Home on the range:
Home on the range: horses idly graze the grassy fields of Montana's Ranch at Rock Creek Roughing it deluxe WESTWARD BOUND Ranches, retreats and resorts across the American West seamlessly blend the great outdoors with more than a little rugged luxury A two-bedroom tent at The Resort at Paws Up perched serenely on the banks of the Blackfoot River Left: purple-hued lea frames the snow-capped rockies at The Ranch at Rock Creek; right: a taste of the cowboy experience at Mustang Monument Go West, young man” instructed Horace Greeley in an 1865 newspaper editorial. And nearly 150 years later, people are still doing it. The American West has been romanticised and mythologised more than any other region in the country, bringing tourists for the first time around the turn of the 20th century, when cattle ranchers turned to wrangling city slickers, or “dudes”, with holiday adventures that let them play cowboy on dude ranches. Today’s retreats eschew the term dude, focusing instead on an American safari experience. With beautifully styled lodges and tents outfitted with all the creature comforts, impeccable service, 24-hour spa treatments and world-class cuisine, guests can now indulge their inner cowboy as well as their outer sybarite. The Resort at Paws Up, Greenough, Montana “Montana epitomises the original American West,” says Larry Lipson, owner of The Resort at Paws Up, located about 35 minutes northeast of Missoula. “It is so undeveloped, so similar to what it was like hundreds of years ago. It’s all about nature, all about the wilderness, which is more pristine here than anywhere else in America, other than, perhaps, Alaska.” The vast 15,000ha property, which has been a working cattle ranch for more than a century, features private homes and 30 tented accommodations divided into five camps. The newest, Cliffside Camp, opened last summer on a cliff overlooking the Blackfoot River. More than 50 activities are on offer, including abseiling and a go-cart track. Starting this summer, guests can learn to drive a horse wagon team alongside a wrangler, and special culinary events draw chefs and winemakers from around the world. From 0, including meals and transfers; pawsup.com FROM TOP: © THE RANCH AT ROCK CREEK, GOLDBERG PHOTOGRAPHY, MICHAEL PARTENIO, MICHAEL CHILCOAT 36 departures-international.com
"You don’t pretend like at a dude ranch – you can actually participate in the real West" CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: © THE RESORT AT PAWS UP, MICHAEL PARTENIO, © DUNTON HOT SPRINGS (2) The Ranch at Rock Creek, Philipsburg, Montana Like many American boys in the 1960s, hedge fund manager Jim Manley was raised on a steady diet of Westerns and cowboy shows, which stoked dreams of owning a ranch. It took Manley decades to find the perfect spot for The Ranch at Rock Creek, 90 minutes from Missoula. The ranch was designed with “a stepback-in-time feel, while other ranches look like resorts”, Manley explains. “They don’t have the authenticity that I think people want.” Accommodations range from guest rooms in the Granite Lodge to log homes and private cabins (some original to the property) to half-tented cabins for a more rustic experience. The ranch’s 2,670 hectares offer plenty of year-round diversions including riding, fly-fishing and shooting clay. “I wanted to bring out the child in an adult,” says Manley. “That’s why I wanted lots of activities, because when you play, a lot of bonding takes place. Strangers make friends very quickly here.” From 0, including meals and activities; theranchatrockcreek.com Mustang Monument, Wells, Nevada Madeleine Pickens is on a mission to save America’s wild mustangs with Mustang Monument, a new eco-resort and preserve on 2,330 square kilometres in the Nevada wilderness. Her charitable organisation, Saving America’s Mustangs, has already rescued more than 650 horses, which face rapidly declining numbers. “There was such an enormous appetite … to go to Africa and experience a safari,” she explains. “How terribly sad that nobody knows about our wild animals and the plight of our mustangs.” Guests stay in tipis or cottages outfitted with king-size beds and private baths. “You really are Clockwise from top: a river wends its way through The Resort at Paws Up; daylight fills Dunton's cosy library; sundown at Dunton's sole log cabin; a historic horse-drawn wagon ride at Mustang Monument in the middle of nowhere,” says Pickens. “But seeing these horses running free with their foals by their sides, it’s just tremendous. You don’t pretend like at a dude ranch – you can actually participate in the real West.” From ,000, including meals and activities; mustangmonument.com Dunton Hot Springs and Dunton River Camp, Dolores,Colorado Rather than re-create nostalgic notions of the wild West, these properties simply reclaimed history. Dunton Hot Springs was a mining town in the late 1800s, and Dunton River Camp, formerly Cresto Ranch, was a working cattle ranch – cattle are still moved through the area each year. German Christoph Henkel first transformed the ghost town into a luxe resort in 1994 with twelve 19th-century log cabins and a tented suite. The original town saloon became the restaurant, serving organic fare, and the spa is fed by the natural mineral hot springs for which the place is named. Now, Dunton River Camp, which opened last summer, is a compound of eight handsomely appointed canvas tents six kilometres from town alongside the Dolores River, with breathtaking views of the San Juan Mountains. From 0 at Dunton Hot Springs, including meals; duntonhotsprings.com BY LAURIE KAHLE CONTACT PLATINUM CARD SERVICE FOR BOOKINGS departures-international.com 37
