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Condé Nast Traveler picks
 Dude Ranches
The romantic allure of the Wild West seems undying, as if the idea of saddling up, riding trails, punching doggies, and sitting around a campfire is programmed into our cultural DNA. Who hasn't fantasized about wide-open spaces under starry Western skies, particularly while stalled in rush-hour traffic in front of the El Rancho condominiums? This demand has produced a wealth of guest ranch choices all over North America (and Latin America too). Many, if not most, are ranches in name only. They are really ranch-based resorts and are more like horsey theme parks, with nary a moo to be heard. And activities offered are hardly confined to riding. You can often count on fishing, hiking, swimming, off-roading, river rafting, mountain biking—in short, a lot of the stuff Roy and Dale never did, plus a lot that they did do, like singing around the campfire, overnight pack trips, cookouts, and square dancing. It's important to remember that the more authentic it is, the more the property is a ranch first, a resort second. These are not typical resorts. You are a paying guest, but few if any ranches deliver the kind of whatever-you-desire dream vacation that a luxury resort can offer, if only because they've got not just guests to worry about but also property and chores. Dude ranches range in size from just a handful of guests to as many as 450. Most common are those that accommodate 40 to 70 guests, mostly families. Prices vary considerably too: Rates are generally quoted by the week and run from about $500 to more than $2,500 per person. And depending on the latitude and altitude, many ranches close during the winter. The geography, too, can vary enormously, from the Arizona desert to the Canadian Rockies, from up-country Hawaii to rural northern California, and from as far east as Vermont to as far south as Florida. Our favorites are a mere sampling of what's available, and we concentrate on the Rocky Mountain states, which is where guest ranching began. Arizona On the National Register of Historic Places since 1978, the Kay El Bar Guest Ranch has been saddling up dudes since 1926, which is about when dude ranching began. It welcomes 24 guests to cowboy-themed rooms in an adobe compound updated with a swimming pool and a hot tub, about an hour northwest of Phoenix, near Wickenburg. Colorado Just 25 guests have their choice of digging into duding as much as they want at the Laramie River Ranch, west of Fort Collins and six miles from the Wyoming border. At this working ranch, guests are welcome on one of the scheduled cattle drives or can learn to pen steers or rope objects (working up to cows). Or they can just enjoy the great outdoors by taking nature hikes, birding, or just hanging out at the swimming hole, which was recently joined by a hot tub. Five cozy log cabins have been added to the seven modest guest rooms in the main lodge, which dates from the 1880s. Montana Just north of Yellowstone, the Lazy E-L is a 12,000-acre working ranch where cattle are regularly herded from pasture to pasture. This place isn't really for total greenhorns, but you can brush up on your riding skills here before you're assigned to a crew. Four cabins, built between 1906 and 1920, house guests and often whole families. Meals are served family-style in the main house, and there's plenty to do off the ranch, which occupies a gorgeous valley in the Beartooth Range. Wyoming Gunsmoke was the number-one television show in 1958, when the 7D Ranch opened near Yellowstone, and the family who owned it then own it now. That means, for starters, that the Dominicks know every trail, creek, and pass in the heart of the Absaroka Range, where the 7D's 11 homey cabins stand in a grove of aspens near the Main Lodge and Rec Hall. The only thing slick about the comfortable and authentic ranch is the city slickers who share cowboy breakfasts on the trail or swap fish tales while casting for trout on Sunlight River. Three times as expensive and anything but simple, Lost Creek Ranch & Spa is as refined and sumptuous as any Western ranch and has one of the most spectacular locations anywhere: just north of Jackson, with glorious panoramic views of the Grand Tetons. While most of the surrounding land is federally owned, the ranch has remained private. The cattle are gone, but there's trail riding (including well-designed programs for kids) and hiking, as well as golf, skeet shooting, float-trips, a pool, and a spa. For location and luxury, this is the one to beat. Truth in Travel is the guiding principle for all content published in Condé Nast Traveler. Other travel publications often accept free travel and accommodations. Condé Nast Traveler does not. It is independent of the travel industry. The magazine always pays its way, and, as far as possible, its correspondents travel anonymously. By doing so, they experience the world—both the good and the bad—as other travelers do, and their reports and recommendations are fair, impartial, and authoritative.
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