Adventure Like a Cowboy…Rockin ‘R Ranch
By: Anne Helmstadter
The dark skies rumbled low overhead as Sadie, my sturdy Quarter Horse mount, paused at the crest of a steep incline. Bolts of lightning lit up the mountains all around and cool rain pattered on my cowboy hat. I felt my nerves tingling as I looked down the rugged drop off. Ahead our cowgirl trail guide, Nikita, turned around and balanced on her saddle as her mare descended into the gully.
“Imagine the cowboys who worked this land 100 years ago,” she shouted back. “Riding out, pushing cows in a storm. Don’t you feel just like them?”
For a few days at the Rockin’ R Ranch in Antimony (pronounced AN-tuh-moh-nee), Utah, I did feel just like them. Unplugged, with no phone or television, horses carried my family back to a simpler time where we adventured like authentic cowboys.
Taming The Wild West
The Rockin’ R Ranch, a scenic four-and-a-half hour drive from Las Vegas, sits on the edge of The Dixie National Forest, in the heart of The Grand Circle, with easy access to five national parks: Bryce Canyon, Zion, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands. The Black family tamed this 1500-acre ranch when they started running cattle and planting crops more than 130 years ago. Burns and Mona Black launched the dude ranch operation in the 1970s, offering a variety of supervised activities, horse and non-horse, designed to give guests a true cowboy experience. Today, Brandon Hanks and his wife, Brandi, manage the ranch. The couple takes great pride in the ranch’s ability to entertain all ages – toddlers to teenagers and middle-aged couples to grandparents – keeping them all busy, cowboy-style.
Mountain lions, coyotes and foxes roam the juniper and pinyon pine-dotted mountains surrounding the ranch, while jackrabbits, chipmunks and squirrels make their home in the sagebrush meadows and hayfields of the valley. Here, in this small ranching community, with the sounds of cows lowing and horses stamping, city slickers from across the globe can wrangle their inner cowboy in a perfectly western weekend getaway.
Cowboys and Horses
When my husband, two girls and I arrived at the ranch a tall young man in the requisite cowboy attire, Colt, greeted us. He showed us the large whiteboard in the main lobby listing our activity schedule based on my family’s interests and previous horse experience. Every guest’s activity schedule is tailor-made, and all activities are optional.
Our first scheduled adventure, was a trail ride through irrigation ditches and flood channels with water so deep my nine-year-old had to hold her feet up to avoid filling her boots. A late afternoon arena ride had us racing around barrels and pole bending. Even my husband, not an equestrian, embraced the cowboy moment and trotted his horse through the poles. Before dinner my girls launched themselves into the swimming hole with the rope swing and, after a few leaps into the cool water, they convinced me to climb into a canoe with them to paddle around the water under the shade of old cottonwoods. From our canoe we watched as members of a family reunion tried to ride a bucking calf. After several of them, including a grandfather, were pitched to the arena floor we decided we didn’t need to master a bucking calf on this trip.
On our second day, Cowboy Mike (sporting a handlebar mustache) brought four Black Angus cows into the arena for team penning. He gave us a few directions on how to “center the cows” and we were off, steering our horses around the bucking cattle, and pushing rebellious strays back into place with cowboy-esque whoops and hollers. After numerous attempts (and some assistance from Cowboy Mike) we centered our cows and raised our hands in victory with a newfound respect for the cowboys who accomplish in mere seconds what took us twenty minutes.
More than Horses
Eighty percent of the guests who visit Rockin’ R are not horseback riders and many have never even sat on a horse. While horses and cows are everywhere you turn at the Rockin’ R, the ranch provides plenty of other activities to occupy those who would rather keep their rumps out of the saddle. Kid crafts, ATVing on the Paiute trail, skeet shooting, archery, hiking, swimming, canoeing, fishing, hay wagon rides, rock climbing, and river tubing are just a few options.
Our second night, one of the worst storms of the summer slammed the ranch. This didn’t stop Cody, our cowboy-tube-guide, from leading us down to the river the next afternoon for our scheduled tube run. I knew I was in for more than I had planned when Cody’s eyes widened at the sight of the rushing river. “Wow, that storm really raised the water level.”
My first attempt to sit in the tube flipped me head over heels into the river and sent my tube shooting downstream, but after several curves, the initial white water calmed into a gentler river. Enjoying the ride, I imagined what the cowboys of yesteryear would say about this modern activity. I like to think they’d admire its adventurous spirit.
