overall, we loved our stay here. The people are super nice and friendly. They go out of their way to make your stay great. I highly recommend this place and hope to be back !
Only negative thing is the location. Since it is about ~10 miles from the Fraser downtown, you need to either drive there for activities and/​or if you need different food items but not a big deal !

The location is beautiful and every view gives you a little taste of it. Gorgeous.
We stayed in a cabin on property — a 3 bed, 2 bath. Room sizes and comfort were great, and the place overlooked a meadow. Awesome! Cons of the cabin: I found hair in the ‘clean’ towels. There were bugs all over the floor. I can get over that, the cabin was beautiful otherwise.
We did a few activities on site — the tubing hill, the zip line, and a breakfast horse back ride. The tubing hill is usually pretty crowded, but was a good time for those that did it. The zip line… seems a bit like a rip off, not going to lie. First off, it’s not a zip line COURSE, it’s just one zip down and then you walk on back. You climb up a 40 foot extension ladder. Errrr… no thanks. But those that did it enjoyed. I still don’t think it’s worth the $$. The horseback ride was amazing. I cannot remember the girl who guided our group (she had red hair), but she was fantastic. Very very nice and super helpful for my horse-​shy sister. The breakfast provided was good, but nothing special. Still, I’d do that activity again any time.
The trails around to hike are great. Don’t miss the waterfall one. It’s short and beautiful.
The buffet? Skip it. Not worth the cash, especially $ 14 per person for dinner. It’s sooooooooooo not worth it. The Buckboard grill, however, was great. Food was delicious.
Lastly, their staff — every one was great and helpful. I was looking to reserve Columbine Point for my parent’s vow renewal, and the wedding coordinators were fantastic to me, letting me reserve the point for an hour with no charge. Excellent!
Love this place, will definitely be back!

We had so much fun here! There are more activities than you can imagine, and most of them are included free with any kind of stay, some of them have a fee but it’s not a huge amount ($ 5-​$ 10).
We went on the summer tubing hill and it was magic! You fly down the hill on a tube, and then a «magic carpet» brings you back to the top to do it again! It was really fun for people of all ages, not just kids, we saw some people in their 60+ going down and laughing all the way!
The employees here are fabulous and fun! They are caring and kind.
We also went on the zipline, did archery, went roller skating, played table tennis, went rock climbing, and more! All in 2 nights.
The food is buffet food, which I am not a fan of, but the grill on campus was pretty good.

