Cowboy fantasies on a ranch in Montana

The Telegraph ^ | 2-5-2012 | Ian Henderson

[Dysart]

Imagine you're a 12-year-old girl[or POTUS]. Ponies and clothes are your favourite things. You've just been shopping and you're wearing your new cowboy boots, new jeans, a blue checked shirt and a real cowboy hat. You've had breakfast – blueberry pancakes with crispy bacon, just the way you like them – and now you're walking across a sunlit meadow, filled with gently grazing ponies. You're feeling pretty good.

A tall cowboy with a slow drawl asks if you'd care to help him round up the ponies into the corral so you say yes, as casually as you can. The ponies neigh and toss their manes, kicking up dust and jostling as you lean over the wooden rails to share your apple with a fine chestnut quarter horse called Rudy. You lead him into the yard, feed him and groom him, saddle him up and get ready to go for a ride in the mountains. If you're imagining it properly, you're about as happy as a 12-year-old girl can be.

Which is not bad if you're her father, either. I'd taken my daughter to The Ranch at Rock Creek, a 6,000-acre spread in Montana which opened to guests last year and may well be the ultimate place to live out those cowboy dreams, whatever your age. That was certainly the intention of Jim Manley, a New York financier who bought it after a 40-year search for a pristine stretch of wilderness with a river, native forests, elk and deer but no grizzlies or rattlesnakes. He wanted somewhere he could hike, ride and shoot. Somewhere he could encourage others to adopt the frontier spirit – while making sure they didn't miss any of the comforts of modern life.

[Dysart]

For those considering a Western rustic getaway I'll save y'all the trouble; West Yellowstone, MT is where you want to go...just make sure it's post-Labor Day, but not long after due to the cold, white stuff that soon to follow. It's spectacular up there, just don't tell anyone.

Parade Rest Guest Ranch

[Dysart]

[MachIV]

I had the fortunate experience of going to Yellowstone last summer and lodged in the Paradise Valley area of Montana while there. The scenery was spectacular, elk could be seen in fields with cattle, and what I suspect to be a couger showed up near the camp area as best I could tell with my flashlight in the middle of the night.

I will never forget the rich aroma in the air. I’m not sure if it was pollen or what. It smelled like someone dumped an ocean freighter full of perfume into the atmosphere. I will never forget the experience.

[Dysart]

I understand... I’ve had identical experiences in the West Yellowstone area twice—it’s a slice of heaven and my favorite area of the country. The glorious geological features of the Tetons are unsurpassed even by the Rockies imo and the wildlife encounters are second to none, in the lower 48 anyway. It’s funny that many Yellowstone tourists never make it north of the WY border. I’ve got so many great pictures of the bison(in the road), eagles, pronghorn, bear...but all on 35mm.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My family treated me to a 60th birthday trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons this summer and it was pure heaven. We pampered ourselves and stayed at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. I rousted everybody out of bed one morning at 4:00 to get up to Lamar Valley at sunrise. On the way up, we briefly stopped at Hayden Valley and the number of coyotes howling in the pre-dawn was unbelievable. They were singing all around us. At Lamar, we found a wolf biology team doing a survey which included a woman who lives not far from us in California. With their help, we were able to spot the alpha male moving between the den and the feeding area. Same morning, we spotted a bison herd of about 300 or so rising in the morning and fording the river, a bald eagle in the trees at the edge of the forest and later a mama grizzly and two cubs across a small lake from us. At the Tetons, we were able to find numerous moose and elk.

[mwestk]

My family highly recommends T Cross Ranch in Dubois, Wyoming. A small original dude ranch on the Horse Creek. Great for families, warm atmosphere, magnificent trail rides, trout fishing, pack trips, the kitchen turns out spectacular fare. For reservations call (307) 455-2206

[Dysart]

Thanks. We’re planning a trip to the Mt/Wy this Fall, and I’ll research your ranch.

[Mercat]

I fondly remember a trip we took when my kids were little to a “dude” ranch in Colorado. Our 7 year old daughter had the whole outfit and wouldn’t wear anything else. Hat, boots, jeans jacket. And she got the old fat pony to cantor which they said he hadn’t done in years. Good times.

