Cabin fever
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. – Three million people shy of a crowd, the Bar N Ranch stretches out over a remote Montana meadow that’s home to elk, bison and bald eagles.
Only six miles away are those 2,969,868 people – the annual visitors to Yellowstone National Park.
The Bar N hosts guests year-round on its 200 acres just west of West Yellowstone, and about a mile down a ranch road. Any essence of hustle and hassle left over from the national-park crowd wafts away in the fresh alpine meadow air.
Guests luxuriate in the main lodge’s seven guest rooms and the seven nearby log cabins, each with its own hot tub outside. There’s an outdoor swimming pool, recreation room and sublimely appointed dining room.
And just beyond the lodge doors ripples the South Fork of the Madison River, known to fly fishers as one of the state’s blue-ribbon fisheries.
While Old Faithful, Norris Geyser Basin and the Mammoth Terraces remain must-see spots inside America’s first national park, the Bar N’s fishing, horseback riding and solitude provide respite from a tour-laden trip.
World travelers Nancy and Christian Persons of Unalakleet, Alaska, discovered the Bar N through the local chamber of commerce and were uncommonly surprised.
“If you have never been to Montana and to a place like the Bar N, you would love it and feel like you have had a real Western experience,” says Nancy, who with her husband has traveled and lived in North Africa, South America, the Middle East and, now, above the Arctic Circle.
“What’s best about the ranch is the food, the friendly, relaxed atmosphere and a black Labrador retriever – big points for me!”
Indeed, 3-year-old Ranger is the first of the Bar N staff to greet guests and wag them toward the main lodge to the front desk. He has not learned to open the antler-handle doors on the log building yet, but his manners are otherwise impeccable.
“Ranger likes everybody,” says Gayle Gavagan, co-owner and manager, who with her husband Mike has operated the guest ranch since 2001.
There also are well-mannered canines among the clientele, but only in the cabins. The family pet may join ranch dog Ranger for romps around the property – and in the South Fork of the Madison River on warm summer days.
Of course, visiting fishermen may not appreciate canine exuberance, so it’s best to keep dogs close by. Besides, moose, elk, deer and other locals definitely won’t love the family dog as much as the family does – and park excursions exclude pets beyond car doors.
A ranch day begins with the morning wake-up call from meadowlarks and chickadees, twitters which amalgamate into a symphony of ranch sounds: moose splashing in the stream, breezes ruffling aspen leaves, an osprey’s piercing call as it flies overhead in search of fish.
Fly fishers brew coffee in their cabins, then walk just a few steps to Buttermilk Creek or Denny Creek, or make the 10-minute trek to the South Fork, where midges catch the memories of the day.
Those who sleep in luxuriate under 6-inch-thick, fluffy down duvets tossed over pine bed frames.
Cabins have one or two bedrooms, a living room with fireplace, TV, bath with large jetted tub, and those hot tubs right outside.
Lodge rooms, each with its own unique décor, fireplace, jetted spa tub, small refrigerator and coffee maker, are so inviting that it’s hard to leave. Yet when breakfast is served, the sweet smells of sausage and coffee lure even the sleepiest from their divan.
Ranger patiently sits outside cabin doors to encourage guests into the dining room for a Western breakfast: simple and dignified omelets like the Firehole, with cheese, onion and fresh salsa. There’s also an extravagant, pecan-crusted French toast, and coffee on the porch overlooking the 200-acre meadow is simply sublime.
What divides the Bar N Ranch from other guest ranching facilities is the lack of organized activities – and in an overscheduled world, that deficiency has become quite popular.
The summer staff of 20 whittles down the day’s duties for the maximum of about 40 guests. Some stay for just the three-night minimum, others for a week, a lodging flexibility that’s uncommon among guest ranches.
Some guests reserve a half-day excursion via horseback with a neighboring ranch, the Diamond P. Others head into Yellowstone Park for a tour. Families relax poolside or streamside.
As remote as the Bar N feels, the town of West Yellowstone is only seven minutes away, with its welcoming ice cream shops on a hot afternoon.
The Yellowstone IMAX Theater, with its six-story screen and 12,000-watt, digital-quality surround sound, features hourly showings of four different films on bears, wolves, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. There’s also the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, where wild wolves and bears romp just inside a fence.
The Yellowstone Historic Center Museum in the old Union Pacific Railroad Depot provides perspective on a place that was almost entirely wild a century ago and remains untamed. Displays edify viewers on the early visits to the park via rail, the massive earthquake of 1959 and the raging fires of 1988.
“We visited the Earthquake Lake Visitor Center and walked around the site where 28 people died in 1959 from the earthquake and the rockslide onto a campground,” says Nancy Persons.
The visitor center’s exhibits detail the massive slide with its more than 80 million tons of rock and debris that plugged the Madison River, forming Earthquake Lake, 27 miles northwest of West Yellowstone on Highway 287.
Other day trips outside Yellowstone National Park include Lewis and Clark Caverns, the gold-mining towns of Virginia and Nevada Cities, and the remote and remarkable Red Rock Trumpeter Swan Refuge.
Back at the Bar N, the ranch and nearby recreation outlets provide plenty of exercise opportunities.
The Persons spent a day on nearby mountain biking routes on the Rendezvous Trails and hiking inside just Yellowstone on the gentle and scenic Riverside Trail before returning for a hot soak, then a glass of wine in the lodge’s great room before dinner.
“You did not feel like you were on top of others at the ranch,” Nancy says. “The ranch has a nice great room with a huge fireplace, plenty of space to hang out.”
In fact, the lodge has a dozen fireplaces and a floor-to-ceiling, three-story stone chimney with four fires to romance guests. Antler art lamps and fixtures, leather furniture, Pendleton wool blankets and taxidermied bison busts help create the historic-ranch feel.
The name of the ranch derives from the cattle brand originally assigned to it: a capital “N” with a bar over the top, thus the Bar N.
“We’ve been researching the ranch since we purchased it,” Gayle Gavagan says. “A family ran cattle here on what was originally about a 500-acre ranch. They began guest ranching a few decades ago for summer guests visiting Yellowstone.”
Today, she says, “We are open year-round and fill up with cross-country skiers in winter, skiers who spend time on West Yellowstone’s Rendezvous Ski Trails, ski or snowshoe inside Yellowstone, or take scenic snowcoach trips into the park to Old Faithful.”
Whatever the season, guests amble to the lodge after a day surrounded by the Madison Range to the north, and the South Plateau and Two Top peaks to the south.
Chef Jack Cole promises an assortment of Western cuisine, from fresh seafood, flown in daily, to Black Angus New York steak and Boursin chicken breast (pan-fried chicken breast served with a fresh oyster mushroom/Boursin cheese sauce).
Since the old hickory dining room is open to the public, it’s popular with locals from as far away as Bozeman, about 95 miles; reservations are necessary.
The sun sets late this time of year, after 9 p.m., casting a lavender tint to the surrounding peaks. As Ranger the black Lab trots across the lodge’s front porch, Gayle says, “We will keep this land undeveloped.”
And that’s good news for the sandhill cranes, the antelope, the frogs and other critters that make up the crowd at the Bar N Ranch.