Members are invited July 19th-21st for our annual members appreciation weekend! Potluck Saturday afternoon 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Bring something delicious to share. OLT staff will serve breakfast Sunday morning starting at 9:00 am. Live Music on Friday and Saturday nights from 8-midnight at the pavilion.

The River Arkansas

Friday night we welcome The River Arkansas

The four-piece each skillfully showcases their craft while seamlessly bonding together as a band. Bolder Beat noted that "Together, they give off a heartfelt and wholesome sound which resonates with the Colorado lifestyle of mountain life meets the pavement."

Check them out here! The River Arkansas "All the Way Down" (Official Music Video)

Saturday night will include a live performance from Float Like a Buffalo.

Float Like a Buffalo is a Denver-based 6-piece, 9-instrument, high-energy Funk Rock band. Our style is rock with funk, ska, reggae, and jam influences. Nods to the funk of Lettuce and The Motet, jam of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, rock of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Chicago Transit Authority, soul of James Brown, & high-energy guitar licks of Jimi Hendrix all combine to make a unique sound that's impossible not to dance to.

Enjoy this link: Float Like a Buffalo - Vertigo - Official Music Video

As a special treat, our own Melody Monroe will be playing near the pool on Saturday evening. Her one-woman show is sure to impress and inspire.

Check her out here: Summer Storm (Official Music Video)

This year, we will combine Member's Appreciation Weekend with our annual Outreach Board Meeting. Join us for the Board Meeting in the Pavilion on Saturday and meet our Board of Directors!

Welcome to summer OLT members, The board of directors of Orient Land Trust is excited to announce that Crystal England has been selected as the new Executive Director-Select, taking over when current Executive Director Doug Bishop retires at the end of the year. Crystal worked as part of our front desk team for years before serving as Deputy Director for the last year.

Preparation and planning for our Executive Director's retirement has been a two-year process.

First, the OLT Board of Directors created the Deputy Director position so that the person selected would have time to train, work in a management position, and be prepared to take on the role of Executive Director when the time came.

Second, the board created a job description, posted the Deputy Director position, and accepted applications from around a dozen candidates.

Third, the Governance Committee made recommendations and the board conducted the first round of interviews with eight candidates. Fourth, we had the second round of interviews and finally a third round of interviews with the final two candidates. For these final interviews, the board invited OLT managers to join them and selected Crystal England for the position.

Recently the board posted and interviewed two current OLT employees for the Executive Director position and decided to hire Crystal.

Please join us in congratulating Crystal England on her new position as Executive Director-Select.

Roger D Courtemanche
Chairman of the Board
Orient Land Trust

Seeking help with Adopt-A-Roadway cleanup on Sept 21.

OLT's Conservation Committee is sponsoring a cleanup of County Road GG on Saturday, Sept 21, 2024, in accordance with our participation in the Saguache County Adopt-A-Roadway program. All members are invited to help us out - we will gather at 9:00 am at the Welcome Center. Equipment and transportation will be provided by OLT. Several OLT Board members and staff will be participating, as well as members of the Conservation Committee. We should be finished around noon.

CDOT provides a training and safety video, and each participant is required to view it before the event. If you can view it before arriving, here is a link to the video:
https://www.codot.gov/programs/adopt-a-highway/videos

If you are unable to view the video ahead of time, please arrive at the Welcome Center at 8:40 am on the morning of the event, and we'll have it available for viewing.

Recent Fire Hazard Clean-up

On April 21, as part of OLT's efforts to mitigate wildfire risk, Doug Bishop led a group of eight OLT members and staff in the removal of dead wood and other fire hazards from the tent camping sites between the Welcome Center and Meadow Pond. In less than two hours, the group had the campsites cleaned up and looking good. Thanks to all who helped! 

Saturday August 10th, from 10am-1pm.

The Everson Ranch is hosting the Wyoming Worm Wrangler! Last year's hands-on worm casting workshop was a lot of fun and very educational for everyone. We will gather again this year for this workshop. Join us to learn how to set up a worm bed, how to maintain the worm bed, and how to sort out the worms from their castings. We will look for different sites for the worms at the ranch. Both indoor and outdoor vermicomposting systems will be discussed. Bring your questions and ask the Worm Wrangler! Pitchforks will be put to use!
If you wish to purchase worms or worm castings to be picked up at the event, please contact Erika (Wyoming Worm Wrangler) in advance. Worms may be available at the event, but there are no guarantees. You can reach her at 307-760-6171 via phone or text, email at , or through her Wyoming Worm Wrangler Facebook or Instagram pages.

You should feel confident in starting your own worm bed after this workshop!

This is a free event and donations are appreciated to support Erika and the Everson Ranch.

After the event we offer tours for those that are interested in learning more about the Everson Ranch.

Location: Everson Ranch, 29398 County Road 61, Moffat, Colorado 81143

Info: , garden manager/ranch caretaker

The Everson Ranch participated in the annual, international World Naked Gardening Day in May.

We had perfect weather to attend to the garden in the open and shed some or all clothes to experience the natural world. Some had never gardened before, some were experienced and some had joined this event several times. All reported that being physically active in the outdoors and in the open was a liberating experience! Thank you volunteers for your enthusiasm and for all your help! It means a lot to us! We are looking forward to celebrating World Naked Gardening Day with you in 2025.
If you don't want to wait so long and would like to experience a good physical workout by mowing our lawns for about 3 hours the next time you come to Valley View, please contact Sabine, garden manager at: .

