Quintessential Montana
Day 2, DeDakis Loop: I could live there, I could.
July 14, 2024
It’s hard to imagine a more perfect view than that of the Muddy Creek Ranch. But I get ahead of myself.
We were up and out of Blackfoot by 9 am and on the road to our next stop in Montana. We headed up toward Montana and could see the Tetons to the east (faintly). Although it’s desert, Eastern Idaho has a series of little farming communities, many surrounded by beautiful irrigated pastures. We headed north of Idaho Falls through Rigby and Ashton and skirted Yellowstone National Park.
We’ll get there another time, and when we do, here’s how we’ll roll: if the campgrounds are full, we’ll rent a nice little cabin in the woods, take a Wildlife Sightseeing Tour or Lamar Valley Safari Hiking Tour with Lunch to make sure we see wolves, elk, pronghorn sheep, birds of prey, and bears, and finally learn how to fly fish!
The scenery really changed (we got out of the desert into the trees and mountains) just before we got to the Park and followed the Madison River to Bozeman. Surprisingly, the traffic wasn’t bad, with many fewer RVs and family vans than I had expected. The fly fishermen were out in force there and we stopped to eat lunch at a nice rest area along the river and watched drift boats filled with fishermen go by. By the time we reached Bozeman, I was chanting my usual refrain when I see a landscape I like: “Babe, I could live here!”
Had I looked at real estate prices (I only want to way live out in the country), I might have kept my mouth shut.
If you are in the area, take Bridger Pass over the hill from Bozeman to Wilsall. Not only is it beautiful, but you’ll see (and can rent) gorgeous homes at and close by Bridger Bowl Ski Area. But do yourself a favor. Take it in the summer. In winter they get lots of snow and the road will not be so welcoming (in a car or RV).
We traveled 211 miles and about 4 and a half hours, to get to Muddy Creek Ranch. Our home for the night was on a high point overlooking the Crazy Mountains and ranches below. A big old red barn flanked the trailer and miles of green irrigated pasture spread out before us. We parked on grass – green grass. It rained on and off. Not much. It. Was. Heaven. Especially for the prairie dogs or gophers or whatever they were (you’d want a horse that was handy with holes there, for sure).
Karen and David Shockey, our hosts and owners of the Muddy Creek Ranch, also own and operate a great little restaurant in town. Our dinner in town was how we compensated them for staying there. Karen’s parents originally bought the restaurant so they could sell their beef and Karen and David have continued that, adding lamb and pork to their offerings. The Bank Vault Restaurant is a charming throwback to another time: bar out front, restaurant in the back, and boy, was my steak good. My only quibble (and I can be forgiven this since I’m from Idaho) was that we didn’t get a baked potato with that steak. Despite that, the mashed potatoes were good. To wash it down I ordered Cactus Water – spicy tequila (yikes!), lime, must have some cactus, and other stuff. The Professor got some kind of mushroom beer (it really did taste like mushrooms and wasn’t half bad).
The Muddy Creek Ranch has been certified by the Western Sustainability Exchange in 2012. That means that they use no hormones or antibiotics, practice lower-stress livestock handling, are exclusively produced in the region, and practice sustainable stewardship. In addition to their Harvest Host venture, the restaurant, raising grass-fed beef, and more, also raise a few performance Quarter Horses for reining. Display cases at the restaurant full of belt buckles and trophies attest to their success.
Karen offered to give us a tour of the ranch the next morning, but first said that we should take the dogs for an off leash romp through one of their large pastures. There wasn’t any livestock out that day (but the dogs found stuff to roll in anyway).
Karen killed that thought the next morning on our tour of the ranch when she told us that a ranch here sold for $72 million dollars due to what she calls Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone Effect. Celebrities at the Big Sky Resort can climb into a helicopter to get to the exclusive and upscale dude ranch nearby called the Yellowstone Ranch. Now, even a very basic, small house in Wilsall goes for over $300,000. Sad to think that not only will I ever be able to live there, but families that have been here for generations are priced out of the market. It’s so bad that to keep help around the ranch, several young men who work for them also live with them.
She showed us their horses, all descendants of the mare who earned the trophies and buckles in 2012. We admired their small herd of pigs, fended off the advances of two pushy yearlings, and tried unsuccessfully to entice two flighty foals close (one, a stud colt out of the champion mare, and the other, a filly, out of a great looking bay mare). We took a quick spin across part of their ranch where they raise American Aberdeen and Speckled Park cows, a breed with which I was unfamiliar. They’re not widely raised in the US but they find them well-suited for the climate and conditions there. Theirs is a fully-integrated operation where their cows spend their entire lives on the ranch. Harvesting/processing takes two weeks and then the meat returns to the ranch to be sold in the restaurant and other places.
Just down the road from Wilsall is their reining trainer’s barn. It so-happened that there was a reining show. We watched their daughter compete on her mare (she did well) and I met their up and coming hope, an already well-trained beautiful, affectionate two-year old (I know, but reiners, like some other sport horses, are started early). As we left the barn I stopped to admire a beautiful bay (built like a tank). Karen allowed as how it was a nice horse because that’s what $80,000 will buy you. Their horses are exclusively raised on the ranch.
When we returned to the trailer to leave for Miles City they showed us their next adventure, a large red barn they hope to turn into an event center. They fixed it up for their daughter’s wedding. They think it would be a nice restaurant too.
As we left Wilsall, I thought about Karen and David’s energy and passion to make their place everything it can be. I guess you could say that they’re “Doing It!” I was glad we’d come. It was a little off our route but well-worth it.