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Nebraska Dude Ranch Vacation
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At a Glance
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| HIGHLIGHTS | |
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| Famous For: | 3600 acre working cattle family ranch with 200 cow/calf pairs in scenic timbered high country, vacation package & ala carte pricing, non-rider rates, small groups (5 or less riders), kid and pet friendly, en route to Mt. Rushmore/Yellowstone |
| Capacity: | 5 riders, 11 for lodging |
| Open: | year round |
| Altitude: | 4000-4500 |
| Location: | In the scenic pine ridge area of northwest Nebraska, 30 miles east of the Wyoming border and 60 miles south of the Black Hills of South Dakota. |
| Reservations: | 308-665-3983 |
| Rates: |
Adults: $150 daily rate vacation package, services also priced ala carte
Children: contact us for family discounts |
| Minimum Stay: | none |
| Deposit: | 25% |
| Payment: | cash and personal checks, can transfer funds via PayPal |
| Closest Airports: | Chadron, Nebraska - Rapid City, South Dakota - Denver, Colorado |
| Transportation: | rental car recommended, but can pick up in Chadron, Alliance, Scottsbluff, or Rapid City |
| Travel Agents: | YES |
| FEATURED AMENITIES | |||
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 Bed-and-BreakfastAlways Big/Heavy Riders200-250 lbs. BirdingBring Your Own HorseCattle Drives1 or Part Day Cattle Ranches101 - 200 Head Children's ProgramsChildren's Trail Riding5 yrs old 6 yrs old 7 yrs old and over Computer/Email Services |
Cuisine Ranch/Western Spa Cuisine/Health Oriented Vegetarian Dude/Guest RanchesEmail AccessGolfNear (within 30 miles) HikingGuided On Your Own Horseback RidingHorsesQuarter Hunting RanchesBig Game Deer Wingshooting/Birds Turkey Kitchen Facilities (in cabin) |
Languages Spoken English LiquorBring Your Own Mountain BikingNon-Riding RatesPets WelcomeSaddle Your Own HorseShort Stays (1-4 days)Always | |
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| LODGING |
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| Lodging: We are a true working cattle ranch. Our family's ranch headquarters and guest cabins are located at the end of a dead end gravel road, 7 miles from the highway. The nearest stop light or fast food store is 40 miles away. You will truly feel you have gotten away from everyone and everything. The ranch boasts of a rugged beauty in its diversity; spectacular views in every direction, open rolling grass meadows, steep hills, ridges studded with Ponderosa pine trees, canyons with Green Ash, Hackberry and Cottonwood lining the creek bottoms. Our cozy, comfortable cabins sleeps 5-6. In one cabin, the bedroom has two sets of twin bunk beds. The living area has a futon and a twin bed with trundle bed that pops up to make king size bed. In the other cabin there is a queen bed, and bunk bed with twin on top and double on the bottom. Both kitchens are furnished with dishes, stove, microwave, coffee maker, small refrigerator, and a BBQ grill. Linens are provided, but no housekeeping. A telephone and gas grill are available at the main house. Both cabins have heat and air conditioning. |
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| RECREATION |
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| We offer guests the opportunity to be a cowboy for a day or a week: to ride and experience ranch life on a scenic, timbered high-country Nebraska cattle ranch. We offer a relaxed atmosphere, good horses, comfortable cabin(s), and beautiful country! You decide what day of the week to arrive and to leave, and how long you want to stay. Rustic lodging, meals served family style, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, fresh air, star-gazing, a serene and peaceful retreat from the urban hustle and bustle...You will come as a guest and leave feeling like part of our family. Because our ranch is a working cattle ranch we do require that guests have some prior riding experience. We do not ride nose to tail, but spread out when the terrain allows and you need to be able to control your horse at a trot or canter outside of an arena if you wish to work with the cattle or help move cattle. Our guest horses are very gentle working ranch horses. You are welcome to bring your own horses. Because we only take one group at a time, we can tailor your riding and vacation time to match your experience level and desires. We can do pleasure riding only if you do not feel comfortable working with the cattle. The speed will be set by you, there will always be a little trotting involved but we do not need to canter/lope if you are not comfortable with that. You will have our undivided attention as we only take small groups of 5 people or less. If you are unsure about your experience level being adequate, please contact us and we can talk about it! Your safety is very important to us as we strive to make this an ultimate horseback riding vacation for you and your friends or family. If you wish to have the working ranch experience, you will ride, help round up and drive the cattle herd of 200 cows and calves, plus bulls, to new pastures. Also join us as we ride through the herd daily to check on them, checking fences, water, and minerals. Experience the thrill of bonding with your horse through the adventure of working together to accomplish daily ranch tasks. In May we normally round up the herd for branding and vaccinating the calves. In June we put the bulls out to pasture and sort them off and bring them home in August. We round up the herd again for vaccinating calves around Labor Day. We repeat this process again in October for weaning and selling the calves and pregnancy testing the cows. We sort off the cows who aren’t pregnant and haul to our local livestock auction. Then the rest go back out to pasture until we run out of grass or it starts snowing. They will be moved closer to home then for feeding hay during the snowy season and calving season in the spring. Then the cycle repeats itself. Other