The Blog at Rock Creek

10 Dreams Turned Reality at The Ranch

Every vacation is a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream. Here are 10 classic bucket list adventures that The Ranch at Rock Creek fulfills each year.

1. Become a Horseback Rider.

Notice, we didn’t say, “go horseback riding.” The Ranch teaches horsemanship, so you can go from being a greenhorn to a rider during a week’s vacation. The Ranch’s equestrian program is a customized, robust experience, with guests deciding how far they want to take their riding skills. When English riders arrive at The Ranch, they leave with new skills and appreciation for a different world.

You can learn how to saddle and care for a horse before your first trail ride. In the next several days, you may summit higher terrain and start roping. After the better part of a week, you might be comfortable enough in the saddle to learn pole bending or barrel racing in the rodeo arena. See a 4-day sample equestrian itinerary for a taste of this adventure.

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The Ranch Retains Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Status

We’re thrilled to announce that we have garnered the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star award for the third year in a row! Read more…

Wintertime Glamping at The Ranch

We’re switching gears to our winter glamping season. If you’ve fallen in love with luxury glamping like we have, you may picture gourmet picnics amidst wildflower meadows and bespoke tents within earshot of a babbling stream. Now, it’s time to update that image to include all the possibilities of glamping in the snow.

What makes winter glamping so enjoyable is that it’s not summer glamping disguised in wool and down. Instead, it’s comprised of an entirely different set of adventures and amenities. Following on the heels of winter features in Collective Quarterly and Architectural Digest, we wanted to attest to the reasons why winter glamping is fit for your wanderlust list. To take advantage, check out our winter special offers. For example, The Indulgent Frontiersman special highlights the frontier experience, along with the best Big Sky comforts.  Read more…

Huckleberry Bear Traps in the Great Room

Montanans take pleasure in foraging for seasonal ingredients. Guests who visited us in the spring might have enjoyed cuisine filled with flavorful morel mushrooms, gathered in the local forest. Now, the Flathead cherries have just been picked and huckleberry season is upon us. The recent heat wave means that the berries arrived early and will disappear fast thanks to foraging animals—bears and humans alike.

If you’re on the hunt for these elusive berries and you find a berry-rich hill, it’s a good idea to pick as many as you possibly can. We suggest reserving some for fresh uses, while divvying up the majority between preserves and freezer containers so that the sweet grape-like smell can linger in your kitchen year-round.

There are several types of huckleberries, but the two types that grow in our region of the Rockies are the black huckleberry, or Vaccinium membranaceum, and the blue Cascade huckleberry, with the fitting name of Vaccinium deliciosum.

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Summer in Montana can take on a faster pace than other seasons. The long days make you want to get up earlier in the morning and stay awake after the stars come out—with the recent full moon and the alignment of Venus and Jupiter, there’s been plenty to see after dark. However, it’s when we slow down and enjoy an activity for several hours that we are amazed by Montana’s wildlife and scenery.  A recent guest took some time to write about her experience with one of our signature activities, fly fishing. We think she captured the slow pace, patience and beauty of fishing on Rock Creek, as well as the valuable experience of working one-on-one with our guides to master one of the most elusive fly fishing techniques. Thanks, Gwen for sharing your adventure. 

Words of Wisdom—Fly Fishing

by Special Guest Blogger Gwen Books

Properly Presented Dry Flys Will Catch Fish...after a few hours on Rock Creek with my fishing guide, Riley Fitting, he uttered the prophetic phrase. I was successful in catching two large trout and one baby trout, however it was due to his assistance…as in his shouting: Hook It!

I grew up fishing, my father had three daughters and it didn’t deter him from teaching us one of his favorite pastimes. Not as much fly fishing as baiting with a worm or lure and dropping in a lake or stream. I’ve only recently realized seeing fish in a creek or following the fly downstream is a challenge for my aging eyes. I spent a half day fly fishing at The Brando Island and neither Teihotu or I caught a fish, and I never even saw them in the gin-clear sea. Read more…

Glamping, a Global Travel Trend

Over the past 10 years, glamping has moved up the ranks of the travel world. If you haven’t tried it yet, here’s a primer on this growing trend. While it might seem like a silly word, these hybrid concepts are nothing new to the English language. (For example, “Automobile” combines the Greek word for self with Latin word for moveable.)

