If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD3,200.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Saddle up and play cowboy at The Ranch at Rock Creek hotel in Granite County, a working ranch in the middle of mountain-surrounded nowhere. There’s no town for miles, but with a spa, ice rink, giant movie screen, bowling alley and acres of big-sky outdoors, no-one’s complaining. If that’s not quite enough diversion, there’s more than a holiday’s worth of outdoor fun to be had: ride, bike, fish in the creek or hop on a horse-drawn sleigh – it's all included in your room rate.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
One $100 Ranch Credit per room to be used at the Mercantile, the Granite Spa, or the reserve wine list
Twenty-nine, including seven log cabins and 10 luxury 'canvas cabin' tents
Check–Out
11am, but flexible if there’s availability. Earliest check-in, 4pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £3084.22 ($3,840), including tax at 20 per cent.
More details
Rates include all activities, meals and drinks; the 20 per cent ranch fee includes taxes, snacks, phone calls and WiFi.
Also
There’s a spa in the Granite Lodge, with jetted foot soaks and framed flowers on the walls; treatments include the aptly named Saddle Sore Soak, guaranteed to bathe away the day’s aches. There's also an ice rink for skating and games of ice hockey.
At the hotel
Rodeo grounds (for the weekly rodeo), cinema, the Buckle Barn event space, library, spa, bowling alley, hot tub, billiards table, stables, fishing ponds, WiFi throughout and 6,600 acres. In rooms, bathrobes and slippers, minibar and free bottled water. Some rooms have TVs, and some have a jetted jacuzzi or cedar soaking tub. Luxury homes also have full kitchens.
Our favourite rooms
Camping fans won’t know what’s hit them in a Luxury Canvas Cabin, where the toilet is inside the tent, and a private bath house is nearby. They line the banks of Rock Creek, and come with a rocking chair and porch out front. For sturdier lodgings, head inside to the Appaloosa Suite, with a four-poster white birch bed and wooden walls, or the masculine Loft, which has rafter ceilings and an elegant freestanding bath tub.
Poolside
The thousands of acres have room for a heated outdoor pool. Brave sorts can jump in the creek.
Packing tips
Checked shirts, jeans and cowboy hats – and if you don’t normally dress like you’re in a Western, stock up at the Mercantile, where you can buy genuine cowboy articles. The ranch has a whole storage room of sports equipment, so don’t worry about lugging your own.
Also
One bedroom in the Granite Lodge is suitable for wheelchair users.
Children
Very welcome; just remember that the area is remote and that a babysitter will need a fortnight’s notice. Cribs must be ordered in, so let the hotel know well in advance. Some rooms have pull-out beds for children.
Best for
Six plus, who are steady on their feet and like to run around.
Recommended rooms
Springfield, Colt, Sharps and Derringer, along with the log homes, are family-friendly thanks to the space they offer.
Activities
Kids will be entertained for days with a range of outdoor educational activities hosted by the Little Grizzlies Kids Club. Little Smiths aged four to 12 can enjoy a tailored programme of horse riding, ranch exploration, treasure hunting, fire and shelter building, pool games, nature hikes and animal investigations guided by a team of trained staff.
Swimming pool
There’s a shallow end in the pool, and arm-bands and floats available to borrow.
Meals
Dinner is served from 6pm to 9pm and children are welcome to dine with grown-ups. They’ll have their own menu to pick from, and the restaurant has high chairs. Packed lunches can be ordered, too.
Babysitting
A local nanny can call in but be sure to give at least two weeks’ notice in these remote rural parts.
No need to pack
Monitoring equipment, play pens, prams and even car seats can be loaned out from the hotel.
Warm and snug by the fire in the cosy dining room.
Dress Code
Anything goes, but for footwear, cowboy boots to fit in with the not-so-lone rangers.
Hotel restaurant
The restaurant in the Granite Lodge serves hearty ranch fare, such as beer-braised pork with figs and melted leeks, and Montana elk rib-eye with cherry, watermelon and fennel salad. With checkered curtains, Native American-influenced upholstery and a granite fireplace, the decor has been lifted straight out of Little House on the Prairie.
Hotel bar
The Silver Dollar Saloon is as close to the real deal as you’ll get, and this one has its own billiards table, four-lane bowling alley and 14-ft flatscreen. All drinks are included in the rate.
Last orders
Meals are flexible (breakfast, 8am–11am; lunch, noon–2pm), except dinner, which runs from 6pm to 9pm most evenings throughout the year.
The Ranch at Rock Creek is in middle-of-nowhere Montana, surrounded by Granite County’s big skies and mountains, and close to old mining town, Philipsburg.
Planes
The nearest airports are Butte (BTM) and Missoula (MSO), both under an hour and a half away by car. Delta (www.delta.com) flies direct to Butte from Salt Lake City; United (www.united.com) has flights linking Missoula with Denver and San Francisco. There are also Helena Regional (HLN, two hours), and Bozeman Yellowstone (BZN, two and a half hours). Private planes can land at any of the above, plus Bowman Field in Anaconda (3U3, an hour's drive) and Riddick Field in Philipsburg (U05, a 35-minute drive). Delta and United put on extra direct flights from major cities to Missoula and Bozeman and over the summer.
Automobiles
From Philipsburg, the drive will take around half an hour, and it’s roughly an hour from Anaconda. Yellowstone is a four-hour drive away.
Other
Tours and transfers by helicopter can be arranged on request.
Worth getting out of bed for
You won’t need to travel far for adventure here: clay-pigeon shooting, fly-fishing, horse-riding, sleigh rides, archery, ice-skating, hiking and mountain biking are all included in the rate. Plus, those who plan to winter at the Ranch get all-inclusive downhill skiing and snowboarding at Discovery, one of America's best secret ski areas, just a half-hour drive away. Even better, the hotel takes care of all of the gear, transportation and meals – so you can skip the line for rentals or passes and dodge the crowds of bigger resorts. Beyond the slopes, the hotel can also arrange tours of Philipsburg and a local ghost town.
Local restaurants
In Philipsburg, don’t miss a trip to Doe Brothers on East Broadway Street for amazing sandwiches on pretzel bread, washed down with a huckleberry milkshake. It’s restored and run by a couple dedicated to showcasing Americana at its very finest. Be sure to call for opening hours in colder months (October to April).
Local cafés
Satisfy your sweet tooth at the local candy emporium The Sweet Palace, where their on-site confectionery kitchen cooks up a storm of saccharine delights from Montana toffee and gooey marshmallows to hand-dripped fine chocolate and saltwater taffy.
Mr & Mrs Smith have just returned from a stay at this Granite County boutique hotel, and as soon as they've unpacked their cowboy boots and holsters, a full account of their USA luxury country break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Ranch at Rock Creek in Montana…
Ever fancied running off to the Montana wilderness and pretending to be Clint Eastwood or Paul Newman? At the Ranch at Rock Creek, any cowboy fantasy can come true. Classic Hollywood stars might not be guaranteed, but every other detail will be at this working ranch – fly-fish down by the creek, hop on a horse at the stables, get a strike at the bowling alley, buy a cowboy kit at the Mercantile or be soothed at the spa.
The owner spent his childhood unwittingly researching his future grand design by watching Westerns on repeat. Years passed staking out the perfect pitch, until he struck gold at Carriage House Lane and got building, paying close attention to the existing local architecture to make this ranch authentic. Take your pick from staying in a luxury tent along the creek, or in the Granite Lodge, kitted out with colourful Native American prints, heavy leather sofas and lots of wooden panels.
The vision is complete, and though the price tag may be hefty, it’s not every day you can walk onto a place worthy of a film set. Welcome to Big Sky Country.