tasks that go on through out the year are checking water, filling salt and mineral bins, separating our cattle from our neighbors if they break down the fence, fixing fence, doctoring sick cows or calves. Also maintenance and improvement projects on our tack, well/water system, buildings, equipment, etc., trimming hooves on the horses, spraying weeds....We have about 200 acres of alfalfa that we hay for winter feed. Enjoy seeing all the wonderful wildlife on the ranch - mule deer, white tail deer, wild turkey, coyotes, eagles and hawks, porcupines, raccoons, and many others. Even elk and mountain lion have been seen on the ranch. View Slideshow 2008 Rates Vacation Package - $150 per person per night (groups of 2 or more), includes Lodging, Breakfast, Dinner, & Horseback Riding/Ranch work Ala Carte - You can also purchase horseback riding, breakfast, dinner & lodging ala carte Horseback riding ala carte prices (using our horses) Whether doing ranch work or pleasure riding, the route and speed would be adapted to the experience level of the guests. We do not ride nose to tail but spread out, trotting and loping if you have the experience and desire. These prices are for 2 or more people, please contact us about single person pricing. 5 hours - $70 per person 4 hours - $60 per person 3 hours - $50 per person 2 hours - $40 per person 1 hour - $30 per person Horse motel - $10 per night per horse. |
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| FOR CHILDREN |
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| We are a 3 generational family operation, with young children. We enjoy having children come. We have 2 buddy saddles for kids ages 5-8, less than 75 lbs, who are not ready to be on their own horse. Our kids love having other kids here. In the summer of 2008, our daughter Katie will be 10 and son Trevor will be 8. For younger kids, we can lead them around in the yard or corrals on their own horse. |
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| FOOD/LIQUOR |
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| Our Vacation Package includes the breakfast and dinner meals served in our home, if you wish to prepare any of your own meals, you are welcome to do so in your cabin. It is completely stocked with linens, dishes, and utensils. We have a nice sized garden that will be a part of our meals July – September. We bake our own bread, make our own butter and jelly from chokecherries that grow on our ranch. We serve ranch/western style meals, normally steak, chicken, porkchops or ribs on the BBQ grill, potatoes, vegetables. In the heat of the summer, desert may be ice cream or watermelon, or on the cooler days an apple pie made with locally grown apples. We do not serve liquor, but you are welcome to bring your own. We require that you do not drink alcohol before or during our rides. With our breakfast, you have the choice of coffee, milk, or orange juice, and lunch and dinner we also serve lemonade. |
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| BUSINESS/MEETINGS |
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| we do not have any facilities for business meetings |
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| MEMBERSHIPS |
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| Northwest Nebraska High Country Association, Western Nebraska Tourism Coalition, R Calf |
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| REGION/CUSTOMS |
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| During the summer, Powwows take place on nearby Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservations. These are celebratory gatherings of the Lakota's, and not spectacles put on for the tourists. In fact, there is usually no more than a handful of outside visitors. It is a privilege to be allowed to witness and partake in these colorful and traditional gatherings, and you are expected to respect their traditions and customs while visiting. No alcoholic beverages are allowed. The avid golfer will not be able to resist the spectacular setting below the towering buttes of Crawford's Legend Buttes Golf course (9-hole) 308-665-2431. Course open April 1 to October 1. The historically significant Fort Robinson (308-665-2900) offers various activities throughout the summer, including Post Playhouse Summer Repertory Theatre, (open May thru August) with wonderful plays in the evenings, buffalo watching, evening rodeos, swimming pool, jeep rides, horse drawn tours, stagecoach rides, pony rides, bike rental, chuck wagon cookouts. Fort Robinson has an interesting history involving among others Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud, and it is the site where Crazy Horse was killed in 1877. In the early 1900, the Fort was regimental headquarters for the Cavalry, and later it became a Quartermaster Remount Depot, continuing to serve the army, supplying horses, mules and later dogs. In the summer of 1935 the U.S. Army equestrian team for the 1936 Berlin Olympics trained at Fort Robinson. If you wish to do a little sight-seeing on your own while here, there are numerous interesting half-day and full day trips to be made (rental car recommended). In Chadron, 25 miles east, you'll find a unique museum, the Museum of the Fur Trade,(308-432-3843) which hosts a fabulous collection of Indian trade objects from the 1600's to 1900's, as well as the largest and most complete collection of north-west guns made for the Indian trade from 1750-1900. An hour's drive north from the ranch, you enter the Black Hills of South Dakota. Small pioneer and gold mining towns such as Custer, Hill City, Keystone and famous gambling town of Deadwood are well worth visiting. Deadwood was a gambling town back in the days of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, and it is once again a gambling town. Prairie Winds Casino 1-800-705-WIND on the Pine Ridge Reservation also offers gambling. While in the Black Hills, you can visit the Wild Horse Sanctuary 1-800-252-6652 south of Hot Springs. You can drive through Custer State Park with its buffalo herds and many other wildlife inhabiting the park. Between Custer and Hill City is the enormous Crazy Horse Monument. 