Let me start by saying the location is amazing, every way you turn things get more and more beautiful, and the value is wonderful from a wedding planning point of view. That’s where all the good things stop. Oh Christina the assistant wedding planner is awesome! I give her on her own 5 stars!
Every issue I had with planning our wedding went back to the YMCA/​SMR. The first problem was the first planner we had there left and didn’t pass on any of her promises to the next planner. When we booked our wedding the didn’t have caterers at SMR, so we had to get outside catering, and we were totally ok with this! As things progressed they got catering as an option, well that’s great for them, we already paid a deposit for an outside caterer. The first planner told us we could rent dishes from SMR, well the 2^nd planner knew nothing about that and told me they didn’t even have dishes, well about a month of battling (if you rent outside dishes the up charge for going down a dirt road is insane!!!) they finally agreed to rent me the dishes.
Then we wanted to rent a large cabin for much of our family and wedding party to stay in. We went and looked at the different cabins and decided on a 6 bedroom, well they have 2 with completely different layouts we wanted Willow, I was told they couldn’t guarantee us Willow (which is 6 bedrooms with a loft while the other one is only 6 bedrooms, less beds), yet they had no problem taking our money for a deposit and just telling us they could put a request in for that cabin, but its no guarantee even thought no one has reserved either cabin yet and this is 8 months in advance. Then the day of check in they wouldn’t let our parents check into the cabin because we weren’t there, even thought we had to give them a roster of every person staying in the cabin, what is the point if you won’t let them check in.
It was the beginning of wedding season and they were laying fresh mulch at each of the sites, we were told that the area we were having our rehearsal dinner would be done that day. Well around 3:30 we drove by and it still wasn’t done. When we stopped to ask one of the main maintenance guys he said it would be done that weekend but not that day. Luckily a friend was with me and made it clear that wasn’t going to cut it, so the mulch was spread by the time we got there at 6:30 for dinner.
We had reserved a separate cabin for us to stay in on our wedding night and the night after. We had requested early check in to the cabin so that the bridesmaids and myself could get ready in the cabin. We were told we needed to call the day of to see if we could check in early and that it shouldn’t be a problem at all. Yes well the event planner brought us the key to our cabin at our ceremony at 5pm!!! Needless to say we didn’t have the cabin for the women to get ready in and take pictures in.
Our ceremony and reception went wonderful, Columbine point is breathtaking and an amazing ceremony site, we had a reception at the open air cook out shelter, it took a lot of work but it looked amazing when we were done.
We checked into our cabin, cabin was very nice, it was a 2 bedroom with a full kitchen and great views. On sunday the weather was awful, freezing cold and snow/​sleeting (it was june 8^th) so after going into town we wanted to go back to the cabin, relax and watch a movie. Well the tv didn’t work. We called down to the front desk and she said she would look into it. 45 min later she called back (we didn’t get the call because the phone didn’t work either) the button was flashing for a message and it was the front desk saying «sorry there is no one here to fix the tv, sorry». So I called down and asked to talk to a manager, was told there wasn’t one (9 out of 10 times you ask there is never a manager there) i could call maintenance, i called maintenance, there was no answer, on the message it says for emergency call this other number, i call there no answer. I call the front desk again, ask why we can’t go to one of the empty cabins right by us and take there cable box for the night, they were all empty. Nope they can’t do that, so 2 hours later, they move us to a different cabin, its now 9pm! Needless to say it was completely pointless to move at that point, but we moved so we could have something to do for a little bit before falling asleep.
The next day when checking out they asked how everything was, well needless to say I surely let them know. When telling her about not being able to get early check in with my bridesmaids on Saturday she said, Mike the event planner had had our room key since 2pm! I nearly lost it!!!
So needless to say, the site is gorgeous and if you are on a budget its great, you can bring your own alcohol and have it caterer from outside sources (we saved a ton of money this way, the YMCA/​SMR wants $ 24 a head for burgers and hot dogs, we paid half and had amazing bbq catering from Franks BBQ). I highly recommend having a day of planner

Went back and stayed in a different lodge. The room was in much better condition. The only issue was when you entered the building a very strong smell of garbage or something rotting. Once you got into the room it was gone. We had a very different experience than our last visit and enjoyed our time there.

A progressive dinner was held here this past weekend. It was a beautiful full moon event.
We skied from hut to hut. The first hut was the appetiser hut. Second hut was soup. The third and last hut was dinner and dessert. 3.5 miles total.
It was my second time cross country skiing. Trails were in great shape. Staff very helpful and friendly.
I can’t wait to cross country ski again.

Second year taking the dinner sleigh ride out and we have enjoyed every time. This is a fun and different thing to do with new family and friends in town. The kids love it too! It’s ok to wear your ski pants and ski jackets especially when it is snowing or cold outside– they hardly ever cancel even when it’s freezing outside. Bring hats gloves and lots of socks with boots. I wore jeans and yes I was jealous when I saw everyone arriving in ski pants. They do provide blankets so that helps a lot. You will enjoy your dinner sleigh more if you are prepared for the cold weather.
The staff is friendly and Ashley was our sleigh driver. She provided all kinds of information about the horses and the area. We even saw a white snow bunny hopping along. The horses are beautiful and friendly even for the kids to pet before the ride. Make sure to bring your camera too.
The dinner is served in a rustic hut and it’s warm inside. They begin with Cowboy coffee and they have cider and hot chocolate packets for kids. Salad is the first course and it’s a basic salad. The second course is Cowboy beans, baked potato– the bowls of sour cream, bacon and cheese on the table is for the potato not the salad. I added some bacon to my salad before I knew about the potato. Bacon makes everything taste better. You have the choice of trout, chicken or steak. This time my steak was a little overcooked for medium but still had delicious flavor. After being so content and stuffed full they bring out apple cobbler with ice cream. Now can you say, «food coma.» They don’t serve alcohol but you are welcome to bring your own. I brought a bottle of wine and gave it to the girls when I checked in and they had it right on my table for dinner when we arrived. We also had hot chocolate with Baileys in our thermos to keep us warm on the sleigh ride.
Another wonderful dinner sleigh ride hanging with friends was the perfect evening this winter.
One of the friendly cowboys told us we should try the chuck wagon in the summer– they pull a grill behind the chuck wagon and you dine inside of a tent. Sounds like a perfect summer evening. They have horses to rent too. The cowboy also told the little girls they could volunteer time to brush and groom horses this summer. I am a big fan of the YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch.
I will be back!

