Red Rock Ranch, Kelly, WY

Sunday August 3 started early with a 5:30 a.m. wake up call, and a 6:10 a.m. shuttle ride to the airport for our 8:30 a.m. flight from Denver to Jackson.  All went well.  Once we arrived in Jackson, we hung out at the airport for a couple of hours with coffee, muffins and internet access.  Around 12:45, we saw the Juliane, Ned, Claudette and Maeve arrive at the airport – they had spent the weekend in Jackson, and had boxes and bags of food and beverages for the coming week, in addition to luggage.  Around 1:00 as scheduled, the crew from Red Rock Ranch arrived and drove us the one hour drive out into the country.  The ranch is at the end of the road and is east of Jackson on the Gros Ventre River. 

We checked in, got a tour of the ranch, met the staff and then hung out by the pool while there was sunshine (it rained later, as it did several times each day for the rest of the week).

  Monday morning, Carson (the lead wrangler) gave us an orientation and went over the basic rules.  Patty and I were the least experienced riders.

After that, we went for our first ride.  Patty was on Sig, a Fjord horse, and I was on Hank.  The ride lasted for about two hours and I was so sore afterwards that I had difficulty doing much else that day.

Our crew consisted of Lisa, Ned, Claudette, Patty (Julianne is not in this photo) and myself with Natasha as our wrangler.

Patty went back out for an afternoon ride while I tried to let my aching legs and lower joints relax.

The dining hall and the fireplace room were always open.  The meals were always excellent and always copious - it was hard not to over eat.

On Tuesday, Patty went for an all day ride – this meant a ride in the morning, stop for lunch and then ride back to the ranch in the afternoon.  I went on two rides, but both started and ended at the ranch.  On both rides I was alone with one of the staff, C.J. in the morning and Natasha in the afternoon.  Hank is the horse on the left - my trusty steed for the week.

The facilities and grounds were beautiful.

This is the registration/office in the center and left side, and massage space on the left

The dining room is on the right and the fireplace room is on the left

There were beautiful flowers wherever you went.

Arapahoe cottage is where Patty and I stayed for the week.

Our living room with coffee and minifridge

Our bedroom

There are multiple barns and about 60 horses.

Wednesday was a really rainy day – the only three riders out of all the campers were Maeve, Patty and myself, with Carson as our leader.  It was slippery and muddy in all locations.  In the afternoon, we took it easy and had a nice get together in the Hickey’s cabin – drinks, snacks and a surprise belated birthday card and gift for me.  At dinner, they had two birthday cakes – one white cake for me, and one chocolate cake for three of the Sargent family birthdays.  After dinner was square dancing - quite energetic, especially at altitude of 7,000 plus feet at the ranch.  I had to stop early, hydrate and watch Patty continue.

Thursday was an all ride day. Our crew included Patty, Ned, Claudette, Julianne, Lisa and me.  Natasha was our lead wrangler and C.J. brought up the rear.
 

 

Within the first 30 minutes, we saw signs of wildlife up on the top of the hill we were climbing, so everyone was looking up.

It is difficult to see, but there was a mature bald eagle and a young eagle watching us (actually, they were probably hoping we would scare up some small prey they could catch).

The mature eagle is right in the center of this photo - we were a good hundred yards away

We rode for about two and a half hours before stopping for lunch.

Our lead wrangler, Natasha

Ned, Lisa and Claudette

Wrangler C.J.

Claudette, Lisa, Ned and Maeve

On the prior days plus on Thursday morning, I used stairs to both mount and dismount my horse.  At our lunch break, I was able to both dismount and mount without the stairs - a positive improvement.  We had another two plus hours ride back to the ranch but by a different route.  Back at the ranch, I was able to dismount with out the stairs - a major improvement from Monday when I used the stairs and could barely walk after dismounting,

Thursday evening, dinner was fine dining (scallops with fruit, prickly pear sorbet to cleanse the pallet, elk with polenta or cod with rissoto, followed by an amazing dessert) for the adults followed by a guitar player with many of us singing along in the comfortable fireplace room.

Friday, I felt good and was able to mount without the stairs.  The first activity involved putting us in teams of three.  Each team had three minutes to get steers to go one at a time from a group at one end of the corral to a pen at the other end.  Two teams set a record of twelve - our team of Patty, myself and one of the Sargent family members got eight steers.

It had warmed quickly, so I wanted to take off my jacket.  So I was able to dismount without stairs and take off my jacket.  When I went to get back on, I had difficulty getting my right leg over.  On my second try, Hank apparently was not liking it and jerked backwards so I just slipped back onto the ground and did not ride for the second event.  The second event was in a larger corral and teams of three riders would split three steers from the herd and get them as a group into a pen, trying to do so as fast as possible - the best team did so in 30 seconds.  Afterwards, their was a demonstration by some of the kids of skills they had learned during the week.

In the afternoon, Patty went out for another ride, and I took it easy.  Friday evening was scheduled to be a cookout, but that was cancelled because of the rain - there had been rain every day.  The staff and the owner lamented that this had been the wettest August they could remember.  In any event, it was still a great meal even though served and eaten inside.

Saturday, there was time for a brief one hour ride (Patty went, I did not) before we left at 10:00 for the hour ride to the airport.  Everything went well - except that weather caused multiple delays and flight cancellations.  Julianne had been scheduled on the United flight just before ours and then on to IAD and Boston.  Both her flight and our United flight were delayed 5 - 6 hours.  So we met up with Julianne in Denver and she stayed in our room at the Hyatt.  Even though we got there about 10:30, we did not get to bed until nearly midnight.  Julianne had a 4:15 wake up call.  I got up as well, took her downstairs and made sure she got coffee and the shuttle to the airport.  We later found out she and her luggage got back to Boston around midday Sunday.  Patty and I headed to the airport around 7:00 and got to Portland before 11:00 where we were met by Ben and Martha for our next adventure.