Summer

Learning the Art of Birdwatching When you retreat to our 6,600 acres of Montana wilderness, we invite you to tap into the world of the bird population that surrounds us. From the tiniest Rufous Hummingbird […]

Happy the man to whom every tree is a friend. ~ John Muir Peeking out any window at The Ranch at Rock Creek you might see a herd of elk migrating, a Northern Pygmy owl […]

Historically, ropes on a Montana ranch are lariats and lassos, the tools of the cowboy trade. In 2014, we expanded the concept of “roping skills” at The Ranch at Rock Creek by building a year-round ropes course, […]

2018 is the year of the dog in the Chinese zodiac, but man’s best friend has to share the limelight with another vertebrate, the bird. 2018 marks the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In […]

Join us as we follow our new colleagues—the bees—through their second year homesteading in the Rock Creek Valley. The story is in reverse chronological order so scroll down to start from the beginning, or read more about […]

The Honey Flows with the First Snows Join us as we follow our colleagues—the bees—through their third year homesteading in the Rock Creek Valley.  Read more about their first year and second year on The Ranch.   by Kelsey Bruns, Beekeeper, Master […]

Behind the Lens During a Summer Stay Photo courtesy of Benjamin Morgan. We often host photographers looking to capture migrating wildlife, iconic ranch scenes and high country views. We delight in seeing our wild landscape from different […]

The words “experiential travel” sound a lot more mature and serious than they need to be. The experience of traveling to The Ranch at Rock Creek should be an escape from normal routine. It should be at times […]

Gourmet Food with Big Sky Balance National Culinary Arts Month couldn’t come at a better time. Summer produce is rolling in and The Ranch kitchen is highlighting Montana’s freshest food with creative, ever-changing menus. We want to […]

Ranch Life Behind-The-Scenes A job at The Ranch at Rock Creek is not your average 9-to-5 job. In fact, it’s far from the average hospitality job. Last year, we wrote about the unique careers we […]

Mercantile Style: Local Luxuries One of the reasons we’re committed to expanding the frontiers of experiential travel is that a story really is the best souvenir. But often, our guests want a memento to commemorate their bucket […]

Join us this week for a very special guest blogger, Cherie Hedenskog. Cherie visited The Ranch when she was five and shared her experience with her class by writing a book this past year. As […]

Luxury in the Wild The Ranch at Rock Creek stays true to our frontier roots, welcoming guests to private accommodations across our 6,600 acres. With a maximum occupancy of 125 across 29 accommodations each guest […]

Geology of the Rock Creek Valley The land on which The Ranch at Rock Creek sits is part of the Rocky Mountain range, which stretches from New Mexico to Canada. The Sapphire, John Long and […]

22 Ways We’re Reducing Our Environmental Impact As a destination rooted in the landscape, there isn’t a day that goes by where we don’t consider the importance of the natural world that surrounds us. Each […]

The Ranch at Rock Creek on Calm Narrated in a gentle, unhurried pace, Calm’s sleep stories are meditative tales designed to usher you into dreamland. Thanks to a collaboration with writer Dibs Baer, you can visit […]

A Trip Down Memory Aisle Our Big Sky Love celebration allows us to celebrate everything we love about Montana, but we also love to celebrate love under the Big Sky. What better day than Valentine’s […]

Trails, Trailers and Tales When I was growing up, the beginning of July meant the end of a 45-mile cattle drive that stretched from my family’s ranch to the mountains near what is now The […]

Sustainability from Field to Stream Guest blog by Teresa Scanlon, project coordinator with Trout Unlimited Why We Love Rock Creek It’s no secret that Rock Creek, the fabled blue-ribbon trout stream tucked away in the […]

Family Ties This Father’s Day we’re celebrating the Ranch dads that have chosen to live, work and raise their kids in the wide open spaces of Granite County. Families are an essential part of the […]

More Than a Snapshot Travel and photography go hand in hand like big skies and majestic mountains. (As any Ansel Adams fan can attest.) Since the advent of smart phones, almost everyone can capture the […]

Working at the world’s first Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star guest ranch requires a special type of person. Our jobs require people who are highly social, working with The Ranch team and guests day-after-day, and thriving in a […]

Join us as we follow our new colleagues—the bees—as they homestead in the Rock Creek Valley.    Chapter 1, Spring: Welcoming Bees to Rock Creek by Kelsey Bruns, Beekeeper, Master Naturalist and Little Grizzlies Kids […]

Since The Ranch at Rock Creek opened in 2010, we’ve centered our guest experience around the Montana traditions of outdoor adventure and family ranching. Guests discover a still-pristine natural world through a spirit of play. What […]

As the seasons change and the holidays approach, we are reminded that a photograph of the exact same spot in the summer looks entirely different in the spring, fall and winter. But, things don’t only […]

Silver spurs, gold nuggets and riding off into sunsets—these are the icons of the legendary West. Since the Western states were formed and the barbed wire was strung, the Rocky Mountain states have changed in a myriad of […]

Finding a Family’s Happy Place There’s no denying that the Internet has streamlined travel research and booking. Despite the amount of information at our fingertips, many leisure travelers desire a chance to unplug, decompress and reconnect with nature. […]

After Memorial Day weekend, guests start seeing a Saturday barn dance on our list of weekly activities, along with the Friday breakfast ride, Tuesday rodeo and Sunday Wells Fargo stagecoach rides. They are now a feature of our […]

10 Dreams Turned Reality at The Ranch Every vacation is a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream. Here are 10 classic bucket list adventures that The Ranch at Rock Creek fulfills each year. 1. Become […]

The Ranch Retains Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Status We’re thrilled to announce that we have garnered the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star award for the third year in a row!

A staff member and talented photographer, Robert Cole, spent his summer at The Ranch documenting our weekly ranch rodeo at Camp Roosevelt Arena. Robert traveled from Northern California to work in Montana this summer. Although he has […]

Summer Cowboy Breakfast at The Ranch at Rock Creek If you’ve never been given the nearly impossible task of trying to book an ideal family vacation, then we envy you. It’s hard to please everyone, especially when […]

Huckleberry Bear Traps in the Great Room Montanans take pleasure in foraging for seasonal ingredients. Guests who visited us in the spring might have enjoyed cuisine filled with flavorful morel mushrooms, gathered in the local forest. Now, […]

An Event Barn in Big Sky Country Although the sky in Montana takes center stage, barns are an essential part of the western horizon. Barns dot the countryside in shades of weathered gray and red. Some […]

Photo by Michael Chilcoat Photography Philipsburg, Montana’s Hidden Gem To our delight, but certainly not to our surprise, our hometown community– Philipsburg –recently received a Montana Tourism Award at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism and […]