The cabin was perfect for what we needed. It slept all 32 of us comfortably. The plumbing handled us all, the kitchen had plenty of room (stocked with kitchenware) and the living area was great for community time. I would recommend this cabin for any large group who want to ski Winter Park, but don’t want to stay in town. I loved the place and I didn’t even use any of the amenities. I would definitely book this place again.

Great rates and just 15 min to Winter Park. You kind of get what you pay for. I. e…beds are dorm style and only slightly comfortable. Rooms are dorm style. Cafeteria food. Lots of big groups (churches from Kansas, Texas etc.)
But, our kids LOVE it! Rec. Center with pool, roller skating, b ball, pool tables, climbing wall and more. It’s really a winter camp for kids and families looking for an affordable fun place to stay

Great place to spend the day with the family. Rock wall $ 5, archery $ 3, all day pass $ 15 for skating, basketball, floor hockey, ping pong, dodge ball, swimming and more. Also hiking, horse back riding, craft shop and camp fires. Plenty to do all year long. Stayed at Inn at Silver Creek about 5 minutes up the road.

We came to SMR for a family reunion. It was a nice experience, except that the kitchens aren’t very well equipped. All we had to cook with were cast iron skillets, and everything we tried to cook stuck badly. Other than that, the cabins were decent. If you’ve ever served on a submarine, you will be perfectly comfortable with the bedrooms.
EDIT: There was no in-​ground barbecue grill at the cabin. I know there are bears in the area, but I think we could have got in a grill session before trouble showed up. Major loss of points here.

Great family vacation. We had 2 queen beds and 2 bunks for $ 114 a night with full breakfast included. So much to do at Snow Mountain Ranch. Arts and crafts for kiddos, cross country skiing, sledding, ice skating. Pool was too cold I’m told. Everyone was really friendly. Must admit if you stay in the lodge it can get a lil noisy if you have kiddos with you. Sometimes past 11. Otherwise, I’ll be back great value and lots of fun!

Dude and I had a mostly good experience at Snow Mountain Ranch. Our experience with SMR was for a guided horseback ride; we did not use their lodging.
We were interested in their two-​hour breakfast ride: prepared breakfast of eggs, sausage, pancakes, and «cowboy coffee» followed by a guided ride. Unfortunately, when we called we were given misinformation about when the tours actually were. They’re not every day, despite their advertising card (placed at various stores/​shops around the area) saying: «Breakfast Ride Daily». So, we missed out on this opportunity. When Dude called back with a different question, he was hung up on. Likely an accident, but didn’t sit well considering the less-​than-​knowledgeable encounter we just had.
So, we booked for the two-​hour ride (no breakfast). When we arrived, there was only one person working. The ride before ours was getting antsy (a bunch of children), as the ride before theirs was running behind. It sort of stacked up on top of itself, because by the time we got saddled up and ready to go, we were upwards of 30 minutes behind our scheduled ride time. I get that they’re animals and in many ways they’ll go at their own pace (much like children – hahaha… I kid. OR DO I??), so still we remained patient.
Once we did get going, I overheard a lot of back-​and-​forth about the Ranch’s policy with children riders, etc. I didn’t care so much, but it sort of came off as unprofessional — I mean, shouldn’t they have those rules in place across the board for all staff to know? Also, one of the ride helpers came off as more than a little abrasive as some points. I appreciate that their staff have experience with the horses (many riding horses for many, many years), but I don’t, so I don’t appreciate being talked down to and/​or like I should know better — because I don’t. I don’t ride horses. Hence why Dude and I paid $ 50 a piece for a *guided* ride.
The perk of Snow Mountain Ranch is that their prices are more reasonable than other stables around the area. I saw some listing hour-​long rides at $ 70 or so. The fabled breakfast ride was quoted at $ 55. So $ 50 for two hours is not bad. The ride itself was around the area on trails; unfortunately I wasn’t able to pay much attention because I was too busy making sure my horse wasn’t eating grass (which is totally cute and awesome, BTW). As an alternative, the ranch offers sleigh rides (including Hot Cocoa rides in the winter), so if you want to go by horseback but maybe take in a little more scenery and/​or photographs this would be the way to go.
Final caveat: maybe wear chaps. Or padded bike shorts. Maybe even heavy jeans? I had light denim pants on and still got saddle bruises. No yeehaws from me there.