In June, we offered as our free, educational event at the ranch, the Mushroom Inoculation Workshop. Tyler, the local presenter from the organic certified Alpine Valley Mushroom Farm, demonstrated how to inoculate mycelium to grow mushrooms in one's own backyard. His passion about the importance of nurturing our local fungi was definitely contagious! We are hoping that he will be back in the future to share his broad knowledge with us at the ranch.

Valley View welcomes guests with dogs under the following conditions:

Dogs are not allowed in the pools or waterways.

Dogs must be kept on a leash that is attached to a person or tied up in such a way that there is no interference or impact on other guests getting to and enjoying the pools, or accessing facilities.

No excessive barking.

If a dog shows aggressive behavior to other dogs or humans we expect the owner to take the dog off the property immediately.

We have 5 designated pet friendly accommodations: Elm, Willow, Cottonwood, Aspen and Cedar cabins. All other indoor accommodations are pet free zones. Dogs are not to be left in an accommodation or vehicle alone. Our fee for dogs is minimal. ADA recognized service dogs are exempt.

A service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.

Emotional support animals, comfort animals, and therapy dogs are not service animals under Title II and Title III of the ADA.

If your dog responds to voice commands and does not chase the wild life, you may unleash your dog once you are well away from the campground when walking toward the Orient Mine.

There is a limit of 2 dogs per reservation.

There comes a time in our lives when we need a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, when we just set aside a brief moment in our busy, chaotic lives to take a breath to refresh ourselves, we are simply inhaling the same set of assumptions and preconceived notions that have been polluting our minds and bodies for years. Sometimes it's necessary to search out new air to breathe. 

Mary and I were sitting in a pool with six strangers who, like us, had traveled for hours to escape the noise and chaos of our daily lives to soak in a pool of 100-degree-plus water. In some regards, it was a scene that could have played out in any one of hundreds of resorts that dot the Colorado Rockies. But there were significant differences here. Instead of a fiberglass or concrete lined pool with artificially generated bubbles percolating in artificially heated water, this pool was lined with natural rocks, the heat and bubbles emanating from a natural hot spring. But that's not the only thing that made this experience different. We were all stark naked. 

Valley View Hot Springs has been visited by a bear. This year there has been quite a bit of bear activity along the Sangre de Cristo range. Shortages of the wild food supply for bears has made it hard for them to find enough food to pack on hibernation reserves. Bears that repeatedly visit human campgrounds, towns, and dwellings are euthanized, which none of us want. We have not had a bear sighting for several years. However, in early August, a bear repeatedly visited the trash dumpster on the edge of the campground. There was a significant amount of food scraps that were put in the bear proof trash containers instead of placed in the buckets provided at all cooking areas. Some people were throwing partially eaten meals into the trash containers instead of scraping the food scraps into one of the buckets. The trash containers are bear proof but the smell still attracts hungry animals. The bear proof trash cans are emptied into the dumpster which concentrates the food smells which attracts bears. A dumpster with significant food waste is a strong temptation for bears and they will expand their search for food to nearby areas. In our case, that means our campground.

The food scraps that considerate guests diligently separate from other trash is collected in buckets and the contents are fed to the chickens. This quickly processes the food waste into chicken manure and there is little food smell remaining to attract wild animals. There are buckets for food scraps in all of the kitchens (Oak House, Sunset, Spruce House) as well as in the Pavilion and at the outdoor sinks at Main Bath. We will soon also have buckets in all five cabins. Or, you can pack your food scraps out as is recommended at National Park campgrounds. Please do not put food scraps or food waste in the trash cans. Rinse off paper plates, plastic bags, or containers that were used for food before putting those items in the trash cans. For your safety and for a bear-free trip, help us keep a clean camp. Store your food in the food storage cabin near the Pavilion or in your car. Separate any food waste and put it in the buckets provided instead of in the trash. With your help, we can return to a bear free campground and the bears can live peacefully in the wild.

It is a testament to just how relaxed one gets here at Valley View that we regularly gather discarded or forgotten garments, possessions and (especially) Pool Toys.

We are asking that, if you bring these things here, you also take them with you when you leave. We throw a lot of pool toys away each week. This is a profound waste and a sad record of conservation. We cannot curate this (seemingly) perpetual and ever larger "collection" of abandoned happinesses. Please remember them and take what's yours with you when you return to "The World".

We had a few incidents earlier this summer where unsupervised offspring were able to effectively block some of our plumbing drain systems. This took a good bit of time and effort to discover, analyze and then rectify or repair. These incidents most likely would not have occurred if their parents had been present. Valley View uses the water sources in many and varied ways. Fascinated and exploring children can impact our water systems when they dam up our creeks as well. If parents or guardians are around, they can guide the children to learn rather than adversely affect our systems.

This year was a crazy windy Spring and Summer and our Smoke Hut was "recruited" into becoming a "tumbleweed" on more than one occasion. We have righted it in place yet again and we encourage you to use it, or your personal vehicle, once more for all of your (legal) smoking enjoyments. All smoking on property is requested only in these locations.

Though cell phones and devices are amazing innovations, we are reminding our guests that Valley View Hot Springs is (hopefully to be viewed as) a "land that time forgot". The ambiance of a natural environment becomes more elusive when these devices are held in prominence.

With Respect and Gratitude,
Mark Jacobi
OLT Facilities Manager