FTA Member Spotlight: Dude Ranch Association

The Dude Ranch Association has been around for nearly 100 years, and it’s just as relevant as ever.

In fact, these relatively secluded, nature-filled destinations were perfect for the era of social distancing, and families continue to see the benefit in getting off the grid and out on a horse (or kayak, or zipline, or ATV, etc.)

To learn more about what dude ranches, and the DRA, have to offer for family travel, we talked with Executive Director Bryce Albright, who’s been in the industry just about her entire life. Check it out.

Can you tell us about the history of the FTA?

The association was started in 1926, so we’re almost a 100-year-old trade association, which is pretty amazing. And we’ve obviously sustained throughout the years. We’ve gone through many of the economic downturns, financial hardships, the great depression, all of that. And so, it’s a resilient association and group of ranchers. As an association, we provide a lot of different resources, benefits. We put on an annual convention every year. The main thing we do is marketing for our ranches, and then we also serve as sort of a travel agency, but we don’t collect commission. We provide recommendations for ranches within our membership. Not every ranch is a member of the Dude Ranchers Association. They have to meet certain guidelines and criteria to be members of ours. But right now, we represent over 90 ranches across the western US and Canada.

What can the Dude Ranch Association do for FTA members?

We take care of helping guests find the right ranch for them. So, that includes travel agents. In terms of commissions, the travel agents have to ask the ranches what they pay, because we’re a nonprofit trade association, so we don’t keep track of that. It’s just our way of keeping everything kind of equal and fair. Most of our ranches do pay commission of some kind, but we always encourage the travel agents to reach out to the ranches directly and ask what their fees are.

Over the years, a lot more people are using travel agents, especially since the pandemic. And so, we love working with travel agents. It’s just a little bit more of a delayed process than talking directly to guests, because they usually have to go to their clients, find the answers, come back to us.

And then, we also work with press, providing resources, fact checking, providing history, like, I just talked to a writer this morning who’s writing an article on the history of dude ranches. We can put people in touch with ranches, as long as we feel like it’s a good fit. I feel like every association is a little bit of a gatekeeper, almost, to their members.

Why are dude ranches great for families?

They offer something for everyone at every age, which is always my biggest byline when I’m talking about family dude ranches, especially multi-generational travel, because you can really have something for anything, for the toddlers all the way up to the grandparents. You know, there’s obviously horseback riding for certain ages. A lot of them have a cut off as far as how young they can be, because they need to be able to control their horse. So, a lot of it depends on insurance, liability, that kind of stuff. But then there’s children’s programs. Those have really developed over the last 10 years. The majority of our ranches do focus on horseback riding, but if you’re not a horseback rider, there’s something to do for literally everyone—if you want to fish, hike, shooting sports, ATVs, zip lines. You can sit on the porch and read a book, bird watching, watch the wildlife, that’s all part of it.

It just really allows families to come together and reconnect in a place that’s a little foreign to them, pushes them out of their comfort zone a little bit, but it also allows them to truly disconnect and then reconnect as a family. You come together first thing in the morning, and everybody’s excited, and then at the end of the day, everybody talks about their trip. I always say dude ranches are one of the best things for kids’ sleep, because they’ll be so worn out, they’ll sleep like a rock. And a lot of these places are not within cell service, which is a real benefit. A lot of people look for that anymore, especially for kids. Get them off the screens and get them out into nature. Let them remember what it’s like to be a kid, not just to be glued to a screen of some kind.

Are there any sort of misconceptions about dude ranches that you’d like to clear up?

I think a lot of people, when they hear the term Dude Ranch, they’re just like, “Oh, we’re gonna go sleep under the stars and eat cans of beans over a fire.” Which, there are those type of places, but really, our ranches have to meet certain standards and guidelines, especially within the hospitality and the lodging industry. Their accommodations do have to be clean, they have to be comfortable. They don’t have to be five-star by any means. Some ranches do have that. But you know, it’s not like you’re going to be sleeping on a bed roll, on a two-inch mattress on a cot. You are staying in nice cabins with running water.

So, I think it’s just really making sure people understand that this is a true vacation destination. You can rough it as much as you want, or it can be as luxurious as you want. These people are very accommodating to special diets, and they’re there to make a great vacation, and really there to kind of make them part of their family, which is always really important.

I would say another misconception that people can gather when doing research is they’re like, “Oh my gosh, we’re gonna have to follow this itinerary.” That’s not necessarily true. You know, that’s kind of the beauty of dude ranches, the autonomy that they provide. There’s a schedule of events if you want to horseback ride in the morning and fly fish in the afternoon, those opportunities are available, but nobody’s required to do anything. And so, if you want to sleep in and go for a hike, or if you want to be up early to go on the breakfast ride at sunrise, then that’s what you do.

Photos courtesy of Dude Ranch Association.