605-673-4681 The sculpture was started in 1949, and is still under construction. It is a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse - to his people. The face alone measures 87.5 feet tall. The monument is unimaginable in size! Half an hour east of Crazy Horse Monument is Mount Rushmore,605-574-2523 depicting Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. For the archeologically and geologically interested Guest, this area has several sites you can visit. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument 308-668-2211 is about an hour's drive from the ranch. There you can view world-class fossils of Miocene mammals. The visitor center also hosts an extraordinary collection of Sioux Indian artifacts given to rancher James Cook by Chief Red Cloud and his people. Half an hour north of here is the Toadstool Geologic Park 308-432-0300 with its interesting formations made up of deposits from the Tertiary Period of the Cenozoic Era and contains a wealth of vertebrate fossils. Not far from there is the Hudson-Meng Bison Kill Site,308-432-0300 where nearly 10,000 years ago a herd of 600 bison perished in an area smaller than a football field. How? Archeologists are currently working on this project. An hour and a half north of the ranch, the Mammoth Site 605-745-6017 in Hot Springs in South Dakota is another site of great scientific importance. More than 26,000 years ago, large Columbian and wooly-mammoths were trapped and died in a spring-fed sinkhole. Scientists believe as many as 100 Mammoths have perished here. While in Hot Springs, visit Evans Plunge 605-745-5165 for great family fun. Explore the Real West 308-665-1753 with a knowledgeable guide in the comfort of an air conditioned 7 passenger suburban. |
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| HISTORY/HOSTS |
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| The Pine Ridge Area has often been referred to as the "last frontier", and for a good reason. It was a favorite Indian hunting and camping area for hundreds of years and the Sioux Indians occupied it permanently about 1810. Spaniards from New Mexico where the first fur traders, followed in the 1830's by Americans from St. Louis, who established a regular trail from Fort Laramie to Fort Pierre on the Missouri River. In the 1840's there were two competing fur posts, one on Chadron Creek, about eight miles south of Chadron, the other on Bordeaux Creek, three and a half mile east of Chadron. Red Cloud Indian Agency was moved to the White River in 1873. Camp Robinson was established in 1874 to protect the Agency. It was renamed Fort Robinson in 1878 and was an active military post until 1948. The Agency played an important role in the Indian Wars of the 1870's. Sioux war leader Crazy Horse was killed at Fort Robinson in 1877. In 1851, Horse Creek Treaty was the largest gathering of Indians ever recorded - and the first treaty to be covered by the media. Some 12,000 Indians along with their 30,000 horses descended on this site to discuss an arrangement - the tribes would allow the government to build roads and forts on their lands. In return, the Army was to protect the Indians from white settlers and pay the tribes $50,000 in goods annually for 50 years. Rather than solve the problems, the treaty began a series of misunderstandings and misdeeds that led to the bloody Indian Wars. With the removal of the Sioux Indians to South Dakota in 1877, several very large cattle outfits came into the area. Large roundups were conducted annually until the railroads arrived in 1885 and an influx of homesteaders took up most of the available land. The old Sidney-Deadwood Trail passed just west of the Ponderosa Ranch. It was the trailhead of the only supply line from Sidney, the nearest railroad, to Deadwood, South Dakota. Uncountable tons of supplies were exchanged for uncountable amounts of gold during the Black Hills gold Rush. Dawes County is still cattle country and very much reflects its heritage of Indians, fur traders, cowboys and frontier soldiers. We have 3 generations working together to operate our cattle and guest ranch. Kim’s parents Dale and Donna Steineke own the land and the cattle, and take care of our hunters during the fall deer season and spring turkey season. Kim and Jeff run the horseback riding end of the operation with the help of their children Katie and Trevor. The kids can help catch the horses in the morning, and Katie rides along to check and move cattle if she is not practicing softball or at the swimming pool. Trevor is not far behind her, and will probably be along on some of the rides this summer. Dale will ride along on his Japanese quarter horse if we need help. Donna is working on promoting a new activity for our ranch, birdwatching, and they both are involved grandparents, chauffering and attending T-ball and softball games and practices. We all work together to provide rural down home hospitality and a helpful, comfortable and pleasant atmosphere for our guests. Kim takes care of the garden, reservations, computer work and bookwork, and cooking and cleaning for our guests. |
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| ITINERARY |
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| Because we are a true cattle ranch, we do not have an exact itinerary, because every day the work that needs to be done is different. In the heat of the summer we usually get an early start. If you wish to sleep later and come when the weather is cooler, we can start the day later. Our start time will also depend on how many hours you want to ride and what needs to be done that day. We do the bulk of our riding in the morning so we are back home by lunch time, and then your afternoons are free for R&R or sightseeing. We often go for a shorter evening ride, again depending on how long we rode in the morning, what the weather is like, what you wish to do, etc. |
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