What if you could live in a home that felt like part of the land you’ve chosen to inhabit?

The O’Neill family in Powell loves yurts, which are circular tent-like structures used in Asia for hundreds of years. Once upon a time Brian, Nan and their two daughters lived in a two-yurt home with a joining kitchen. Now they live in a traditional house but they still own their original 458-square-foot yurt they built near Hunter’s Peak in 2001. It’s currently managed as a VRBO in the warmer months by daughter Julia Kay O’Neill. 

The yurt is a nice option for people who want to stay somewhere out of town that is not a traditional cabin or hotel.

“People seem to really enjoy that outdoor environment when they come from, you know, the city to come and hang out in the tents,” Brian said. 

The O’Neill’s yurt journey began when they were trying to put a structure on their land near Hunter’s Peak. At the suggestion of a college friend of Brian’s who was living in Afghanistan at the time, they began looking at yurts.

“The internet was just kind of getting going then and so we put that in the ol’ Google search and found a place called Colorado Yurt and started the process with them, and was able to order it,” Brian said. “And then they delivered it. It’s kind of funny, it came in a box about probably 14 feet long, 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, so your entire house, there it is.”

So, what’s a yurt like?

The O’Neill’s hauled their boxed home into the mountains where they built their deck and pitched the yurt even though Brian admits they didn’t know “what the heck we were doing.” They erected their yurt in roughly six hours. 

Colorado Yurt Company, which is now called Secret Creek, offers a variety of yurt sizes and custom options. Yurts can come with French doors, glass windows and be endlessly customized for the owner’s lifestyle as shown by the site’s inspiration gallery. 

The O’Neill’s VRBO is all electric, has an incendiary toilet that burns the waste which is then discarded as ash when the tank is full, an electric fence to protect from bears and an unlimited hot water outdoor shower. 

Brian said yurts are durable structures; their mountain yurt had its original ‘skin’ until roughly four or five years ago and some yurts built by Secret Creek can withstand winds up to 125 miles per hour. In a yurt Brian added that you don’t hear the wind hit the walls like you would in a traditional house.

“When it was really gusty winds or something, you could hear the wind coming. You know you’re lying in bed, or whatever or just hanging out, you can hear the wind coming,” O’Neill said. “Then the gusts will go over the top of you, which is kind of cool.”

Purchasing considerations

Brian is obviously a fan of the alternative living option but he said there are some considerations for those looking at embracing the yurt life. As an alternative housing structure, yurts may not always be an allowable or feasible option in the eyes of financial institutions. Yurts are insulated but the insulation is not as good as a traditional house — this also applies to insulation from noise.

“If you like super quiet, yurts [are] not for you. If you want to be closer to nature, fantastic. You can really customize it anyway you want to inside,” Brian said.

But, yurts can also be affordable and durable housing options. The interior wood on the yurts will “last forever” if the skin is properly maintained so the wood doesn’t sustain water damage.

“It’s pretty durable stuff. I mean, the people in Mongolia … they’ve been living in the felted ones for thousands of years,” Brian said. 

For roughly $30,000 you can buy Secret Creek’s largest model, which is 700 square feet and build the deck, he said.

“If you built a house for 700 square feet that will not be $30,000,” Brian said.