We are often asked, how does one end up with yaks? As strange a story as it may sound, it was a series of unrelated events. We went backpacking in Alaska for 10 days with no plan. It was one of the best trips of my life and after returning home to Boulder, I wanted to move to Alaska. Phillip suggested we move up Boulder Canyon instead. I agreed.  We ended up with land, and  with it a life long dream to have livestock of some sort despite having zero experience. We visited an Elk farm, a buffalo farm and researched all sorts of cattle breeds. None of them took an immediate calling to us. We were visiting with Phillip’s aunt Linda and she had just come back froman epic hiking adventure climbing Kilimanjaro where Yaks are used to pack gear up and down the mountain. Linda raved about how sweet Yaks can be. She suggested we meet some Yaks. I had never heard of a Yak. We went skiing in Steamboat for a weekend and Phillip suggested we stop by a local Yak Ranch on the way home. This was when I met Cimba. Cimba and I fell in love instantly. She was a 2 year old yak at the time and we bonded. I wanted to take her home right then and there despite the fact that we had a) no idea what we were doing and 2) no infrastructure in place to have Yaks on our property. We ended up buying 3 yaks that same day, Simba + her two sisters Dechen and Diki. We rushed home to build a home for our Yaks. We put in a corral and one month later my Yaks showed up. Over the course of 6 months we also put in 6 pastures for rotational grazing. Phillip went to town with creating  some incredible inventions including an automatic water delivery system to our various pastures and corrals along with a hay feeder system. He is now constantly deriving new technologies for our Yaks. Phillip is a member of the IYak Association education team and is happy to talk about the learning curve of owning yaks and offer advice on corrals design, water systems, etc. He also published an article in their journal regarding our experience evacuating the Yaks in the summer of 2016 during the Cold Springs Fire.

Welcome to our page and enjoy viewing the photos of our yak family.