What's it like being a
cowboy for a week?
Primitive and fun!
BY JACK REBER
A YOUNG BOY'S DREAM OF BE-
coming a cowboy dies hard.
Oh, it may get pushed to the back-
ground in the course of growing up, as
school, marriage, children and career
rearrange priorities, but the urge to sad-
dle ol' Paint is always there.
A great place to live out that fanta-
sy is the Hunewill Ranch, near
Bridgeport, Calif., in the eastern Sierra
(phone: 619-932-7710).
The Hunewill Ranch has no tennis
courts, Jacuzzis, TV sets or telephones.
This is a working cattle ranch, a real
home on the range, and the emphasis
is on riding horses.
Guests check into their cabins on
Saturday, and for the next six days they
spend a minimum of four hours a day
in the saddle.
Riders are divided into three groups.
The experts are called on to help move
herds of Herefords from pasture to pas-
ture, but when the work's done they en-
joy long lopes over the ranch's 5,000
acres. Intermediate riders walk, trot
and lope their horses, but the pace is
easier.
The third group, called the bucka-
roos, doesn't advance to loping until
the end of the week. This is the group
for younger children and adults who
don't crave thrills.
Riders are free to switch groups at
any time, and the buckaroo group
sometimes is the largest, particularly
on those days when they're riding out
to a stream for a swim or going on a
splash ride, a series of mad dashes
through a shallow pond that leaves ev-
eryone dripping and laughing.
At the ranch, the food is plentiful and
varied, and even finicky eaters find their
appetites at the Hunewills' table.
Dinner might feature fish, chicken or
roast beef. Cookouts feature ham-
burgers and ribs barbecued beside a
25-foot-wide stream that roars as it
pounds over rocks and fallen trees, al-
most drowning out the shouts of the
24 STYLE
The dilapidat- The main activity
ed workshop, for on dude ranches is
instance, is one horseback riding
of the original but you don't have
buildings. One to know one end of a
side is filled with horse from the other
modern power before you go.
tools, in use the day I visited by work-
ers building a new chuck wagon.
Lenore Hunewill is the matriarch of
the 10 family members who work at the
ranch. Her son, Stan, manages the live-
stock operation, which includes
Hereford cattle, Morgan horses and a
few llamas, sheep and pigs.
Most of the guests were repeat vis-
itors, and by the second day they were
being asked by curious first-timers to
explain how each of the Hunewills is
related to the others.
It wasn't nosiness so much as that
there is a strong family feeling here and
that the guests — for a week — feel like
part of that family. ❑
Copley News Service, 1992.
Home
On TheRange
Continued from previous page.
patio lodges.
Counselor-
supervised chil-
dren's programs and
babysitting are available. Activities in-
clude guided horseback rides; pack
trips; tennis ; swimming ; health spa;
fishing; hiking ; golfing ; and birdwatch-
ing.
Rancho de los Caballeros (602 684-
5484) is in Wickenburg, Ariz., 56 miles
northwest of Phoenix. There are ac-
commodations for 150 guests in
southwestern-style adobe casitas.
Horseback riding at all levels is
featured, in addition to cookout
rides, tennis, nature walks, trap
and skeet shooting, and golf.
Children's programs are also
available.
If you like to alternate your
horseback riding with perfecting
your tennis game, The Wicken-
burg Inn Tennis and Guest
Ranch (602-684-781 1; 800-528-4227)
should suit you. Casitas and rooms in
the ranch lodge provide accommoda-
tions for up to 160 guests. Riding and
tennis are the main sports but there are
also swimming, archery, golf, gold-pan-
ning and water sports, as well as an arts
and craft and a nature center. Special
programs for an additional charge are
available for children during hblidays.
In New Mexico, The Bishop's Lodge
(505-983-6377) is a good choice for
those who are interested in the cultur-
al offerings in nearby Santa Fe. Deluxe
rooms and suites house 160 guests.
Activities include tennis, swimming,
horseback riding, trap and skeet shoot-
ing, and hiking. There is a summer chil-
dren's program and a limited program
for teens.
Located in Bandera, Texas, which
bills itself as the "Cowboy Capital of the
World," Flying L Ranch (512-796-3001;
800-292-5134) offers 38 guest houses
scattered across a 542-acre guest ranch.
Riding, swimming, fishing, golf, tennis,
-
PHOTO COU RTESY OF DU D E RAN CHE RS ' ASSOCIATION.
Qin
children playing alongside it.
Evenings are spent with square
dancing, sing-alongs and talent shows.
Friendships are forged quickly in this
setting. The youngest guests find com-
pany with children of ranch employees,
and the teenagers will get up a game
of volleyball that continues long after
darkness.
The Hunewill ranch is strong on his-
tory. Napoleon Bonaparte Hunewill
sailed around Cape Horn to join the
great California gold rush in 1849.
He wound up here, near the north-
eastern corner of Yosemite, supply-
ing lumber and firewood to miners at
the boom town of Bodie.
As Bodie faded into a ghost town,
the Hunewills concentrated on ranch-
ing.
Guests are free to wander anywhere
they like on the ranch, and it doesn't
take long to discover there are antiques
at every turn.