Ranching in USA - advice please!

[loobylolly]

We are considering spending 3 weeks in the States this August, including a week on a guest ranch and 2 weeks self drive.

Have decided not to do Arizona / Grand Canyon / Las Vegas etc this time (perhaps in april or October another year). There seems to be fantastic ranches in Colorado / Idaho / Montana / Wyoming, but there is too much information and I can't work out which would be best in terms of scenery, wildlife and a reasonable itinerary for the self drive bit, with plenty to occupy 2 kids aged 11 and 7... (I have a slight impression that Wyoming might be a bit too full of huge open plains, beautiful in the cinema but less exciting to explore - but this could be totally wrong.)

Any opinions or suggestions or general advice welcome! TIA.

oh wow!!!!

Wouldnt go for Idaho - my recollections are of it being rather boring farmland (potatoes I seem to recollect)

I spent 2 weeks on the Triple J ranch in Montana. It was beautiful, the horses were fab, the accommodation and staff wonderful, a great kids cowboy program, I would have lived there forever lol! Its not cheap but for a week it would be a lovely experience. Its on the Bob Marshall wilderness, gorgeous mountains and truly amazing scenery. The accommodation is little log cabins in the woodland around the main lodge. Food is home cooked and all you can eat - which is great as after 8 hours riding you are starving! The owners are so lovely, they have a real passion for horses and make sure they match you with a suitable steed. I rode a big grey Teddy bear called Steele, and even though I hadn't ridden for years, by the afternoon of day 2 I was galloping across the plateau of a mountain range, wind in my hair, feeling incredible!

Anyhoo I have waffled on about it so much, I really want to go back. Have to save up first!

Oh wow Wrinkly, Triple J is one of the ones I'm looking at, it has great reviews on Tripadvisor and sounds fab. Is there enough else in Montana, or within reasonable driving distance, to occupy us for 2 weeks do you think??

Did you go to Yellowstone?

And thanks OYBBK for the heads up about Idaho, I've been looking at its tourist stuff online and thinking how exciting it sounded with white water rafting etc, if it's really mostly just potatoes I will have to think again!! It's so difficult to judge what you read on the internet!

Colorado sounds promising...?

You could combine a week at the triple J with a 2 week driving tour (maybe hire an RV?) going up to Yellowstone? There would be lots of amazing camping and fishing and back to basics experience, and at various places in Yellowstone you could do different activities. I think with a 7 and 11 year old an adventure like this would be awesome! Yellowstone is a good drive from the airport that you go to for the triple J. If memory serves I think its Helena? Can't remember. But the owner drives out to get you from the airport and drives you back at the end of the week so you could either fly to a closer airport to Yellowstone or hire an RV from there and drive up. Either way Montana is beautiful. Big skies and mountains, really my favorite place on the planet. Yellowstone is huge. Lots of great camping, wild scenery, hiking. There are plenty of motels around the periphary for decent showers and a bed. You can also find adventure activity companies too.

Anyhoo I am soo jealous lol. I really can't recommend Montana enough!!!

I just checked and its Great Falls airport you would fly into. Anyhoo, email Kim or Ernie (the owners) at the Triple J and ask for their thoughts on what to do before or after a week there. They know the region and state really well, and told me about a couple of off the beaten track places to visit. Also their kids program only runs til 21 August so bear that in mind too.

Thanks so much Wrinkly, great advice. I didn't know about the kids programme at Triple J only running til 21 Aug, wouldn't want to miss that!

Out of interest, have you been to Colorado as well? Interested to hear how it would compare. I know DH and I would really love Montana and Yellowstone, just wondering whether the chidren would quite as much and whether there might be more to keep them amused in Colorado (steam train trips and the like). Also I imagine that colorado's ski resorts would try to attract visitors in the summer too.

Montana hugely tempting though. Maybe we'll just take the plunge!

I've been to Grand Junction, Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder. Colorado is beautiful too. I did some grade 3 and 4 white water rafting on the Colorado river which was (scary as hell) brilliant. To be honest all of the national parks in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming etc are stunning in their own ways. I'd hire an RV and drive around a bit rather than stay in one place. You could then stop at certain points to do rafting, riding, hiking, climbing and all that good outdoors stuff. Mountain biking is pretty fab too.

