Pine Butte Guest Ranch Tour

It’s always fun to tour around our fabulous guest ranches in Central Montana and last week was no exception.

Pine Butte Guest Ranch, owned by The Nature Conservancy, sits in Teton Canyon west of Choteau, Montana about 25 miles. It’s a beautiful setting and an easy drive.

The guest ranch had not yet opened for the season but some of their training was scheduled to start the day after we were there.

Once the season begins, I’m sure it’s somewhat of a nonstop blur until they reach the end of September. Weekly guests are at the ranch Sunday through Sunday.

Our group met in the lodge and then toured a cabin that had been undergoing a facelift. The cabin was spacious, had a nice woodsy feel and I could have settled in right then!

I could imagine myself sitting by the fireplace, reading a good book or just watching the crackling fire. Or, I could also imagine rocking the day away on the porch of the main lodge at Pine Butte – lots of options for my imagination!

Pine Butte Guest Ranch begins and ends their summer season with weekly workshops.

David Sibley of Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds will lead two separate workshops which will have great appeal for avid bird watchers. The Rocky Mountain Front has two distinct flyways for migratory birds and a combination of birds that live in short grass prairie and also the alpine birds.

Other workshops include themes for photography, grizzly bears and a women-only week.

Pine Butte Guest Ranch has individual cabins for guests and, depending on group sizes, they can accommodate about 30 people at one time. Guests stay in the cabins and meals and indoor activities happen in the main lodge.

There is a full time naturalist on staff at Pine Butte Guest Ranch who leads hikes in the area. Wranglers are also well trained to spot and identify flora and fauna native to this area along the Rocky Mountain Front.

This ranch has been a long-time guest ranch and originally was owned by Alice and Kenny Gleason. Some folks refer to it as the Gleason Ranch, others call it the Circle 8. There is some amazing Montana ranching history here.

As we were getting ready to leave I stopped back in the lodge and took a few photos of the handmade furniture, all made about 70 years ago by Kenny Gleason. This couch caught my eye!

We had lots of fun imagining ourselves spending a week at the ranch. My bags could be packed in a minute!

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