Conejos Canyon Outfitters

09/22/2024

Persistence is key!
Clay Riner has come with us for several years, but never been able to seal the deal. Well, he finally got ‘er done, and brought home a nice one! Congrats Clay!

09/20/2024

CCO congratulates one of our own on this nice 6x6 muzzle loader bull. Good job to Bart’s son Dalton!

09/15/2024

We sure were excited to pack this guy out for a DIY hunter today!

09/11/2024

We’ve had a good start to the archery season, with five bulls and one cow harvested so far!

09/09/2024

Archery season is underway!

08/26/2024

We are gearing up for the start of the hunting seasons! It will be here before we know it, and it’s good to run into some elk on the trails.

07/29/2024

Bart ran into a moose yesterday on the Saddle Creek Road. Sure is good to see these big animals making a comeback!

07/23/2024

Blue Lake was gorgeous today. Sometimes you just have to stop and take it all in.

07/09/2024

07/07/2024

There’s nothing like an old fashioned camping trip to put your mind at ease.

07/04/2024

Happy Independence Day! Blue Lake was as pretty as ever yesterday!

07/03/2024

Our first camp of the year is set, and ready for fisherman in a couple days!

06/29/2024

Conejos Falls is always one of our favorite spots!

06/27/2024

“I won’t do anything I can’t do from a horse”
-Monte Walsh (and Bart Crawford, probably 😂)

06/06/2024

Fun little encounter with some elk this morning

05/31/2024

We came across this itty bitty elk calf yesterday.
He wasn’t fully dried off yet and had some shaky legs!

05/10/2024

Black Pearl, as her name has been decided, had her first turnout yesterday morning.
She had so much fun, and it didn’t take her long to put those long legs to good use. She’s very independent for being so young.
We’ll put the other names back into the hat for now, Black Pearl seems to fit her personality best!

05/08/2024

Austin welcomed the newest member of the Chain Gang in early this morning.

This sweet little filly is already showing lots of personality, and wants to be really friendly— so long as you keep the neck scratches coming!

You guys will get to see her on the trails in the next two—three years, and might even get to ride her in four—eight, depending on how she takes to training.

She is out of Austin’s mare Harley.

Austin is still deliberating on her name. The three top picks are:

1. Vendetta
(Austin’s suggestion, cause who doesn’t love a good vendetta??)

2. Black Pearl
(Bart’s suggestion, after the ship on Pirates of the Caribbean. The filly’s brother is Black Jack, named after Ben Johnson’s character Uncle Black Jack Traven in the Shadow Riders)

3. Calypso
(also a name pulled from Pirates of the Caribbean. Austin already has a Jack Sparrow, so it could fit with the theme?)

What do you guys think?

03/31/2024

Reminder that the primary draw application deadline is 4/2/2024 at 8 p.m. MT for Colorado Big Game.

That’s this Tuesday! Don’t wait until the last minute!

03/07/2024

Big game applications are now open through Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s website
cpw.state.co.us

Don’t wait until the last minute to apply!

Camps are filling up fast, contact Bart @ 719-298-6821 to book your trip!

12/19/2023

A Tribute to a Legend

Today we said goodbye to the Hell Bitch.

As Austin said, ‘You love all of them, but some of them are just special.’

HB was special, and we are devastated to say goodbye. We always thought she would be too darned ornery to die, and the day came a lot sooner than we ever thought it would.

We got HB from Kent Jarnagin in the original string of horses that came with the outfitting business when Bart bought it.

Her name was Daphne when she came to us, but we soon decided that was way to mild of a name for this cantankerous Appy mare. You had to always be watching her. Bart and Austin both got bit more than once in the mornings catching horses. She was sly and would wait until you turned your back on her before she took a chunk out of you. She was cinchy, and would often reach around and bite you while you were doing the cinch up, or reaching around for the breast collar.

What started out as a love/hate relationship, ended up with her being just about the favorite horse in the string. She was tough as nails, and had no quit. The other horses got rotated out between uses so as to not get them too worn out and tired; not HB. In the last 9 seasons, she probably only had a dozen days off total. If we were going, she was going. She had heart, and grit.

Despite her cantankerous attitude towards most things in life, she was always gentle to ride and was never broncy. She was gentle enough to even pony the 8 year old kids off of her, but mostly she was a pack horse because we could rely on her with anything. She was strong and tough, and we could pack anything on her without incident. She was good in the line, and would always amuse us at her ability to snack along the trail when she was packing. Bart called her a vacuum on legs because she could trot along and somehow still have a mouth full of grass the whole time without missing a beat.

We thought she’d be around for years to come, but sadly she became very ill with cancerous tumors, so we made the call to put her down as she was really miserable and in pain.

She’s always been a crowd favorite, we’d love to see any photos you might have of her!

Happy trails, HB, until we meet again ❤️

12/14/2023

We want to give a shoutout to our ‘Chain Gang’ on the National Day of the Horse.
We quite literally would be nothing without these magnificent animals.
They are the backbone of our operations!
We hear time and time again that our horses are some of the best stock that clients have ever been on and around. We take great pride in having good animals that will take care of our riders and their gear.

11/11/2023

Wishing you a happy Veterans Day!

10/23/2023

What a difference one year to the next makes. The first half of this video is from October 20, 2021 while the second half is from yesterday (October 22, 2023). Bart says snow is a four letter word! 🤬😂

10/23/2023

With our last camp pulling out yesterday, our 2023 season is wrapped up.
The best part was the weather holding out and being able to get the camps out without fighting the snow and ice!
Thanks to all who came on pack trips, fishing trips, hunting trips, and trail rides!
We can’t do what we do, without you!
Happy trails to you, until we meet again!