Hi to everyone. My name is Joe!
As a Colorado native and avid outdoors-man I have seen Yurts throughout the backcountry and at many local ski resorts. In 2009 I decided I was going to get a backcountry yurt of my own to use as a home base for adventures throughout the Colorado mountains.
I spent over a year looking all over the state of Colorado, in the fall of 2010 I finally decided on a small remote 1 acre lot at 11,800ft in the central Colorado Rockies. I was able to save money by purchasing a remote lot that’s snowed in for six months of the year, but to me that is part of the “Yurt Experience.”
After a long winter is was finally time to start on the platform for the yurt. Do to my lack of building experience and the steep slope of the lot, constructing the platform took the majority the summer. But in the end I gained valuable skills that I will be able to use on future yurt projects. If your going to build a yurt platform by yourself make sure you have good friends who take beer as payment!
After checking out a few other yurt manufactures I decided to go with a 24ft yurt from the Colorado Yurt Company. They have a good product at a good price and I always try to support local Colorado companies. Because it took so long to construct the platform and winter was once again just around the corner, I elected to have the yurt company company come out to pitch the yurt. It took just one day for a three person team from the yurt company to pitch the yurt, and it was wild to see the transformation from platform to yurt in such a short period of time.
The yurt has come a long way and there have been many amazing trips over the last four years. This blog will be a collection of projects, photos, and adventures that transform a simple yurt in the mountains into a way of life.
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- A log fence I built across the driveway the first weekend after I purchased the property.
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- Digging and pouring the footers
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- All the joists installed on the platform
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- Completing the decking on the yurt platform
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- A summer snow storm while building the raised section of the yurt platform
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- Bender board and floor finished. The platform is ready for the yurt
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- Looking at the yurt for the first time
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- Looking up at the yurt from down below for the first time.
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- My friend Jen helping to install the wood stove in the yurt
Looks great. Following you as I am starting a project of mine own in the spring in the back country of the Adirondacks….
Thanks for following Michael! I wish you the best of luck on your project. Building in the backcountry was difficult but so rewarding!