207-Acre Wyoming Llama Ranch Opens As Sanctuary For Vets, First Responders

The night before the big announcement celebrating the biggest vision of his life, Al Ellis had plenty of company on the 207-acre ranch he and his late wife, Sondra, spent decades building.

People were coming and going at the two-story log home off U.S. Highway 191 in Boulder, a town of roughly 100 people 12 miles south of Pinedale.

And, of course, there were some “good llama friends.”

It was a fitting scene for the 84-year-old Navy veteran and former commercial diver, who became a llama expert later in life.

Ellis has typically followed what he calls “butterfly moments” — seemingly small encounters or decisions that, looking back, changed the direction of his life.

On Friday, another butterfly moment unfolded on the ranch.

The land Ellis once called a “hell hole” is now officially Boulder Crest Wyoming, a sanctuary where veterans, first responders and their families will have a place to step away from the weight of service, reconnect and learn to grow in the aftermath of trauma.

Ellis donated the ranch, including the sweeping two-story log home he shared with Sondra, to the Boulder Crest Foundation just before Christmas 2025.

He did it with a deeply personal vision: He long imagined the land he and Sondra spent years building and caring for would continue to serve others.

“We want other people to enjoy this space — people who deserve it, people who we owe something to,” Ellis told Cowboy State Daily in January.

On Friday, Boulder Crest formally introduced its Wyoming campus to community leaders, veterans, first responders and supporters from throughout the region in a grand opening.

The celebration included a skydiving performance, the national anthem sung by local EMT and fourth-generation Sublette County rancher Sue Briggs-Stanfield, and a performance by the Wind River Indian Eagle Spirit Dancers.

Ellis and his family were recognized throughout the program, as was another guest of honor — the land itself.

A Gift Meant To Last

Boulder Crest Foundation was founded around the idea that trauma does not have to be the end of a story.

Its Posttraumatic Growth programs are designed to help veterans, first responders and their families move beyond simply coping with what happened to them and discover new strength, purpose and possibility.

The Wyoming campus will bring those programs to a region where geography itself can make accessing support difficult.

“Al didn’t simply give us a piece of land – he entrusted us with the opportunity to create something that will serve people for generations,” Boulder Crest CEO Josh Goldberg said.

The PATHH program – Progressive and Alternative Training for Helping Heroes – helps veterans and first responders transform struggles into strength and thrive in the aftermath of trauma.

Boulder Crest Wyoming will also host family rest and reconnection stays and couples programming. The campus is expected to be fully operational by September 2027.

Boulder Crest says the location will serve not only Wyoming but the broader Mountain West as well.

For Ellis, that is exactly what he hoped would happen.

Another Butterfly Moment

The idea of giving away his sprawling llama ranch began taking shape in the summer of 2025.

Ellis was watching television when he came across Johnny “Joey” Jones, a military veteran and co-host of Fox News Channel’s “The Big Weekend Show.”

Jones lost both legs to a roadside bomb in Iraq and wrote the New York Times bestseller, “Behind the Badge: Answering the Call to Serve on America’s Homefront.”

Ellis was inspired enough to take a leap. He tracked down Jones’ email and reached out to seek advice about how to go about gifting his property to serve veterans and first responders.

Probably nothing would come of it, Ellis thought at the time.

“But I’ll be damned, he saw it,” Ellis previously told Cowboy State Daily.

Not only had Jones read Ellis’ email, he knew who could make that happen. 

That’s how Ellis came to know Ken Falke, a retired Navy bomb disposal specialist and co-founder and chairman of the Boulder Crest Foundation.

“As soon as I met (Ellis), it was like ‘wow,’” Falke told Cowboy State Daily. “I was a diver. He was a diver. I was in the Navy. He was in the Navy. There was this really interesting connection.”

Another butterfly moment.

Within months, Ellis had entrusted Boulder Crest with the property.

Sondra died in August 2025 after a lengthy health battle.

The timing made the gift even more poignant.

This was the place where Ellis and Sondra imagined growing old together.

“Llamas are the reason this house is here,” Ellis said during Cowboy State Daily’s January visit. “We visualized being old here and wheeling over to the big windows to watch the llamas.”

Now the house and land will have a different kind of life.

From 'Hell Hole' To Home

Ellis' path to Wyoming was hardly a straight line.

He grew up in San Francisco, where his parents ran a bodega and produce stand.

“By the time you’re 8, you can take your orange crate down the street,” he said, remembering how children scavenged for things to put in discarded wooden crates.

His aunt taught him to fish when he was 6.

Another butterfly moment.

At 17, Ellis enlisted in the Navy, serving between the Korean and Vietnam wars.

His time in the Navy eventually led him toward diving, and diving became the foundation for much of his adult life.

He spent roughly two decades as a commercial fisherman and diver, harvesting abalone and sea urchins along the California coast. He also built businesses with Sondra, including seafood operations and restaurants.

He bought a fishery with an old freezer that had, during World War II, stored shark livers for their vitamin A.

He converted the fishery into a seafood restaurant named Andrea’s. 

Then came Wyoming.

Ellis and Sondra fell in love with the state after visiting a friend in Alpine. They eventually bought property near Jackson Hole, where Ellis began exploring the mountains.