[palmerizedCaddis]

We have had a small place in Ennis since the mid-sixties. Many fond memories of those early days. We traded a 64 buick(wedding present), almost all the cash we had in the bank plus a small mortgage for a few acres, a cabin and a Harley Knucklehead. We rode the Harley back to Ca. where I was stationed.

After another all expense paid vacation in an exotic SE Asian locale, we lived there as I gradually regained my sanity. Mrs C was/is a most wonderful caring nurturing woman. Thank you God for sending her to me.

Lovely place, one of those truly off-world seeming experiences, scenery, the old time local folks, and the fly fishing was extraordinary. Alas, much has changed since then.

Caddis the younger knew the raggedy *ssed place as home.

Uncle S. wanted me repeatedly until the Jimmah Regime took over. Long before then we have begun living back east. Mrs C and I haven't been back in I bet since GHW Bush was president.

The young’uns spend time there every summer.

Caddis the Elder(decrepit)

[Old Sarge]

Never ceases to amaze me, the hordes of yuppies who drag themselves and their larva off to the Bahamas, or to Cancun, when there is such wonder and beauty in our own land.

[Baynative]

"Never ceases to amaze me, the hordes of yuppies who drag themselves and their larva off to the Bahamas, or to Cancun, when there is such wonder and beauty in our own land."

Worse yet is the threat from marxists from the urban jungles who visit these places on a lark and then decide to move there as soon as their government or teachers' union pensions will allow it. Then they set about getting elected and making rules to restrict land use and kill the culture and curtail the life styles that make these rural areas the beautiful environments that they are.

if the degenerate hippies could have their way they would confiscate this ranch and declare it an environmentally protected preserve under the guidelines of U.N. Agenda 21.

[blueunicorn6]

The dirty little secret is that at least six tourists are eaten by bears, wolves and mountain lions every day in Montana. It’s hard to take a walk because every other step, you have to dodge a rattlesnake. There are one or two people scalped every day and the cowboys like to string-up tourists for fun. There is no running water so you’ll catch pneumonia (and who knows what else) in the outhouses. The scenery is enless sagebrush and gopher holes. Fine cuisine is when they put salt on the raw beef. For entertainment, you can watch the wheat grow. Art is seeing how big of tires you can put on your rusty pickup truck. The music consists of the whine from the bullets whistling through the air as the locals ambush another bus of tourists. Cannibals. Be sure to bring wedding dresses for your 9 year old daughters. Montana.....it’s a horrible place filled with creatures who want to eat you, and that’s the people. The critters are really nasty. I’d suggest a nice trip to Disney World.

[driftless2]

"wonder and beauty"

It's no devious plot that the great majority of our natural parks are out west. My wife and I are always amused when we go west and read about the wonders of a particular park when virtually whole states, like Utah, Wyoming and others, are huge natural parks. We've seen a lot of the west in the last ten years, and we plan on seeing a lot more of it in the future.

[bigheadfred]

It's spectacular up there, just don't tell anyone.

It's terrible up there, please tell everyone. There. Fixed it. ;-)

There is a stream in Teton Valley, Idaho my dad taught me to fly fish in. There have been days in there that you just have to leave early. You get sick of catching fish after fish after fish...did I just say that out loud???

[Old Sarge]

Sadly I must agree with your sage post.

[goseminoles]

Wow, you’re bitter.. happy superbowl Sunday.

[rktman]

Now how can that be? The article states no grizzlies or snakes on the ranch. I guess when you put up signs on the fence warning those critters to stay out, it works. LOL!! Montana is beautiful as is Wyoming and most of the entire country. Disneyland/world. Yuck! More chance of getting some sort of disease there than in the outdoors. Nice sarcasm though in this little screed.

[hinckley buzzard]

Never ceases to amaze me, the hordes of yuppies who drag themselves and their larva off to the Bahamas, or to Cancun, when there is such wonder and beauty in our own land.

Please. Don't say or do anything to distract them. Let them continue to wallow on the beaches in Mexico and such, and leave the great American outdoors unspoiled for the rest of us.

[grey_whiskers]

what I suspect to be a couger showed up near the camp area as best I could tell with my flashlight in the middle of the night.

...and how it got ahold of my flashlight, I'll never know. /Groucho Marx>

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

what I suspect to be a couger showed up near the camp area as best I could tell with my flashlight in the middle of the night.

...and how it got ahold of my flashlight, I'll never know. /Groucho Marx>

Cheers!