Joyride with the Joneses
Follow along on our family journeys!
Grant-Kohrs Ranch
Visited: August 2017
Duration: 2-3 hours
Accommodations: Fairmont Hot Springs, Anaconda, Montana
A stop between Yellowstone and Glacier to break up the 8 hour drive time was this gem located in Deer Lodge, Montana. After a fantastic night swimming in a hot springs pool and playing a few rounds of mini golf, we hopped over to Grant-Kohrs Ranch. This place was a great surprise, we all loved this stop. It was full of history, cowboys and cattlemen. This was right up our alley.
In 1972 Congress set aside Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site as a working cattle ranch that symbolized wide open space, the hard working cowboy, the spirited cow pony and vast herds of cattle.
We stopped off at the Visitor Center, grabbed our Junior Rangers and signed up for the Ranch House tour. We walked the .25 mile paved trail towards the Ranch House. Oh the wonderful things we learned here.
The walk was beautiful and nice and the kids enjoyed their time together walking it.
We learned all about marking on horses, names of animals kids, how to read brand markings on cattle, cowboy essentials, and all about things that the blacksmith makes.
We took a tour of Bunkhouse row to see how the ranchers lived, visited the Ice House/Tack Room and headed out by the barns to take our turn at roping cattle (wood cattle). The boys really had fun with this. Meanwhile, mom and I wandered over to the Chuck wagon for some cowboy coffee around the fire. This was a cool touch.
We had to pull the kids away from roping to go on our Ranch house tour. Boy are we glad we did this tour. The park ranger/tour guide was amazing. Engaging everyone in the tour and making it very interesting (even for the kids). The furniture was gorgeous. There was a cabinet desk that belonged to Kohrs that was hinged to fold up and lock away drawers. If you come here stick around for the tour it is fun to see the inside of the house. The boys liked it so much they hung out on the back porch relaxing and chatting with the park ranger afterwards.
We walked around the property a little more enjoying the scenery and checking out the buildings. Here is some horse drawn vehicles and equipment that was original to the ranch found in the barn.
We sat at the picnic table out by the Feed lot sheds to finish up our booklets and then headed back up to the visitor center. We really enjoyed this place much more than we expected. Junior Ranger badges earned and we are off to Glacier National Park. Check back for that blog, I can’t wait.
We bought a few things for my cowboy husband from the gift shop and we were off. We loved Grant-Kohrs Ranch, have you been here?? I hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Bonus: An A&W right down the road for a great lunch stop.
Joyride with the Joneses 
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