I've been to Grand Junction, Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder. Colorado is beautiful too. I did some grade 3 and 4 white water rafting on the Colorado river which was (scary as hell) brilliant. To be honest all of the national parks in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming etc are stunning in their own ways. I'd hire an RV and drive around a bit rather than stay in one place. You could then stop at certain points to do rafting, riding, hiking, climbing and all that good outdoors stuff. Mountain biking is pretty fab too.

Ranching

I know CrackFox I am very excited.

Thanks Butterfly, v interesting. Will def get one of those passes.

We've got 3 weeks in total so I think we will travel round a bit. For some reason I'm really not keen on the idea of an RV, though I can't quite put my finger on why. I think we'd rather base ourselves somewhere for 3 or 4 nights, explore the area and move on.

The travel person I'm speaking to has just recommended flying into Denver, hiring a car and travelling up via Rocky Mountain NP, doing the ranching bit then doing Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. They're putting together a sample itinerary. again! USA and Canada do do national parks so brilliantly I think.

Right that's RVs struck off the list for consideration!

Butterfly do you book your accomm first or just find it as you go? (loving the look of your car btw)

We've always booked in advance but I'm wondering now if we could get really brave and take the risk, which would give us more flexibility with how long we stay in each area. I kind of think we'd always be able to find a grungy motel at least...?

Oooooh definitely just wing it! You'll find little gems and be able to be totally flexible as to where you go and how long you stay. The spontaneity is all part of the road trip adventure and if you end up in a roach motel LOL well that's all part of the experience!

Also, ask locals in the diner etc where they recommend, I did that and got an invite to stay in the Mayor's vacation log cabin in a teeny town in Montana so you really never know til you ask! People are so friendly and helpful. And gas is soooooooooo cheap. Now I am super jealous. I used to do weekend road trips and just drive up into Maine or Vermont when I lived in Boston, and stay in random B and Bs or motels. It's so much fun.

Wow that caboose place is brilliant!! Wish we'd discovered that when DS was 4, he had a red brio caboose that accompanied him everywhere. And Wrinkly the Mayor's cabin, what a fab story!

I think you're right about the spontaneity thing, we've been a bit risk averse in the past but the kids are plenty old enough now to see it as all one big adventure (roachy psycho motel here we come!) - and the asking the locals is genius, blindingly obvious now that you mention it...!

As far as i'm concerned THE most amazing place in the ENTIRE WORLD (and i am quite well travelled) is Yellowstone National Park.

It's on the montana/wyoming border and our two weeks were amazing - every day more spectacular and amazing than the last!!!

We flew into Bozeman in Montana on the north side of the park and drove down through the park to Jackson Hole on the south side.

I CANNOT recommend it highly enough, for everybody - the kids will be totally gobsmacked at the geysers and bison and elk and moose.

Talking about locals, in California in 2005, as soon as they found out we were British (I'm a Scot too) everyone was falling over themselves to tell us they hadn't voted for Bush, and they seemed genuinely embarrassed that obviously plenty of people had. It happened again and again. I did think it was funny that they really wanted us not to think that of them! And we hadn't even said anything! But yes everyone was very friendly - even though we didn't know their Great Uncle Bill from Lancashire...

LOL at driving for 3 weeks just to avoid roach motels.

ooh sorry x-posts, that was to Butterfly.

thanks Fluffles and Booksgalore! Yellowstone does look really fab and we are planning to spend quite a bit of time there. Booksgalore what did you do about camping gear, take with / hire? I had wondered about helmets, we don't have any to take, do they usually have some to borrow if you want do you think?

Lol at butterfly. I didn't wear a helmet I wore a Proper Cowboy Hat. It would have provided no useful function in a fall but my theory was if I was going to kick the bucket by falling off my handsome steed I could think of no better location to die. Honestly the mountains were so incredible. Same in Yellowstone. The views just keep getting better and it gets to a point that you could just cry with the overwhelming beauty. I did have a little sniff at the top of Mortimers peak.

Western riding is very different from English. The pommel is a wonderful thing. You ride with your feet sticking out a bit not touching the horses side unless you're wanting him to speed up a bit. I found my horse extremely good. He was so surefooted on narrow mountain paths, he had great intuition too, knew when to slow down if I was wetting myself. He was fast and could turn on a dime, as they say. I was so sad to leave him actually as I felt like we really were an amazing team over the 2 weeks. You get to know your horse so well.

Anyhoo here I go again just waffling. Am considering giving up my job and marrying a cowboy.