A Guide to Dude Ranches for City Slickers

by Tom Bastek
Last updated: 4:00 AM ET, Wed July 9, 2014

Photo courtesy of Black Mountain Ranch

In 1991, Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby took themselves out of the city life and onto a cattle drive across the plains of the Southwestern U.S. in the box office smash City Slickers. They took most of the American public and especially me, along with them. Mitch Robbins is 39 years old in the film, as I am today; and like Mitch, I too sometimes lose my smile. So it is with certain fervor that I write this article. Let's see if I can find a dude ranch and maybe my smile at the same time.

Choosing a Ranch

The Dude Ranchers Association recommends choosing your desired riding environment first: open meadows, prairies, mountain trails or southwestern desert. Then you should select your type of riding you would like: working dude ranch or resort dude ranch. They are pretty much what they sound like, with the working dude ranch the most intense and actual experience of the ranch and the resort dude ranch a more casual, laid-back environment.

You can figure on driving cattle at the working ranch and trail rides at the resort ranch. The other considerations that the DRA recommends are time of year, size of the ranch (e.g. number of guests staying at the ranch) and lastly the accommodations level that you desire.

In other words are you willing to rough it, or do you want a cushy feather bed and Jacuzzi? Families are welcome at almost all ranches and activities for the children are plentiful. If you are interested in an adults-only getaway, most ranches offer select weeks for that as well.

Working Ranches

I know that the manly man in me wants to rough it under the stars, drive cattle and win a tobacco spitting contest. If you want the same, the Working Ranches are for you. The Black Mountain Ranch in McCoy, Colorado offers something for everyone: trail rides, cattle drives, fly fishing, trap and skeet shooting, white water rafting, roping, rodeo trips, star walks, and live entertainment.

You are looking to come out of pocket starting a little over $2,000 per person for an all-inclusive package. That includes everything except alcohol at the on-premise saloon. But it does include all the riding you want, all the activities, three squares a day and accommodations, plus they will give you all the instruction and coaching for anything you are not comfortable with.

Black Mountain is about an hour outside of Vail, Colorado and about two and a half hours outside of Denver. They provide transport from the airport in Vail for free and from Denver for $125 round trip.

Some other ranches fitting the bill: Wilderness Trails Ranch, Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch, and The Red Reflet Ranch.

Resort Dude Ranches

If you are looking for something more casual, that perhaps has a little more variety, or maybe even a spa and yoga availability, Mountain Sky Ranch in Emigrant, Montana may be more your style. They offer up fine dining from Chef Brian Bielen, providing creative and flavorful meals as well as an extensive wine list. They have a spa featuring a heated pool, sauna, hot tub, fitness center, and three trained on-staff masseuses. They offer up two sessions a day of yoga and an on-property nine-hole golf course. The bonus here is that they are less than 30 miles from Yellowstone National Park and they offer up horseback and van tours as well.

Rates here are naturally a little higher at an average of about $4,000 a week with everything included with the exception of massage services, off-site adventures including Yellowstone Park tours, fly fishing, and whitewater rafting. The ranch is located about 30 minutes from Bozeman, Montana Airport and is $275 per party.

Some of the other more luxurious ranches include: C Lazy U Ranch, Smith Fork Ranch, and the A Bar A Ranch.

So if you are looking to make a real cowboy-go-of-it or just kick back and relax old-west style, your options are as wide open as the countryside. If you are like me and looking for your smile and somehow manage to find it, congratulations! Just don't bring home a calf named Norman.

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