Hooked On Llamas

Then he read an article about mountain pack llamas.

He was hooked.

Ellis acquired six llamas and spent the next decade guiding trips into the Wind River, Gros Ventre, Tetons and other Wyoming mountain ranges.

“It was unbelievable how many people on my trips had never seen a night sky,” he said.

As his herd grew, he realized the 12-acre property near the Snake River wasn't enough.

So in 1998, the Ellises bought a run-down cattle ranch near Boulder.

Ellis described the property at the time as an eyesore.

The ground looked like a moonscape.

“I was enticing my wife from a 5,200-square-foot log home on the Snake River to come to a hell hole,” he said.

But they transformed it.

By 2012, the property was home to about 200 llamas, including 60 pack llamas.

The animals became Ellis' business, his passion and, eventually, the reason he and Sondra built the log home where they planned to grow old.

Now the llamas will remain part of the story.

Boulder Crest plans to incorporate them into its Wyoming operations, recognizing something Ellis learned long ago: Sometimes an animal can make people smile when nothing else seems capable of doing so.

“Watching baby llamas play when they’re in a group is 100% contagious,” Ellis said.

Rooted In Wyoming

Kris Searles, Boulder Crest Wyoming's executive director, knows something about both the challenges of service and the character of the people who live in this part of the country.

A retired U.S. Army soldier, combat veteran and longtime member and leader of Tip Top Search and Rescue in western Wyoming, Searles brings personal experience and deep local connections to the new campus.

“Wyoming has a way of giving you room – room to think, to reconnect and to see what’s possible,” Searles said as part of Friday’s grand opening of the newest Boulder Crest campus.

“My hope is that Boulder Crest Wyoming becomes a place our veterans, first responders, and families know belongs to them, but also a place this entire community feels connected to and proud of. We’re building something here that is rooted in Wyoming and designed to serve people for generations.”

That regional mission is particularly important in a state where distance can make it harder to access specialized support.

The latest U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs data shows Wyoming had a veteran suicide rate of 45.7 deaths per 100,000 veterans in 2023, higher than the national rate of 35.2.

A hallmark of Friday’s event was speaker Charlie Plumb, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former prisoner of war. Plumb shared his harrowing tale of being shot down during the Vietnam War and placed as a prisoner in an 8-foot-by-8-foot cell.

He struggled with failure, he said – he believed he had failed his mission, his company and his country.

After two years as a war prisoner, one day he noticed a wire sticking out of the wall in his cell. He learned it was from the prisoner in the cell next to him.

Two days later, the wire came through the wall again, with a message on a dirty piece of toilet paper.

It was a code, with instructions. Plumb was to memorize the code, then eat the toilet paper.

That code pulled Plumb and his comrades through a dark and terrifying time. Through the code, he heard from his cell neighbor: You have not failed. You are still a warrior.

One night, Plumb was one of about 20 POWs who were gagged, blindfolded, wrapped like mummies and tossed into a truck. Plumb realized he could move his big toe, and he tapped in code a message to the guy next to him: Keep the faith.

That message returned to Plumb 11 times during that truck ride, on 11 parts of his body.

“This program is like that,” he said Friday. “It’s touching people, bringing them back to life.”

Falke told Cowboy State Daily in January that Boulder Crest hopes to use Wyoming as a hub for reaching veterans and first responders throughout Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Utah.

The organization's approach is different from traditional clinical treatment.

Boulder Crest describes Posttraumatic Growth as the possibility of experiencing positive transformation following trauma and adversity.

That doesn't mean pretending the trauma didn't happen. It means asking what might be possible afterward.

Ranch Begins New Chapter

The transformation of Ellis' property is already visible.

Existing buildings have been renovated, said Boulder Crest Vice President of Communications Jennifer Grady, and much of the operational groundwork is complete.

The foundation has been poured for a new Warrior PATHH Training Center.

U.S. Marine veteran Joel Klosterman of K-Man Construction has led much of the renovation work. Klosterman moved to Pinedale in 2015.

The work represents a remarkable change for a property that began as what Ellis called a moonscape.

But perhaps the most remarkable change isn't visible in the buildings.

It is in what the ranch represents.

Boulder Crest Wyoming is the foundation's fourth campus, joining locations in Virginia, Arizona and Texas. The organization says it reached more than 45,000 people through its programs in 2025 alone and has served more than 180,000 service members, veterans, first responders, military families, clinicians and helping professionals since 2014.

What Comes Next

Over the coming year, Boulder Crest will continue adapting the property for its Posttraumatic Growth programs.

Falke sees the work ahead as both an opportunity and a responsibility.

“Al gave us an extraordinary foundation,” he said. “Our responsibility now is to honor his vision by creating a place where veterans, first responders, and families from across the Mountain West can reconnect, discover new purpose, and build great lives in the aftermath of trauma.”

Ellis has spent a lifetime following those butterfly moments.

From learning how to fish to being introduced to llamas, from a run-down ranch in Boulder to a television interview and an email he never expected anyone to read, those moments culminated in what began Friday as a next chapter for the 207 acres Ellis has lovingly tended.

The moments have come together into something bigger than one man's story.

Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.