Things to Do in Ken Caryl

Fifty horses roam the prairies and Rocky Mountain foothills of Chatfield Stables, and dedicated trainers call to each of them by name, having known many of them since they were lanky and awkward foals. Trainers organize an extensive schedule of programs and activities to ensure that all these horses receive healthy amounts of play and exercise. Programs include horse camps for riders as young as seven years old, with activities such as grooming, saddling, and riding. The training team also leads riding and horsemanship lessons, along with leisurely trail rides through miles of forest trails, which follow the Platte River where riders can attempt to test their newfound abilities on river-dwelling seahorses.

Shannon Long's path to the American dream went in the opposite direction than that of most people. While many work in retail to support their dreams of becoming artists, Shannon molded clay over steel substructures, sculpting half-scale abstract figurative art while dreaming about starting a fly-fishing business. As a boy growing up in popular Lake Havasu, he frequented a small Western-themed shop where the owner was always chatting with customers who shared his fascination with the independent spirit of the American West. In a turn of serendipity, Shannon got married and happily followed his wife to her native Colorado. Sometime after, he opened the fly-fishing shop he had always dreamed of, and found himself becoming the shopkeeper chatting with and educating customers in their shared interests.

Today, Shannon oversees a guide service manned by a staff of veteran fly-fishing experts. On full-day and half-day fly-fishing trips, guides lead anglers for the grand slam: rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, brown trout, and brook trout all caught in a single trip. The Rocky Mountain landscapes surround fishermen in dramatic scenery, including towering pine trees, giant red rocks, and bright-blue skies as the sounds of colliding bighorn sheep occasionally ring out over the water. In addition to guided trips, the staff also leads classes, including courses designed for women and families, that cater to both beginner and advanced anglers.

Abyss Scuba's crew of dive masters and instructors has enough combined experience to papier mâché together a life-size scuba diver out of all their certifications. Their courses range from introductory discovery dives to professional rescue-diver instruction. A wide range of specialty courses prepares divers for adverse conditions, deep diving, the use of nitrox, and chance encounters with James Cameron’s personal submarine. Not content to let their students test their skills in their bathtubs at home, the divers at Abyss lead annual excursions to diving spots around the world.

Amid the crisp, thinning mountain air steeped in the aroma of pine trees, a single-track trail winds through a dense evergreen forest past sweeping views of the valley below. In 2005, wilderness enthusiast Stefan Van der Steen founded Denver Adventures as a means of introducing others to scenes such as this by immersing them in the great outdoors through adventures such as ziplines, hiking treks, and rafting excursions. Stefan and his team of knowledgeable guides lead groups to an elevation of 8,000 feet for zipline tours on an Association for Challenge Course Technology–certified course, where riders reach speeds up to 50 miles per hour past Colorado’s naturally blurry trees.

Denver Adventures also leads hiking, snowshoeing, and mountain-biking treks through the uneven terrain, gauging participants' skill throughout to determine whether they can traverse a steep uphill climb or do a Superman seat grab over a row of sleeping bears. Making use of all the wilderness has to offer, guides also take explorers on rafting trips through canyons and past gold mines, or train them to navigate vertical routes using top-rope techniques during five-hour rock-climbing excursions.

Owner Jennifer Schroeder began crafting her own all-natural products in high school and, one career later, now heads a team of skincare mavens who give kitchen chemists the tools to create their own spa experiences. Demonstration lectures form a compact introduction to a single process and leave students with a product sample to take home and touch up aging portraits of great-great-grandparents, and workshops plunge all hands into the fundamentals of gel-based anti-aging serums, exfoliating sugar scrubs, or herbal soaps. The small-group classes focus on practicable skills and include recipes for home use, enabling perpetual plant-based pampering.