The old Bait and Switch strikes again. We are staying in Lake City (from Texas) in a house with our four kids. My parents wanted to come up while we are here (they aren't from Texas and we only get to see them once a year). I suggested they stay at the Vickers Ranch bc back in 2010 we went horse back riding there, and we had a terrific time. I remember thinking how beautiful it was. They called months ago to book the reservation and my dad explained to the person taking the reservation that they were excited to stay there because their grandchildren would get to fish. The Vickers lady told her only people staying on the property could fish. After much back and forth the Vickers lady told him they could stay there and his grandchildren could fish. We arrived today to fish. We checked in at the front and talked to Catherine who was delightful and who was fully aware that two in our party were staying and eight of us were fishing. Our boys each caught one. During this time, Paulette Vickers came over and found us fishing. She introduced herself and wanted to make sure we hadn't just come to fish from the highway. My mom told her where she and my dad were staying. She left. She came back and told my husband that she talked it over with her family and they determined that our kids could not fish on their property. So we wrapped up and left. Every business needs to make decisions that best suit their business, and I have no issue with having that policy. My issue is the bait and switch. We were told twice--once over the phone and once in person--that our kids could fish, even though it was my parents staying there. Since there was no longer a reason to stay at Vickers Ranch (it's expensive and it has gone waaaay down in the last 5 years) my parents checked out and found other, cheaper, nicer, accommodations. Vickers Ranch gave up $1080 over two fish. They are nice fish, but not $500 nice. It's disappointing that Vickers doesn't stand behind their word. read more

You know you're in for a real treat if you stop at a resort that's been in continuous operation since the 1920. Vickers Ranch in Lake City Colorado is one of the oldest dude ranch guest resorts in Colorado and there's a reason for that: fishing, family and fun! I once wrote that: "Few things in Colorado have remained the same since the Vickers family opened their property to the public in the early 1900s. But the minute you arrive at their family-oriented resort you'll see this is one place where the frontier spirit is alive and well. " Read more of my review at http://bit.ly/VickersReview read more

I discourage any families with young children from going on horse trail ride led by Faith. The other guides may be much better, but Faith was a bad fit for children. I wasn't worried about going with four kids because two are teens and one of the teens is a very experienced rider. However I was worried about my youngest one - the ride was a treat for his upcoming 7th birthday. He had always been too afraid to get on a horse before. The kid is super sweet and tender-hearted and tends to be fearful. But his siblings/ cousins assured him we'd all be right there. He said "I'm afraid but I will try it!" When we arrived at Vickers One of my teens went right up to the guide and asked if she could help. The guide, Faith, was sort of short with her and said "All you can do is just stay out of the way." She must have realized she was abrupt because she went on to explain some of her safety reasons which were all very reasonable. There were three or four other families there and in all I'd say our ride had maybe 15-20 people. My kid came up to me and complained but I reminded her that Faith has to manage a bunch of horses and a bunch of people so it's her job to keep us in line. In hindsight, I shouldn't have given her so much credit. She was just plain rude. Faith came over and gave the most disjointed primer on horseback riding. She's one of those people who doesn't explain things well. She kinda started in the middle. I was worried my little kid wouldn't really understand but I figured I could explain to him how to hold reins and so on once we were on the trail. At that point, my youngest blurted out some question but Faith snapped at him "You can't talk you need to listen" To be fair to Faith, me and the teens were shushing him as well, but she was so abrupt with him that he sat there quietly crying through the rest of her slipshod tutorial. Faith announced that she would put each rider with a horse that fit them. She didn't ask any of my kids ages. She didn't ask about their riding experience. I stood next to my youngest who was clinging to my hand. She called him over and I fully expected her to call me next, to put me on a horse near him. But she didn't. I ended up a full six or seven horses in front of him. All the other kids were right with me, but he was far behind. I asked her if I could move back in line but she explained that she couldn't move us yet because of the order the horses needed to be in as we moved out. About 10 minutes later she told me that she wasn't going to move him up or move me back because his horse was happier back there. He seemed all right, but he was a long way from his family. As the ride progressed my youngest kid was clearly not OK. He dropped his reins. He fell behind. He clearly didn't know what to do. Faith yelled at him "You gotta tell your horse what to do you can't just sit there like a lump" By this point I was concerned and so were my teen girls. One time, when we could hear the little guy crying out, my oldest stopped her horse to look back for him. "You keep up!" barked Faith at my teen. She followed this outburst with an explanation about how the horses were 'spoilt' and might 'rear up' if they were held back from the lead horse. Which, once again, seems reasonable, but could have been explained in a much nicer way. Also, anybody with any people sense at this point would have understood that my entire group (the four of us in the front) were extremely worried about our youngest family member (who at some points was so far behind us we couldn't see him). Then, we heard a high pitched screaming from our six year old, as his horse ran suddenly forward. The horse stopped as soon as it got where it wanted to be (near his girlfriend horse I think) and our kid was fine, just shaken. Faith turned towards me from her position at the head of the line and shouted "Does he have ADD or something?" OK, now I was mad. Very mad. We'd paid $400 for the five of us to go on this ride. That's a lot of money to my family and this was supposed to be an opportunity for my youngest to conquer his fears - not be publically humiliated. My teen, who was nearer to the front, was explaining to Faith that our six year old was just inexperienced and a little afraid - something any decent guide should have taken the time to get to know. I shouted to her, "No he does not have ADD, but he should have been placed closer to me." She then started explaining to my older kids that was a special ed teacher and could "tell". She told me knowingly, "I think they do better when mama isn't babysitting them." So she basically split me up from my youngest child on purpose, based on some self-righteous sense that she knows best. She then turned to my teen and explained that she herself never wanted kids. To me it's clear that Faith is a horse person and not a people person. They'd be better off having someone more personable lead families on trail rides. read more

This was one of the worst experiences of my whole life. Although my family and I did not stay at the Vickers Dude Ranch, we decided to go on the afternoon trail horseback ride. All I can say is that I will never be returning to Vickers Dude Ranch under ANY circumstance. Vickers Dude Ranch horses are disobedient, easily spooked and some of the worst behaved horses I have seen in years. Not only were the horses bad, but the staff was rude, impolite and unhelpful (the staff even bashed former costumers). At no point in time did I feel safe on the horse ride and we had multiple spooks (3/5 of our horses). The ride was also EXTREMELY overpriced at $80 for 2 hour ride. Considering the misbehaving horses and the rude staff you would think that the view on the trails should be outstanding, yet the trail was repetitive and you went in a full circle twice. I would understand possibly paying $80 for an awesome trail, helpful and caring staff, and outstanding horses, but this was not the case. I would not recommend this place and definitely would never recommend it for smaller children in fear that the horses would get spooked and do as they did during my visit. All I can say is that I will never go to Vickers Dude Ranch again, and this is coming from someone who truly never complains, take my advice. read more