Hiking is also a popular activity. Ranch guides will gladly regale guests with stories about Butch Cassidy who, myth has it, used to hole up in a 150-year old ranch cabin that still exists on the Rockin’ R property. Stories say he even hid a stash of gold in a rocky hideaway in the foothills that a local rancher discovered some years ago. Today, guests can walk in Cassidy’s footsteps on The Butch Cassidy Hideout Hike, enjoying spring-green colors, beautiful geological formations, and clean air.
Cowboy themed evening activities complete the ranch experience: campfires and smores, cowboy songs, line dance lessons and Saturday band nights.
Cowboy Beds and Eats
The Rockin’ R is ranch living, not a spa resort. They offer 41 TV-free rooms in a rustic lodge all outfitted with comfortable beds and clean, private bathrooms with hot water. There is no cell service at the ranch but an old-fashioned landline phone is available for guests. The ranch recently added WiFi, allowing guests to feel unplugged without completely disconnecting from the 21st century. A buck head above a large fireplace in the lodge’s main public room oversees log tables and sink-into sofas. A game room, dining room, gift shop and lobby ensure the lodge is ready for its guests.
Ranch cookin’ serves up hearty cowboy fare at each meal: pancakes, waffles, eggs, and bacon for breakfast; sandwich fixings and fruit for lunch; steak, chicken, salmon, scalloped potatoes, cooked vegetables, and freshly baked cakes for dinner. The ranch will accommodate special diets, whipping up something for my husband, a vegetarian, whenever needed. A fresh salad bar at lunch and dinner also offers an alternative to the meat and potatoes. Saturday night the cook serves a classic Dutch oven dinner: ribs, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and cherry cobbler. Not sophisticated eats, but filling and satisfying after a day spent outside.
The Cowboy Code
While your weekend of cowboy adventuring at the Rockin’ R may not transform you into a rodeo-riding cowboy, sitting astride a horse (or an ATV) under the big western sky will leave a yearning for the simpler life where the Cowboy Code of courage, loyalty, honesty and optimism ruled the West.
As we left on our last morning, we stopped for a few minutes to gaze at the horses and cattle grazing on the open range. Our weekend of cowboy adventuring behind left our legs sore, but our souls restored.
If you go: The Rockin’ R Ranch is open year round, but some activities are seasonal. The reasonable rates ($135/night per person for quad occupancy) are offered as full amenity packages: room, three meals, and most activities included. For reservations contact: (801) 733-9538 or visit www.RockinRRanch.com.
Dream, Create, Inspire, Learn – The Children’s Discovery Museum
By Meghan Pescio
As a Las Vegas native, some of my clearest and fondest memories of my childhood are of annual field trips to the Lied Discovery Children’s Museum. The bus would stop, my classmates and I would pour out and get completely lost in a whimsical world of dress up, curiosity and make believe. Entering the new DISCOVERY Children’s Museum located in Symphony Park alongside The Smith Center, that feeling of wonderment and fascination returned. I was welcomingly swept right back into my childhood as I wandered from exhibit to exhibit. The new location harkens back to the good ol’ days of Lied, and so much more.
From the River to “The Summit”
The mission of the museum to create a hands-on and engaging experience for children is immediately evident as you enter and are greeted by a giant apparatus that literally lifts a car, permitting the little lifter to dictate how much pressure he or she will need to do so. Every inch of the three-story, 58,000 square foot building allows for active and practical learning encounters. Exhibits such as “Water World” on the first floor create a different experience for each age – splashing around for the little ones and a deeper understanding of water’s movement and power for school aged kids. Even the adults will learn a thing or two.
A new addition to the museum is known as “The Summit” and it is as powerful as it sounds. Scaling the full three stories of the building, this 70 foot tower of entrancing educational adventures could keep you occupied for hours on its own. From giant ears to a spacecraft and an incredible view upon reaching the top, “The Summit” is a refreshing challenge of both body and mind.
