Universal Ranch

by Stagecoach Trails Guest Ranch

Arizona’s Dude Ranches

No, the term “dude ranch” does not refer to a new gay bar in the neighborhood, nor is it the name of a salad dressing marketed to surfer types. Most readers are probably too young to remember the heyday of dude ranches in America, but they were very popular at one time and there are still dude ranches around, particularly in states like Arizona, Wyoming or Colorado.

So what is a dude ranch, you ask? A dude ranch, or guest ranch, is a ranch geared towards tourism – a place where “city slickers” (another almost forgotten term) can have a chance to saddle up a horse and pretend to be a cowboy for a few days. In their definition of the term, Wikipedia says that dude ranches are a form of agritourism (somebody get a rope…). In my estimation, dude ranches would be the antidote to a society where people make up words like “agritourism”.

Dude ranches initially sprang up around the turn of the 20th century as part of the glorification and romanticization of what had become known as the “Old West”. The railroads, and later, the automobile, made the western part of the US more accessible and nostalgia for the frontier days and the rugged lifestyle of the cowboy created a market for places that offered a taste of what frontier life might have been like, but without the dangers and hardships of the real frontier.

The term “dude” in those days meant a city dweller with no experience of ranch life – the term was synonymous with the words “greenhorn”and “tenderfoot”, which were mildly derogatory terms applied to the newcomer from the eastern cities. The popularity of dude ranches was at its height in the years following the end of WWI and they remained quite popular through the 1960s and many survive to this day.

In Arizona, there are still dozens of dude ranches and many tourist find them to be a refreshing alternative to the glitzy Phoenix resorts. A dude or guest ranch is a great way to get a real feeling for the land and and the cowboy lifestyle, and there are choices ranging from the luxurious, which resemble typical Arizona resorts, but which offer horseback riding and other “western” activities, to the more spartan and realistic accommodations of a working ranch. Either way, a dude ranch can be a fun and unique vacation alternative.