Old West, New Dudes : City Slickers Turn Back the Clock With Vacations at Western Ranches

Whispering wind, rising sun and the soft aroma of coffee, steak and eggs usher out the chill residue of night. Waiting horses snort in the morning air, ready for a ride across the desert.

It’s morning at the Flying E dude ranch.

Guests come from as far as New York and Switzerland to escape the honking taxis and bustling city streets for a taste of life from the bygone days of the Wild West.

“I never got to be a cowgirl until I came out here,” says Kathy Dodge, a school bus driver and classical pianist from Rochester, N.Y. “My dream came true.”

She escapes the daily grind of her working life by focusing on the dude ranch’s most basic activities--riding and eating.

“It’s so hectic with all my jobs,” she says. “It’s a total change to come out here and go into a semi-coma state.”

Guests who want more than horses and food can jump into the ranch pool, take to the tennis courts or catch a ride to a nearby golf course.

But saddling up remains the favorite activity by far, as evidenced by doorknobs, ashtrays and lamps made of horseshoes.

“The desert is endless--you can look right into California,” says Kristin Hockmeyer of Kusnacht, Switzerland. “I love to go out into the middle of it and sing aloud. It’s like a second home here.”

Hockmeyer and her husband, Clive, have visited the Flying E Ranch annually for 17 years and even own two horses. The Swiss flag goes up on the ranch flagpole when they arrive.

Home-style hospitality.

“People are feeling a draw to old-time values and open spaces,” says Bobbi Futterer, executive director of the Dude Ranchers’ Assn. in LaPorte, Colo., which comprises 109 ranches in 13 Western states and Canada. “You don’t have to give up your creature comforts, but you also can become part of a century-old lifestyle.”

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Dude ranches started in the late 1800s, when cattle ranchers took in travelers seeking relief from congested cities. The ranchers housed and fed guests for weeks or months at a time. Guests paid $10 a week for a bed, three square meals and a good horse to ride.

The price is higher these days, just as cities are more congested--anywhere from $450 to $2,000.

For some, there is no price on the rewards of Western living.

“Western life is the life of freedom,” says Vi Wellick Bryant, owner of the Flying E since 1960. “It’s like sitting here and having the world come to me.”

Bryant and her late husband first saw the ranch in 1949 as they flew their plane from their native Los Angeles to Texas. Torn between visiting the ranch or going on to Texas, they flipped a coin.

The result changed the course of their lives--they landed at the ranch and fell in love with it.

“I hated the city,” Bryant says. “Every summer I spent on my family’s farm in Nebraska and Kansas, and I just loved the wonderful freedom of being outdoors.”

The freedom bug infected the Hockmeyers as well. What began as a short stay at the ranch years ago has grown into a two-month sojourn this year.

Typically, they are up by 7:30 a.m. and decked out in riding duds before breakfast. They mount up by 9:30 a.m. for a two-hour ride aboard a horse selected by a wrangler, who assigns animals based on the guest’s riding experience.

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Guests break for lunch, then mount up for two more hours on horseback. Saddle-sore and satisfied, they jostle for position when the dinner bell rings at 7 p.m.

“The food is piping hot, so everybody rushes to get a good seat,” Kristin Hockmeyer said. “Everyone seems to be rather tired. No one seems to stay around very long afterward.”

Once a week, weather permitting, the ranch pulls out its chuck wagon for a campfire dinner in the desert.

The ranches work hard to cater to families. Five-year-old Annie Hoyt enjoyed her first visit to Rancho de los Caballeros, down the road from the Flying E.

“I heard some Indians,” the Massachusetts girl said during a lunchtime cookout among saguaros and mesquite bushes. “They sounded like an owl.”

Hayrides, cookouts and guest-oriented rodeos called “dudeos” add to the Western feel.

Not all ranches are strictly for entertainment--more than half of the Dude Ranchers’ Assn. members are working ranches with cattle operations. The working ranches in Wyoming and Montana focus a little less on the guests and a little more on the cattle, Futterer says.

Member ranches must offer “the Western ranch ideal of personal, homelike hospitality,” emphasize horse-related activities and include three meals a day in their fee.

Most dude ranches require a minimum three-night stay to build a feel of homespun hospitality.

“That’s one of its charms,” says Ohio resident Robert Ebinger, 82, at the Flying E ranch. “It has a certain permanence that the rest of the world seems to lack.”