Other exhibits new to those of us with Lied nostalgia, work not only to create fun environments for children to learn, but also give them practical knowledge for choices they will have when (or if) they decide to “grow up.” The “It’s Your Choice” exhibit is dedicated to health and wellness, and with live classes (taught by employees daily around the museum) about skincare in the sun and interactive games about food choice and exercise, I felt like I should be taking notes. “Eco City” mixes some old with the new as you will recognize children shopping in a Smith’s grocery store and pondering fiscal responsibility in the nearby Wells Fargo, but be pleasantly surprised by a new focus on environmental sustainability and community. The “Solve It!” exhibit puts a premium on analytical thinking as it leads you through a mystery and asks you to collect evidence, scrutinize it and crack the case.
Creative Flare
While pragmatic decision-making is important for the real world, the museum isn’t only for our left-brained offspring. Exhibits that celebrate imagination and creativity light up each floor – you can almost hear the little minds buzzing! “Fantasy Festival” on the first floor is a dreamlike hodgepodge of ships, castles and, of course, the giant stage that graced the former museum floor, complete with purple curtains and a box of costumes. “Young at Art” is reminiscent of a young Salvador Dali meets Dr. Seuss as colors melt off the walls around pink zebras and other human-like animals. My personal favorite, “Patents Pending,” is a brilliant tribute to the tinkerers, inventors and creators among us. Encouraging our future generation to “Dream,” “Design” and “Invent,” the exhibit offers future engineers the equivalent of a canvas to an artist.
As I followed the trail of tears from children prematurely pried from their fun, having been asked to leave this fantasy land by the parents or teachers who also secretly wanted to stay, I noticed a tribute to facility donator Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The last line states the mission of the foundation to support organizations that “demonstrate a sustainable program, entrepreneurial spirit, and assist those served to be healthy, self-sufficient and productive members of their community.” The DISCOVERY Children’s Museum, at whatever location in the big neighborhood we call home, does just that and is a landmark to be proud of and patronize- at any age.
For more information on visiting, becoming a member or participating in programs of the DISCOVERY Children’s Museum visit www.DiscoveryKidsLV.com
A Step Above – Jordan Serrano
Liberty High School
Class of 2014
For all the pressure put on looking towards the future, there is something very special and unique about those who are able to live in the moment. Jordan Serrano, Liberty High School’s current Student Body President, is a special young man with an uncanny ability to do both. From disciplined martial artist to a social and philanthropic leader among his peers, Jordan keeps his eye firmly on the prize while still allowing for changes in direction. Most importantly, Jordan’s ability to sincerely appreciate the people and resources around him puts him in line with all the greats, and makes him – A Step Above.
G.P.A. 4.633
Sports/Scholarships/Awards
- JV Wrestling Co-Captain, 2012
- JV Volleyball, 2012
- Filipino Martial Arts, 2001-2010; Assistant instructor, 2008-2010
- First Place Point Sparring, USA World Championship, 2010
- First Place Continuous Sparring and Weapons Form, Fall National Championship, 2010
- First Place Point Sparring, Disney Martial Arts Festival, 2007-2010
Clubs/Community Service
- Liberty High School Student Council, 2010-2014; Secretary, 2010-2011; Vice President, 2011-2012, Treasurer, 2012-2013; Student Body President, 2013-2014
- Key Club, 2011 & 2013
- Nevada Boys’ State Delegate, 2013
- Southern Nevada Zone, 2013
- Nevada State Conference for Student Council, 2011-2013
- Relay for Life Participant, 2010-2013
- Beatty Elementary School Carnival Volunteer, 2011-2012
- Student Advisory Committee, 2012
Jordan’s Proudest Accomplishment: “Becoming Student Body President is my most proud accomplishment. Coming into student council my freshmen year, I didn’t expect to achieve this goal. It was only until my sophomore year that I knew I wanted to make a difference and become the Student Body President. I continued to put in hard work within my council and school and eventually, it all paid off.”
Contributions to Jordan’s Success: “My drive and desire are what make me so successful. When I want something, I will achieve it no matter how much I have to go through.”
Jordan’s Inspiration: “One person I really look up to is my sister, Jasmine Serrano. She is the reason why I joined student council. I even followed in her footsteps and became the student body president just like her! She constantly motivates and helps me become the best person I can be. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without her.”
Words Jordan Lives By: “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” –Buddha
A Step Above – Brooke Garlick
Coronado High School
Class of 2014
It’s not always easy keeping a smile when life gets tough, but for Brooke Garlick of Coronado High School that’s the only way to be. That, and so focused on making dreams come true that you don’t have time to get down in the dumps! A stellar athlete, involved student and natural leader, Brooke truly personifies the results of good, old-fashioned hard work mixed with just the right dash of flexibility for life’s guaranteed twists and turns. Add that to the premium she puts on being a good teammate on and off the court, and it’s a recipe that places her – A Step Above.
