New Colorado Lodge Marries Luxury With Wilderness Conservation

At Trinchera Reserve & Lodge, a 172,000‑acre private sanctuary nestled in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of southern Colorado, guests can spend a day hunting for trout, spotting bears, picking wild raspberries or gazing at the Milky Way. The acreage is comparable to a midsized national park—the average U.S. park covers about 220,000 acres—yet the lodge offers only 16 rooms, ensuring a low guest‑to‑land ratio for pursuits such as mountain biking, fly fishing and climbing fourteeners.

The property was closed to the public until this summer. Once owned by publisher Malcolm Forbes, it was purchased by conservationist Louis Bacon in 2007. Over the past two decades his team of foresters and biologists has worked to protect and restore six distinct ecological zones, often partnering with universities, environmental groups and government agencies. Rather than the cowboy‑themed dude ranches that dominate many travel guides, Trinchera places conservation at the forefront, swapping cattle drives and hoedowns for alpine “safaris” that showcase wildlife and land stewardship.

Visitors fly into Denver, then take a short regional flight to San Luis Valley Regional Airport. From there a 35‑minute drive brings them to the lodge’s gate, where a chilled coconut water is waiting in the car to help with the altitude. The final stretch is best enjoyed with the windows down, letting the scent of sage and the sight of quaking aspen fill the senses.

Inside, two taxidermied big‑horn sheep frozen mid‑headbutt flank a stone fireplace that stretches from floor to ceiling. The Southwest‑style interiors were designed by Jet Zarkadas and Jen Wilson of Los Griegos Studio, who strike a balance between immersion and restraint. The hall is lined with beaded moccasins, an Ernest Hemingway typewriter, canvas lampshades depicting galloping horses and a glass‑top coffee table that holds a raised‑terrain map of the entire reserve. A curated collection of Zane Grey novels hangs nearby; Zarkadas explains that the books were sourced from used bookstores across the West, and a fishing pole belonging to Grey sits at the lodge entrance.

The owner’s private art collection is displayed throughout, featuring works by the Taos Society of Artists and an N.C. Wyeth painting that originally graced the cover of Scribner’s Magazine, now hanging above the fireplace.

Celebrating an anniversary, the author and her husband headed out for a fly‑fishing adventure with guide Drew. The reserve comprises two historic ranches—Trinchera and Blanca—named after their adjacent peaks, with Blanca being Colorado’s fourth‑highest summit. A scenic 45‑minute drive took them to the Blanca side, where they waded into streams and, after a few careful casts, landed several fish, including brook trout and native Rio Grande cutthroat trout, affectionately called “cutties” by Drew. Trinchera’s restoration program for the cutthroat trout has earned awards and safeguards more than 70 miles of stream habitat, keeping the species off the endangered list. The catch‑and‑release experience illustrates the lodge’s conservation mission in action.

Lunch that day was served outdoors with a view of Blanca Peak: glazed chicken, a Greek salad, couscous, pita wedges and individual pots of tzatziki, washed down with Sancerre and finished with watermelon and cookies. Food is a central part of the Trinchera experience. Breakfasts are simple and hearty—eggs, a rotating selection of hot sauces, crisp bacon and fresh fruit—while evening cocktail hours feature snacks so flavorful guests pace themselves before dinner. When a storm rolled in that evening, the dinner service moved indoors, offering filet mignon with Yukon potatoes, carrot purée and a glass of Châteauneuf‑du‑Pape.

The next morning the author tackled the “Baldies” mountain‑bike descent, a trail that took three years to construct and features tight, banked turns that test even seasoned riders.