It’s that time of the season that we as guides start to dread that empty feeling of the hunts coming to an end.  For those of you whom have hunted with us, you know that we live for this.  The snow is starting to gather a little depth in the higher elevations and showing signs of pushing even more onto the ranch.  The cows have began to congregate into bigger herds, the bulls still sing out with random bugles and the smell of fall is definitely in the air.

With one week left of hunting and 5 days until we begin our next hunt, we can’t wait to see what new bulls will have arrived on the ranch come Monday.  I’ve updated some of the pictures to help catch us up to speed in the photo gallery, however we’re still missing a few from the Marabou Wrangler.  In a few weeks, I’ll get a “Best Of The Season” for everyone.

Thanks for visiting us on the website and we’ll post more as we have more computer time.

Happy Hunting!

Brad & The VO Crew

It’s hard to believe that we are already over half way through our hunting season.  October has welcomed us with a fresh blanket of snow and highs of only in the 30′s.  The elk remain fired up with bugles and the Fall colors only enhance the beauty of the season. 

We remain in awe of this beautiful ranch and all of it’s bountys.  It’s hard to get a good nights rest when you think your dreaming of elk bugles only to realize that your half awake and the bugles are just outside of camp.  Being a guide and doing what we love, I can’t imagine doing anything else.  For those of you whom have hunted with us, you know.  For the rest, we are a “family” that can’t wait for you to get into our camp.

I’ll try to get another post out soon as well as the weekly photo’s.  Feel free to comment or drop us a line. 

Happy Fall hunting to everyone,

Brad & The VO Team

Sorry for the delay in getting this post out here.  Obviously, hunting is our primary focus this time of year here in Northwest Colorado.  Wow!  What a start to the season.  For three weeks now we have heard more and more bugling and we are just getting fired up.  Dirk mentioned that he started his Tuesday morning hunt by chirping on his cow call at a nearby bull only to find that his mouth was sore from calling the day before.  I’m not sure if that was the only reason, but in his defense calling is working and the bulls are fired up.

We here at Vanatta Outfitters have been outfitting on some really nice ranches in Northwest Colorado.  Wolf Mountain Ranch has got to be the best that we’ve experienced yet.  Take a look at the photo gallery and see some of the highlights from the first few weeks.  Now that we are settling into a routine at the ranch, I will try to be better at posting in the upcoming weeks.  If you don’t see you picture out there, don’t blame me blame your guide.

Good luck to you and your hunting adventures this Fall!

The VO Crew

The day has finally arrived to head to camp, not to do chores, clean or build but to hunt.  I cannot express how excited we are to begin the season.  We will begin posting pictures at the end of each week of the success.  We’ll do our best to not only get pictures of those on the ground, but those that we are after as well.  If you share in our excitement and think that you want to get on board for next year,  inquire soon.  At this point we are approximately 70% booked for next year.

Stay tuned we’ll be bringing you the best coverage that we can provide in the upcoming weeks.  Now I’ve gotta go find my cow calls…

All right it’s almost go time.  The building is over, the roads are cleared and the bulls have began rubbing off their velvet.  That means only one thing – it’s time to hunt!  I think that we guides are as excited or more excited than any other hunter in the woods. We’ve all been working our butt’s off building, cleaning, office work and catching a sneak peak at the elk when we get a chance.  All the build up has us chomping at the bit.

So keep an eye on the photo galleries to see the latest and greatest in the upcoming weeks.  If you try to reach us and there’s a delay, it’s because we are in the woods.  Happy Hunting from the VO Crew!

We are defintely getting close!  We’re getting close to having all of our construction work done at camp.  We’re getting close to the beginning of hunting season (less than 3 weeks).  I promise that know one can be more excited than we are right now.

All of us guides met this past weekend to clear roads, find property lines and discuss hunting areas.  Who am I kidding, all we really wanted to do is to look for elk and to that end, we were successful!  With every turn, I was personally shocked by not only the amount of elk and sign, but the true beauty of this ranch. 

We’ve put in countless hours this summer getting the facilities prepared for our guests and now it’s time to get down to business in the woods.  If you try to reach us in the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be hit and miss.  If you’re thinking about next year, you better get on board soon.  As soon as the success stories begin rolling out in a few weeks, the remaining 20 spots are going to be gone quickly.

I’ve posted a few more pictures in the gallery and will try to get more out at the end of the week. 

Back to the ranch – Brad

I have to say that the summer is my next favorite time of the year next to fall.  As you may have seen in the photo gallery, we’ve been busy remodeling the accomodations at the ranch and out in the field doing our homework learning our new home of 16,000+ acres.  Let me tell you the remodel is going great but it’s hard to keep focused when what we really want to do is go looking for “critters”.

We’ve now got 2 trail cam’s out and a third on the way.  We will conyinue to try to give you the ”best of” in the upcoming weeks.  Sorry for the delay in updates, we’ve busy over the past couple of weeks promoting fundraisers for the Sunshine Kids (foundation for kids with cancer and the building process.  We’ll try and do better in the future.

Have a great summer!!!   VO 

July welcome’s in some much needed sunshine and warmer temps that we’ve been waiting for here in NW Colorado.  There’s no doubt that all of the moisture that we’ve experienced over the past month will help the critters right into fall with great antler growth and healthy babies.  Construction really hasn’t lagged but it sure is easier to work in the sunshine.

Stay tuned to the photo gallery for shots of the construction.  I’ve just got to get the pix uploaded.  Happy 4th Everyone from Vanatta Outfitters!!!

Welcome to Vanatta Outfitters revamped website new for 2009.  We are striving to be more than guides by providing you with a resource to hunting in NW Colorado.  Don’t get me wrong, we will be spending a lot of our summer in the field where we feel most at home, but we will be keeping you posted to the latest and greatest of what we are doing at VO.  Let us know what you think of the site and where we might improve.  Just remember we are hunters and not computer geeks so it may take a little time to knock the mud off our boots and get back to you.  Thanks for your support!  VO Staff