Dude Ranch 101
At the National Dude Ranchers’ Association we are proud of every one of our members and their commitment to cleanliness, hospitality and wonderful horseback riding adventures. Ride the West with the Best and make sure you book your vacation with an accredited member of the National Dude Ranchers’ Association. Find out more about our standards. When planning your (or your clients) vacation it can be a momentous task to navigate your search of all the available dude ranches in North America. Let us help make your planning a breeze. Take some time to brainstorm about your trip and ask yourself a few questions.
What type of riding would you like to do?
Different ranches offer different experiences. They range from all day in the saddle working cattle to short, beautiful summit rides with your kids.
What kind of accommodations would you like?
Cleanliness and quality are high standards at all ranches. When you visit you can be assured your accommodations are freshly cleaned and stocked. If you prefer chocolates on your pillows and fluffy robes to wear to the spa after your ride a resort ranch would be your style. If you prefer the classic log cabin and ranch homestead feel, a traditional dude ranch would suit you just fine.
When would you like to go?
Consider the weather and geographic location. The weather often coordinates when the ranches open, close or transition their seasonal activities. The West is wide open for all sorts of geographic preferences: States, National Parks, Mountain Ranges, birding, foliage, wildlife, etc. Explore your options and then narrow your choices. With these questions answered you are ready to find the ranch you are going to book for your next vacation.
Use our Find a Ranch search engine:
Keyword Search
You can just dive on in if you’re feeling lucky with a keyword search like “dancing” or “skiing.” Those searches would pull up 22 and 6 ranches respectively. Or you can search our blogs. They are listed by category or you can use the blog search box at the top right of the categories.
Check a few Amenity Boxes
Select a box out of each of these categories and it will help eliminate a lot of ranches that offer a different experience than the one you are expecting. Don’t worry if your search comes back with too many (or too few) ranches. Keep checking more (or less) boxes for each consecutive search. When choosing a dude ranch go with your guy feelings; go with the unique experience that you’ve always imagined it to be. Our personal favorite categories to select are:
- Capacity
- Dates Open
- Length of Stay
- Ranch Policies
- Specialty Events
Collect your Favorites in the Saddle Bag
When you see a ranch that catches your eye add it to your “Saddle Bag.” This is your dude ranch term for a shopping cart. This icon is found to the right of each ranch’s profile. Once you click on ‘View Saddle Bag’ this will take you to a table of the ranches you have selected for easy viewing and narrowing your search. Here you can also send a message to all of them at once to ask about pricing and availability.
Book your Vacation with your Favorite Ranch
Once you have completed your search and found the perfect fit for your vacation needs call and book the ranch directly. Don’t forget to ask about travel arrangements to and from the airport!
Additional Help
If you would like additional help in planning your vacation please give us a call or send over an email to our office. We can help point you in the right direction! 307.587.2339 info@duderanch.org
