Brandon Fuller

Hummer Happening: Ranch Tour

Today, we went on another Hummer Happening. For a reminder, these events are thrown by our Hummer dealership for anyone with a Hummer. Great chance to get out there and meet some people with similar interests.

We met at the normal spot down in Golden and then caravaned up Clear Creek Canyon until we hit Smith Hill Road just outside of BlackHawk. Here we headed up a 4WD road in Golden Gate Canyon State Park until we got to a spot that was marked “No vehicles”. Our Hummer leaders know people. So we were escorted through the gates and down into relatively untravelled areas by a ranger from the Colorado Park Service. Perfect.

This was a ranch tour so the first ranch we checked out was called the Green Ranch. There isn’t much there anymore. But we had a local historian with us and he provided all the color commentary about how the ranchers lived here and other factoids about the area.

It was a windy road back out from the ranch on a snowy and narrow trail.

We headed over to the ranger station. Out front of the ranger station, they had a pond that had frozen over. The tour guide brought along some remote control Hummers for the kids to play with on the ice. In February, they drive real Hummers on a frozen lake nearby as an event. So this was the promotion. They don’t miss a beat.

After lunch, we headed down to another ranch called the Tallman Ranch. This ranch is only accessible via bike, horse or foot — until today. Again, our ranger allowed us to take all 30 Hummers down this untravelled trail. On the way down to the ranch, we hit a nice piece of downhill that was about 50 feet in length at a modest grade that was pretty much a sheet of ice. The trucks slid down it — some better than others. You just had to try and keep the truck pointed straight. Do we have to come back this way?

The Tallman Ranch was owned by some dude from Sweden that moved to the US in the 1870s. Again, the historian knew lots of tidbits about the area. There wasn’t too much left of the homestead. The park service continually tries to work on renovating the area so people can learn about the history. The local Boy Scout troops come up and help on this one. Sounded fun — we never did anything that fun in Boy Scouts outdoors.

So it was time to head back out from the ranch and that’s when we found out its one-way in and one-way out. Back to the sheet of ice. The first truck driven by our leader, a trained driver, nailed it right away. But in doing it, he threw most of the snow off the path and exposed more ice. Time for the next guy. He was really gung-ho and got some good momentum but as he got to the top, the wheels just spun. His truck slid and caught on the side of the trail. Now what? After being stuck a few weeks ago, I knew some things to do. Out of 30 Hummers, 2 of us had shovels, including me. We started up the hillside and began shovelling dirt, sand and rock down on to the side of the trail. We built up quite a nice path. I covered some of the larger gaps with some branches to act as a step or bridge. With a big running start, the H2 flies up over it and makes it up the hill. Great! Now, we only have about 30 more trucks to go.

On the way back out of the park, we pulled off at Panoramic Point which has an awesome view of the Colorado mountain side. Its one of the better views I have seen in the whole state. The 2nd picture is Longs Peak as seen from Panoramic Point.

On the way out of the park, there is a spot where you can stop, go into the forest, and chop down your own Christmas tree. Its all sanctioned by the park service. We already have a tree so we opted out but seemed like a fun experience for the kids.

Once again, another fun trip. Saw some new things. I have to use these trips to build up my own tour book. So when people come and visit us here in Colorado, I guarantee we will always have new places to go and things to see!