When you say you want to get away from it all on your next vacation, you’re probably picturing retreating to some far-flung island surrounded by nothing but blue water. But for those of you who aren’t beach-inclined, an ideal remote vacation might be a mountain lodge with nothing around you but wilderness. Luckily, if you’re based in the U.S., you don’t have to travel too far at all to find that solitude. Vermejo, a Ted Turner Reserve, sits on more than 550,000 acres of private land straddling the border of New Mexico and Colorado, all owned by media mogul and conservationist Ted Turner and reserved for the exclusive use of visitors staying on the luxury property. While the main lodge itself is quite remote—it’s a 45-minute drive to the nearest town, Raton, New Mexico, population 6,000—it’s the Costilla Fishing Lodge that is really, really out there. Set 25 miles farther into the property than the main lodge, Costilla sits at an altitude of 10,200 feet and is nestled into the mountains. Impressively, this secluded structure, built in 2010, has LEED Silver certification, a monumental feat given its difficult-to-reach location.
Originally part of the Maxwell Land Grant, the property that comprises Vermejo today was developed in 1902 by then owner William H. Bartlett, who tapped architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee, the mentor of a young Frank Lloyd Wright, to build three palatial residences in the middle of the wilderness—one of which houses guests today as part of the main lodge area. The original Costilla Lodge was built at the turn of the 20th century as a hunting and fishing retreat for Bartlett’s guests. Turner purchased the property in 1996 with his now ex-wife (and current friend) Jane Fonda, with the pair using it as a private home—AD featured their house in 2005. But as the years went on, he decided to open his ranch for eco-tourism, allowing the public, in very small numbers, to experience the grandeur of the land, not to mention witness the extraordinary wildlife, like the bison, wild horses, and elk, that roam the property freely.