Cattle Drives have been the most popular activity which we share with our guests at the Dryhead Ranch. You will ride with real cowboys and experience an authentic working ranch experience.
We trail cows through Bad Pass Trail, through the Pryor Mountain Mustang Reserve down into Deadman and north up the trail to the Dryhead Ranch.
Each spring we bring from winter pastures into the rich grasslands of the Dryhead Country 800 head of mother cows with their calves. These cows and calves will spend the summer months on native grass which the Dryhead Ranch is known for. The Dryhead Country is rich in Indian history which we will have time to explore once we have the cows at the ranch.
We pick up at 4:00 PM at the Billings airport and drive back to the ranch that evening. This is a three hour drive that will give you time to get acquainted with the beautiful Montana country, your ranch driver and the other guests. Our cook will have supper waiting and the bunkhouse rooms will be ready.
You will ride with us from Monday till Friday.
Saturday is a "getting ready to go home" morning. We eat breakfast as always at 7:00 and have time to pick up some things in our small ranch store as well as exchange goodbyes with the cowboys and other guests. We leave the ranch around 10:00 and have some time to visit several historic sites and get back into Billings by early afternoon. You can find some hotel information on the rates page.
There is a "list of things to bring" on the rates page that will help with packing the right things to wear.
SPRING CATTLE DRIVES
Spring Cattle Drives begin on Sunday, April 26, 2009 with your arrival at the Billings, Montana airport. We have two spring cattle drives which begin on April 26 - May 2, and May 3 - 9, 2009.
On Monday morning we pick up the cattle at a set of correls across the Shoshone River from our farm ground in Lovell. The first day covers the bad lands just north of Lovell, Wyoming. We go to the Wyoming-Montana Inspection corrals for our overnight stop and for the brand inspector to come and look at all of the brands before we go into Montana.
We will be trailing mother cows and baby calves. This is a 50 mile, four day trek. Bring warm winter clothes as well as lots of layers for the warm and cold temperatures that bless our wonderful state. A list of things to bring is available on the rates page.
Tuesday through Thursday will be trailing these cows and calves all the way to the Dryhead Ranch. We will trail them through Horse Thief canyon, near Devil’s Canyon overlook, by Carolyn Lockhart Ranch and across Deadman’s Creek. Our home range is on the southern edge of the Crow Indian Reservation. Dryhead Ranch is six miles wide and ten miles long encompassing 21,000 acres of mountains, canyons, grassland pastures and breathtaking vistas your camera will not be able to capture. Much of this land is untouched by humans and to imagine back 500 years puts you back hunting buffalo with the Indians.
Friday we will be at the ranch. We will get the cows settled in their new pastures and make sure all the calves have found their mothers ride on the picturesque Dryhead Ranch. Then our guests can relax in the cookhouse or in the great room until our memorable steak supper. We have a 500 year old Buffalo jump about a mile from the Dryhead Ranch yard and it is a wonderful place to visit and look for buffalo bones and take in the history that happened there.
On Saturday it's time to get ready to go back to Billings.
SUMMER CATTLE DRIVES
Summer cattle drives begin on Sunday, September 20, 2009 with your arrival at the Billings, Montana airport. The summer cattle drives have a schedule of their own. All riding levels are easily accomplished. Our Summer Cattle Drives are September 20 - 26, 2009 and September 27 - October 3, 2009.
These late summer cattle drives will be different than our spring and fall cattle drives. We will not camp on these late summer cattle drives. We will spend two or three days gathering and trailing to the ranch headquarters all the cows and calves on the ranch. They will come from three different directions and we will gather and hold them in the corrals at the ranch. One day will be working and separating calves from cows so that the calves can be weaned and trucked to Lovell to the feedlot. One day will be trailing cows back to Spring Creek where they will stay until the cattle drives in the late fall take all of the cows to Wyoming.
FALL CATTLE DRIVES
Fall cattle drives begin on Sunday, October 18, 2009 with your arrival at the Billings, Montana airport. We have two fall cattle drives which begin October 18 - 24, and October 25 - 31, 2009.
The fall cattle drives are three days. We will be trailing heifers the first week and just mother cows on the second week, as the calves have already been weaned and trucked to the feedlot in Wyoming. Two days of the week we will be gathering our herd and the other three days will be spent trailing them to winter pastures in Wyoming. Weather has a huge influence as to which days we will trail or gather. We will not be camping on the fall cattle drives, we will return to the Dryhead Ranch each night of the drive for a wonderful home cooked meal and a warm dry bed.
Fall is a varied season to ride in Montana. The trail home to Wyoming is full of varied temperatures and varied challenges and rugged awesome beauty. This is what REAL cowboy experiences are made of.
We reserve the right to change our schedule when weather makes it unsafe to ride or cattle make it necessary to change our scheduled plans. We have no control over mother nature or horses and cows which are the purpose of these cattle drives and we want the right to alter our schedule to meet these changes if they should occur.
Come ride with the Cowboys...........It will change your life.
Here are the Dryhead Ranch Slide Shows,
where you also can find pictures of some of our cattle drives...
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