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Welcome to Wyoming and the Sun Gate Alpaca Ranch! It’s a pleasure to introduce ourselves, our ranch, our animals, and our love for alpacas. We are nestled in the old cottonwood trees along the North Platte River in Wyoming. Our knowledge of alpacas began with a trip to Peru in 2003. Neither of us had heard of alpacas let alone even dreamed of owning a piece of property that supported livestock of any sort. During our trip we were introduced to these animals at a distance and at 14,400 feet in elevation. As the alpacas casually grazed in a pasture, we picnicked beside our bus on the way to Colca Canyon. While there, we purchased several wonderfully soft, lightweight, items to help keep us warm in those cold Wyoming winters. Upon returning home, Paul searched the internet and discovered that the U.S and many other parts of the world supported alpaca farms and ranches. In the process of planning a short trip to Salt Lake, we contacted a truly amazing alpaca ranch for a visit.
This is the rest of the story – we absolutely fell in LOVE with alpacas, the setting, and the lifestyle that we saw. After getting back into the car I looked over at Paul and said, “I want to do that!” Did this take some money, time, planning, and more money? Yes, it did! We initially started out with three females –two of whom were pregnant. Our first cria, Yucay (named after a town in Peru) was born the fall of 2004. I’ve never been a very good dreamer about where I wanted my life to go. My life has always been filled with hard work, little play, and virtually no time to enjoy, dream, and wish for things to happen. But I honestly have to say, life can change at 50 + and we both haven’t regretted for a moment this journey and the learning experiences we’ve had for the past three and a half years.
Let us introduce the other side of our life - Penny was born and raised in eastern Montana. She has worked as a waitress, nurse’s aide, supervisor for developmentally challenged young adults, and has taught elementary and junior high school for a total of 12 years. She is currently a junior high school geography teacher.
Paul is from Seattle, WA. After 13 years in the Navy, he ventured out to Montana on his first job as an air traffic controller. While experiencing much culture shock, he finally settled in and met Penny in 1991 while she was his youngest son’s fifth grade teacher. Paul currently is a retired (Federal Government) air traffic controller who now works for Lockheed Martin.
We have three grown boys who live in various parts of the West. Our ranch is small (5 acres) but with three water wells and plenty of hard work we have begun to turn this small acreage into a wonderfully green paradise for our animals. We currently have 21 happy alpacas, one huge guard llama, four very spoiled beagles, seven crazy ducks, and two fat and fluffy kitties.
