Our drive to Colorado was delayed this morning. A major thunderstorm came in around 3:00 AM. It was pretty intense. The storm was right over us and lighting up the sky constantly for hours. Our Shiloh Vineyards hosts told Barry this morning that he kept an eye on the weather for tornadoes in case they had to come get us to run into the storm cellar. Not something I want to experience. My mom always told me about her experiences with tornadoes growing up in Oklahoma.
The roads out of here and to the highway are gravel. Our hosts told us to wait until 1:00 PM to leave. The winds should dry out the roads by then. They are using their tractors to tamp down the gravel roads. They also host weddings and have one at 4:30 PM today, so they need the roads to be as safe as possible.
We were able to leave around 1:30 PM and made it across the gravel road to I70. Thank goodness. Not a good ride. We crossed the border from Kansas to Colorado at 3:20 PM.
We arrived at
Prairie Ridge Buffalo Ranch at about 5:10 PM. Shawn and Carrie Bennett are the owners of this 3500-acre 3
rd-generation ranch. The family owns five ranches, and this is the smallest. WOW! Shawn led us to our site for the next two days, and we have a full hookup here. This is another Harvest Host site. We lucked out with a full hookup. We thought we were going to only have power for the next two nights. BTW – this place is beautiful, and you can see for miles.
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| Me feeding a Mama |
We are participating in the ranch tour and BBQ tonight. I’m excited about this Harvest Host. We get to see buffalo up close and personal. The tour is at 6:00 PM and we meet in the event center. There are about 30 people. Mostly a large 60th birthday party group, us and another family of five. We climbed into two trailers pulled by trucks and drove about a couple of miles out into the prairie. AND there they were. Such magnificent beasts! The herd was about thirty or so bison. Only three bulls, the rest are female, and a whole bunch of babies that were born in the past few months. Two males are over six feet and weigh almost 2900 lbs. Each trailer has two five-gallon buckets full of feed pellets. We get to throw them out or try to feed them. I was able to feed one of the females about three times. They are gentle when they take the pellets from you. Shawn knows each of them and their personalities. He has raised most of them from babies and trained them to feed from his hand. I was so amazed at how magnificent they are. I think they are beautiful.
Back at the ranch, we all washed our hands and headed down to the cookout area. The menu was bison burgers, beans, and potato chips. Then we had homemade cookies and s’mores for dessert. It was just a magical time and the sunset was gorgeous.
After the cookout, we sat outside the event center on the patio and watched the sky turn dark and listened to the frogs around us. Just stunning! I was in my happy place.
**If you are a Harvest Host member, I strongly suggest Prairie Ridge Buffalo Ranch. You will not be disappointed.**
More Photos and Videos From My Happy Place
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| Julie in her home for the next two nights |
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| The wagons we traveled in out to the Buffalo. |
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| Babies and Mamas. |
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| Pretty Mama. |
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| Rambuncious Babies. |
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| Hang'in out. |
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| Beautiful and peaceful sunset. |
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| Selfie in the pavilion. |
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| Cornhole and fire for s'mores. |
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| This was just finished a few days before we arrived. |
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Me scratching Baby Bruce's face.
His mom booted him out, so the ranch is taking care of him. |
Copyright © 2026 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.
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