G.P.A. 3.69
Sports/Awards
- Varsity Volleyball, 2011-Present; Team Captain, 2013-2014
- CSA Volleyball Club, 2013-2014
- Three-time AAU Junior Olympics Bid, 2013
- 702 Beach Volleyball Team, 2013
- Vegas Encore Volleyball Club, 2011-2013
- Net Believers Volleyball Club, 2009-2011
- First Place 18U LV Beach Bash, 2013
- Selected for Congressional Youth Leadership Council (CYLC), 2013
- USA Volleyball A3 Youth Camp in Las Vegas, 2012-2013
- Most Spirited (Varsity Volleyball), 2012-2013
- Best Offensive Player (Varsity Volleyball), 2011-2012
Activities/Clubs/Community Service
- Coronado Student Council Class President: Freshman, 2010-2011; Sophomore, 2011-2012; Junior, 2012-2013; Senior, 2013-2014
- National Honors Society, 2012-2014
- Best Buddies Member, 2012-2014
- Graduation Ambassador for HERFF Jones, 2013-2014
- Three Square Food Bank, 2012-Present
- Cougars Care, 2010-Present
- Santa Run, 2007-Present
Where can you find Brooke in ten years: “In ten years I see myself either working for ESPN as a sideline sportscaster or helping young athletes in sports medicine. I also see myself giving back to my community.”
Brooke’s keys to success: “I believe that your success is based off of the ability to take a bad situation and make it better. As John Wooden once said, ‘Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.’ No matter what I go through, I try to make the best out of it because life is too short to be dwelling on the negative.”
On overcoming adversity: “I was invited to a USA Volleyball camp my sophomore year and on the first day, during the last drill, I stepped on another player’s foot and severely sprained my ankle. The type of sprain took a long time to heal and it was a very frustrating recovery. I missed nearly all of my junior season and quickly learned that it takes both patience and hard work to rehab and return from an injury. I learned through adversity that it is important to stay positive and always keep your head up.”
A Step Above – Julia Stella
Coronado High School
Class of 2014
In a popular culture that at times gives too much credence to negative and even potentially damaging behavior, hope stems from those individuals like Julia Stella of Coronado High School who are dedicated to positive influence and empowering those around them to be better versions of themselves. A talented musician and attentive student, Julia’s commitment to excellence has proven valuable in meeting her goals for the future, and thriving in all aspects of her life. Even more importantly, Julia strives to succeed while always maintaining top standards, a positive attitude and a focused vision of how things can be, placing her – A Step Above.
G.P.A. 4.8
Music/Scholarships/Awards
- Cougar Pride Marching Band, 2010-Present; Section Leader, 2013
- Wind Symphony, 2012-2013
- Symphonic Band, 2010-2012
- Superior Rating at CCSD Solo and Ensemble, 2013
- Nevada Prize Exam Award Recipient, 2013
- AP Scholar, 2013
- Outstanding Woodwind Musician, 2011
Clubs/Community Service
- National Honor Society, 2012-2013
- American Red Cross Club, 2013; Vice President, 2013
- Mu Alpha Theta, 2013
- Ironman Volunteer, 2012-2013
- American Red Cross Youth Ambassador, 2013
- L.I.G.H.T Work Camp, 2012
Julia’s Goals and Aspirations: “My most important aspiration is to be a role model for others. I have been privileged to meet so many inspirational people in my life that now I hope I can inspire at least one person to realize that anything is possible when you have an open mind and a desire to succeed.”
Julia’s Ten Year Plan: “In ten years, I see myself as a college graduate working in a medical research setting. I hope to develop new medications or treatments for today’s incurable diseases.”
Someone Julia Admires: “I look up to my parents more than anybody. They both have showed me that your perspective on a situation is essential. It’s not about the actual circumstances of a situation but how you let the circumstances affect you.”
If Julia Could Be President of Any Charity: “I would like to be the president of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I think it is a great charity because it provides great experiences to children with life-threatening illnesses. Children are blessed with innate hopefulness, and the charity sustains that hope in children who face very serious challenges.”
Favorite Quote to Live By: “If we all did the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.” Thomas Edison
