Get out your chaps and ten-gallon hats and head out west to any of these cheap-as-dirt dude ranches. For as little as $144 per person per night you can have your lodging, all meals, and plenty of yippee-tai-yay activities, which run the gamut from simple hay rides and crafts for the kids to full-out all-day horse treks and white water rafting trips.
Prices average about $1,500 for seven nights for these ranches in Grand County, Colorado. The least expensive, the King Mountain Ranch, starts from just $1,010 for off-peak stays for adults in the spring from mid May to mid June, go up almost $700 more for the peak summer months, then drop down slightly again in September. Kid's prices start from $945 for children aged four to twelve in the late spring. The ranch is located northwest of Granby in the Arapaho National Forest. The ranch can sleep 60 and it's open year-round. Phone 800/476-5464 or visit www.kingranchresort.com.
With a charge of just $1,365 for the summer (June through September 13, 2003), Drowsy Water Ranch is next in line as a moderately priced spot. (Children under 5 pay $605.) This is a 600-acre backcountry ranch near Granby, sleeping 60 guests also. Open June through September. There's a 20% discount for weekly stays between June 1 and June 14, 2003, a 15% discount for weekly stays during the week of June 15 and after August 24, 2003. The weeks of August 31 and September 7, 2003, are for adults only. Contact them at 800/845-2292 or at www.drowsywater.com.
Two more ranches haven't published their fall 2003 rates yet, but based on the autumn of 2002, the charge at each was $1,395 per week for adults, from $615 to $,1000 for children 3 to 13 or 16 (depending on the ranch). These are the Aspen Canyon Ranch, guest capacity 35,open June through September, with 10% and 15% discounts off-peak; and the Latigo Ranch, guest capacity also 35, also open June through September and again from mid December through March. The latter has a 10% discount during June and September. Contact for Aspen is 800/321-1357 or www.aspencanyon.com; for Latigo call 800/227-9655, online at www.latigotrails.com.
Most expensive of the group (September 2003 at average of $2,125, they say, for a week) is the CLazyU Ranch, the only guest ranch in the US to receive the Mobil 4-star and AAA 5-diamond ratings, they say. With a guest capacity of 110, they are open from late June through early September and again through Christmas holiday. They give a 15% discount during the September 1-22 period (adults only). Contact them at 970/887-3344, www.clazyu.com.
You can contact the Dude Ranches of Grand County directly at www.dude-ranch.com.