D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • S P R I N G 2 0 1 6
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eir ranch, however, is not a guest ranch. It's a typical Montana
ranch where all resources go into the ground, the equipment, and the
animals. e family's comfortable, but modest home is not equipped to
sleep eight guests. Not to worry! While lacking commercial lodging of
any sort, Rygate is full of people willing to solve the problem. Brandon
made a few calls, vouched for our integrity, and arranged for us to stay
at the Catholic Church rectory. e deal was sealed when his mom
agreed to hire a couple of helpers to feed us three ranch meals a day.
ese arrangements became the centerpiece of what became an epic
cross state Giddy-Up Montana 2015 trip.
Since we would travel all the way from Lolo in western Mon-
tana to Rygate in central Montana, we decided that we should just
continue and haul the horses to Red Lodge to ride in the beautiful
Beartooth Mountains. en it's didn't seem right not to include the
Beartooth and Chief Joseph Highways to take in that spectacular
country, which then led us to include a trip into Montana's Pryor
Mountains to see the wild mustangs. Clearly, our trip planning had
a lot of go and not much whoa.
August arrived and off we set. Our first destination was a trail
ride to one of Montana's most unique geological features, Ring-
ing Rocks, which is along the Continental Divide, east of Butte.
Along the way, Metzer's Used Cow Lot sign in Drummond made
us stop for our first group photo (oh, how appropriate!). e rocks
did, indeed, ring as we hammered out a pathetic theme song which,
with its resonant discords, was probably more fitting that we wanted to
admit. Soaking in the White Sulpher Springs hot pools ended a perfect,
but long day.
Clearly,
our trip planning
had a lot of
go
and not much
whoa.
SUE FISH
Go on a Dunrovin
horse trip:
www.distinctlymontana.com/horsetrip162
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