Stoney Lonesome

Where the traditions of the Old West linger on. This 5000-acre ranch, with its 150 longhorn cattle and up to 200 head of horses, evokes the feeling of the rough and tumble cowboy days. When you see the horses running in a herd coming down off the hill, it is a site you will never forget. The Hedricks have provided horses for ten movies over the years, the best known are Hidalgo and Far & Away. If you look close you can see their brands in the movies.

The Hedrick family invites you to “cowboy up” and join them for a ride on their working ranch. Guests who return say the ranch is beautiful, and you can see four mountain ranges on a clear day…but it is the genuine, unsophisticated and down to earth people that bring them back year after year. (Ask to hear some of Clarice’s cowboy poetry.) Three generations currently work on the ranch: Corky and Clarice, daughter Georgie and her husband Scott Hamel, and grandson Zac (13). Corky says Zac is quite a hand with a rope and can do just about anything –anything, that is, except mow the lawn!

Activities:
• Riding tailored to guest’s interests and abilities…ride for two hours or ride for all day and do some cattle work on horseback. Even if you ride for a week, you’ll never go the same place twice.

• JR Outfitters have been in the guiding business for 40 years and if you have the tags, they’ll do the cooking and the guiding.

• Make it a combo on those hot days: ride in the morning, eat a home cooked meal at the ranch house, then float the Stillwater River with Matt in the afternoon.

Lodging:
Lodging choice of two rustic cabins, no plumbing in the cabins, but there is a bath house with toilet and shower next to the Large Cabin.
Large Cabin sleeps 5 (two doubles and a twin) and
The “Honeymoon Cabin” sleeps 3 (a double and a twin).

Note of interest:
The ranch was homesteaded by an uncle of Lynn Sanders at the SANDERS RANCH. The story is told of Uncle Carl and his mail order bride living for their first ten years of married life in what is now known as the “Honeymoon Cabin.” Aunt Nora was the one who named the ranch The Stoney Lonesome…can you imagine the contrast between her Chicago city life and living in this vast expanse of land and sky long before electricity!