The Burleigh's want the Laramie River Dude Ranch to be a place where you can truly vacation as a family. 

Our facilities and our program are designed to make it easy to spend time together enjoying each others company.

Family members often have different interests and abilities.  It's not always possible to experience the adventures that await you on the ranch when younger members of the family may not be up to the task.  Our children's program's goal is to provide adventures suited to your children's ages and abilities.

Kids Six & Over :

Kids six years of age and older participate in our riding program with their family or independently under the supervision of our wranglers.  In addition to spending lots of time in the saddle, kids will have the opportunity to learn the parts of the horse, learn about western tack, and learn to groom and saddle.  Real horse enthusiasts can get up early and head for the barn with our wranglers to saddle their own horse.

Our naturalist program explores our valley's ecosystem with walks, hikes, and educational programs which are very popular with older children and adults alike.

And in addition to guided rides and hikes we have supervised activities like tubing and swimming in our river, fishing, volleyball, and bonfires for everyone to enjoy.

We focus on outdoor activities that kids wouldn’t get a chance to experience elsewhere - like hands-on horse education.  Pony rides for kids aged four and five are a big favorite.  Not only do they get a chance to learn about horses, but they get out of the arena with a trained wrangler leading their horse from the ground.  It's a great start for new cowboys and cowgirls.

Swimming is always popular with kids.  We have a very gentle river that flows right through the ranch.  Conveniently, nature created one of the few good swimming holes directly behind our lodge.  Supervised wading and swimming during our warmest months of July and August are very popular.  To take the chill off, kids can jump into our hot tub which is conveniently located riverside.  And for the most energetic kids, we have tubes for floating down the river or for tying to our bridge above the swimming hole.

In addition to horse and water related activities, four and five year olds enjoy exploring the river's banks, tether-ball, flying kites on breezy days, hay rides, and racquet sports like croquet and badminton.

Our petting zoo is popular with kids of all ages.  We have chickens, goats, a pair of Sicilian burros, as well as our ranch cats.  Our miniature goat loves to climb and is happy to oblige these kids with a backrub.

Younger kids enjoy our sand box, petting zoo, wagon rides, and playing on our jungle gym.

And finally, infants get the love and personal attention they need.  One of our babysitters will meet with you and do their best to adapt our program to your child's particular schedule.

Ranch activities often run mornings and afternoons.  You can use our program as much or as little as you like.  As the week progresses, we have all-day activities as well like rides up to a brunch or lunch on the forest.  Our counselors will bring your kids up to these lunches so families can reconnect over their meal and then return the kids to the ranch for adventures until their parents return.

Please don't hesitate to contact us ahead of time to discuss the particular needs of your children.