Dances With Buffalo at Colorful Colorado B

A Japanese architect who has turned his life upside down. A Wyoming cowboy who rounds up bison on a motorbike. An Egyptian chef who excels at green rice with bison brochette. A ranch caretaker who has had first hand experience with UFOs. An interior decorator who once ran a B&B; in a Tucson citrus grove.

It isn’t the cast you might expect to find running a bed and breakfast operation on the moonscape of the San Luis Valley in southwestern Colorado. But then, who would think a B&B; anywhere would come with a championship golf course, ski terrain on a desert and a herd of 1,700 bison?

The Great Sand Dunes Country Inn, on the southern border of Great Sand Dunes National Monument, 30 miles northeast of Alamosa, is just such a place. The upscale B&B;, officially opened last Aug. 1, nestles in a clump of giant cottonwoods that looks like an oasis in the 100,000 acres of near desert that make up the Zapata and Medano ranches.

The inn and outlying log cabins, which close for the winter but open again May 1, accommodate a maximum of 27 guests.

Its Japanese owner--35-year-old Hisayoshi Ota--is a late-blooming Westerner. He hated cowboy movies when he was growing up in a strictly traditional, wealthy home in Tokyo, but things began to change when he came east to college in the United States.

Ota was a successful architect with a New York City firm when he had his first look at the Colorado property his father had acquired in a business deal in 1988. It was love at first sight, both with ranch life and bison. He began the transition, still taking place, from New York yuppie to Colorado bison grower/supplier and innkeeper. (Supplying buffalo meat is a growth industry in Colorado.)

Ota sees the inn as an anti-snob-appeal retreat from the business world. Within four hours of landing at Stapleton International Airport in Denver, one can settle into homey log cabin quarters equipped with the amenities of a first-rate hotel. One room with a spectacular view is designed for handicapped occupants.

Windows frame vistas of cottonwood, aspen, sage and pinon, and a mountain stream that cuts through the golf greens. The Great Sand Dunes and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in the distance look like a stage backdrop. Curious deer and elk approach the ranch house at night.

Bison grazing in meadows nearby or bison on your plate at the inn’s small restaurant and bar are added incentives. Chef Magdi Mafh knows bison from burgers to bourguignon.

Or maybe you’d like a round of golf.

George Kelloff Jr., a former Scottsdale, Ariz., golf pro who manages the inn’s 18-hole course, says the challenge comes at the eighth hole--a long dogleg par-5 over water. But his personal challenge came just after the course had been seeded in June, 1989.

“My wife and I looked up from dinner just in time to see a buffalo stampede across my brand-new golf course,” he said. Now the fourth hole is called Bison Run, and the buffalo have been banished to dustier territory.

Bison play an important role in the inn’s existence, from providing the financial basis (the meat is sold to restaurants and food specialty markets) to serving as a tourist attraction. Guests sign up for four-wheeler trips to visit the shaggy beasts. Driving into the herd is much like a safari since bison are less than friendly to pedestrians in their midst.

“An unhappy bison moves pretty fast,” warns herd manager Ken Klem, who performs roundups on his motorbike. “I’ve had buffalo chasing me, breathing down my neck, when the bike was doing 40 m.p.h. Most horses can’t move that fast, and besides, most horses are afraid of bison. That’s why the Indians used to pay a lot more for a good buffalo horse.”

Berle Lewis, the ranch caretaker and cabinetmaker who fashioned most of the inn’s furniture, following Ota’s clean-line designs, knows all about horses from 25 years of raising Arabians and quarter horses on a ranch southwest of the Great Sand Dunes. He made headlines in the late 1960s when one of his horses was the first of several animals to be mysteriously mutilated by what he and many others believed were UFOs.

Lewis’ stories are a major source of evening entertainment in front of the inn’s living room fireplace. He tells the history behind some of the century-old buildings he has restored on the ranch, and makes believers out of those who see the photographs of what happened to his horses. The small log cabin where he lives with his wife, Barbara, was once a stop on the stagecoach route from Santa Fe to Denver. The bunkhouse that now includes three of the B&B; rooms dates back to the 1890s.

A well-equipped fitness center just beyond the bunkhouse quarters is strictly 1990s. A heated swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and exercise equipment are available for B&B; guests and others who purchase the golf package. Other options: hiking, trout fishing, bird watching, hunting or visits to the nearby Sand Dunes Monument. Some adventurous types bring along cross-country skis to use on the sand dunes. They describe it as “like snow skiing in slow motion.” Hey, nothing’s fast-paced in the San Luis Valley.

Breakfast, served at the restaurant but included in the room rate, includes fresh fruit, cold cuts and cheese, cereals, fresh baked croissants, coffee, tea and milk. Since the nearest restaurant is about 15 miles away, most guests and a number of golfers dine on the premises. The log cabin menu is far from primitive fare. Lunches range from $4.95 to $8.50 (for the bison stew with green rice and black beans). Dinner entrees start at $10.50; the most expensive item on the menu is sauteed shrimp in Pernod sauce, $15.95. Yes, they have a liquor license.

GUIDEBOOK

Finding Buffalo at a B&B;

Closed for the winter but open again May 1, the Great Sand Dunes Country Club and Inn, 5303 Highway 150, Mosca, Colo. 81146, telephone (719) 378-2356, fax (719) 378-2428.

Getting there: Rent a car at Stapleton International Airport in Denver and make the three- to four-hour drive over La Veta Pass through some of the prettiest scenery in Colorado. Take Interstate 25 south to Walsenburg, U.S. 160 west over La Veta Pass, beyond Fort Garland, to Colorado 150, the turnoff for Great Sand Dunes National Monument. Follow State 150 north 12 miles to what looks like an oasis in the desert on the left. Turn in gate to Zapata Ranch. Follow gravel road to inn complex hidden in cottonwoods.

Or fly United Express from Denver to Alamosa Airport, where complimentary transportation will be provided to and from the inn.

Northbound drivers should follow Highway 17 about 16 miles north of Alamosa, then go east on County Road 6 for 16 more miles, then one mile south on Highway 150.

Rates: Double room, breakfast and use of the fitness center costs $150 through Sept. 5, $130 Sept. 6 through Nov. 1. Golf package is $95 per person ($85 after Sept. 5) with a minimum two-night stay. The golf rental shop is fully equipped.