Glamping is the combination of the words “glamour” and “camping.” Although backpackers will scoff at the idea that camping can be upgraded, many people who have slept on the ground for a night or two might admit that they prefer some small luxuries, like a mattress, a shower or a chef cooking them a delicious, filling meal prepared after a day of hiking.

A seating area in a canvas cabin at The Ranch at Rock Creek Read more…

Before the summer season gets underway, we want to take some time to thank our guests. We greatly appreciate the extra time and effort our guest reviewers put into sharing their personal experiences with the global travel community. TripAdvisor just announced that we’ve received their Certificate of Excellence for the fourth straight year. We couldn’t be more thrilled, because this honor is derived directly from outstanding guest evaluations. We also received the Bravo Badge from TripAdvisor earlier in the year for our large proportion of excellent reviews.

TripAdvisor Accolades

It would be impossible to be the world’s only Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star guest ranch without our guests. Their willingness to travel off the beaten path and delve far deeper than the conventional vacation keeps us striving to exceed expectations year after year. These reviews also reinforce our mission to provide exceptional experiential travel with comfort knitted into every corner of the breathtaking landscape. It we confirms we should continue to offer an authentic Montana environment based on our homestead roots. Read more…

In the first hundred years of Montana’s history, ranchers, cowboys and miners had only one place to go for dry goods—the Mercantile. In fact, one of Montana’s biggest cities, Missoula, the Mercantile building is a place of history and pride years after it held any merchandise. The Ranch at Rock Creek’s Mercantile is designed to be a Montana trade hub, stocking local craftsman and exceptional outdoor brands. In fact, when you enter “The Merc,” you may get a feeling that you are in another era. Our staff are trained to do custom boot fittings and provide expert advice on outfitting yourself for ranch life, with products that will last decades, rather than seasons, with good care. No one living in the mountains has ever regretted investing in well-crafted gear. Quality material and attention to detail help prepare Montanans for wherever the dirt road may take them.

If you’re around Missoula, please join us on Sunday, December 4th at Montgomery Distillery when The Ranch’s Merc hosts a Holiday Sip & Shop, with sales on many of our favorite brands. You can find exceptional deals on luxury brands like Filson and Patagonia, and contribute to the spirit of giving. 10% of proceeds will benefit Free Cycles.  The shop will be open from 2 to 7 PM, so grab a friend, a drink and enjoy a bit of Mercantile-style shopping—where there’s a little bit of everything and it’s all adventure-worthy.

Fashion with a Purpose

Our fall fashion choices are warm, comfortable and authentic. We recommend that anyone visiting The Ranch take some time at the Mercantile to find something that can be both souvenir and fashion staple. If you can’t make it to our luxury guest ranch now, here’s an example of an outfit things that you might see in our Mercantile. Ranch fashion requires versatility, whether you’re sliding into the saddle or saddling up to the bar.

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Geocaching in The Treasure State

Montana’s motto is “The Treasure State.”  While horses, cattle and cowboys are essential to the ethos of a luxury guest ranch, many Montana ranches started out as mining claims. The Ranch at Rock Creek is no exception.

As the gold rush hit the west coast in the 19^th century, Granite County, Montana experienced a silver boom. For over 100 years, miners and cowboys lived side-by-side, working the land in different ways.

Thankfully, this history is still a part of The Ranch at Rock Creek. Although the silver mines are all but dry, guests get the chance to take on modern treasure hunting—geocaching. Read more…

The “A” in August must stand for “arid” because it’s the driest month on a Montana ranch resort. Ranchers don’t complain because the weather is ideal for cutting, raking and baling hay.

Soon we’ll be celebrating our all-inclusive Autumn Harvest Weekend and thinking about the fall colors, but for now, steady hot temperatures have us thirsty, conjuring up visions of the watering hole. Just like the best dude ranch vacations, the summer cocktail is all about balance—between salty and sweet, bubbly and still.

When six o’clock rolls around, Ranch guests head to The Great Room in the Granite Lodge to relax after a day of horseback riding , archery or hiking Montana trails. Cocktail connoisseurs may wonder what the world’s only Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star luxury guest ranch serves parched guests. Our bartenders craft drinks to taste, but we also offer seasonal drinks that use herbs from Chef Drage’s garden, syrupy stone fruit and foraged berries.

Here’s one of this year’s favorites—the Pintler Punch, named after the Pintler Mountain Range near The Ranch’s southern border. Read more…