Embracing Colorado Wilderness with Over the Hill Outfitters

The Great Colorado Outdoors: Where Life is Best Experienced from a Horse

Spring has finally sprung—full-on—here in Colorado and despite the fact that it snowed about ten days ago, this week the thermometer has been registering summertime temps. Roadways over the highest mountain passes are being plowed for passage and outfitters of all sorts are preparing for the influx of summer visitors. There’s still some snow to be cleared from the steep mountain trails, however, with the warmth of our southwestern Colorado sun, all our glorious wilderness will soon be open to locals and vacationers alike.

My fellow ski instructor buddies have taken up their summer posts as guides, landscapers or in my case, as a full-time writer, to name a few. Mother nature and all of us fortunate enough to live in this beautiful country are transitioning nicely into summer. At the end of ski season, I sat down with Dennis Huis, a top ski instructor at Telluride Ski & Snowboard School, to hear about his flip side, the job he’s been doing every summer for about as long as he’s been in ski school world.

Dennis talks about his work as a guide on pack trips with Over the Hill Outfitters in Durango, Colorado in my Travel Fun interview below. Click on the play button  to listen to what he has to say about life on the trail. People from all over the world learn about the true definition of “getting away from it all” on these five-day horse trips into the Weminuche Wilderness, the largest wilderness area in Colorado which encompasses a significant part of the rugged San Juan Mountains, some of the most spectacular peaks in the United States.

Break Time

On the Trail Again

Dennis Huis as a Ski Instructor

These pack trips go into full swing by early July once the snow has melted and then run through the summer. Over the Hill Outfitters also offers some terrific trail rides at their ranch in Durango, fine horseback adventures that have already begun for the season. Horses and the West go together like skis on snow. Lucky for us that both allow us to access some of the most gorgeous terrain on earth.

Happy trails to all!

Gentle Beasts

Durango, Colorado ranks as one of my favorite towns in the West. For more on the town, where to stay and what to do, read Durango, the San Juan Skyway and the Western Movie Culture of the Four Corners Region According to Fred Wildfang, On the Trail of Western Movie-Making in Utah and Colorado, Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad:  An American Treasure and Sultry Summer Evenings at Durango’s Rochester Hotel.

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