Marble Mountain Guest Ranch California
Dude ranch vacations at Marble Mountain Ranch have an American cowboy's trail riding theme. We combine our horseback trail riding vacations with thrilling guest ranch activities such as whitewater rafting, kayaking, sporting clays, fly fishing, jet boat adventures on the Lower Klamath and traditional American ranch events. Our signature "saddle and paddle" or raft and ride vacation joins our superb dining experience and our youth buckaroo program to create the best and most complete American dude ranch vacation. Marble Mountain dude ranch vacations meet the diverse interests and needs of your entire family or group. Our horseback trail riding and equestrian programs are spectacular, but our defining feature is our ability to keep whole families engaged with our variety of outdoor Western adventures. No other ranch can duplicate our summit to sea experience with breathtaking mountain trail riding, white water rafting, steelhead fly fishing, or jet boat tours to the Pacific Ocean!
Our ranch connoisseur, Freya, found the Marble Mountain ranch to be a real western experience. "The Marble Mountain Ranch is such a family place. The accommodation was comfortable and the cabins had everything you needed. The food was good, hearty and home-cooked, just what you needed after a long day. The horses were all very well behaved and tacking them up and grooming them yourself meant you got to know them better before you set off on a ride with them. The little corral allowed you to get used to the horse before commencing the ride through forests and rivers. The other activities were all fully guided by staff to make sure you got the most out of the experience. A real outdoors holiday."
The Riding:
Dude ranch vacations In California's Klamath National forest provide riding options with a thrilling mix of stunning scenery and fabulous mountain trail riding. You ride through ancient Doug Fir tree stands to high vistas with views across deep river valleys and granite ridge tops. The terrain here is dramatic, varied and rugged so horse and rider are provided an evolving backdrop of challenges, obstacles and landscapes to ride through. The scenic grandeur and rewarding challenges of mountain trail riding create a remarkable opportunity to join horse and rider with the historic American West and a natural outdoor setting.
Dude ranch vacations at the Ranch are choreographed to match your riding skill with appropriate horses and trail routes. Everyone from beginners to experts can ride. Trail ride group sizes typically limit at 6-8 riders with a maximum staff ratio of 6 horse riders to 1 wrangler. After check-you will be met at the round-pen for a riding orientation and quick analysis of your riding prowess. With clearance from the wrangling staff, more advanced horse riders will ride more challenging trail sections. Advanced trail rides are typically longer and more distant. They cross creeks, ancient mining flumes and other trail obstacles. The more advanced trail rides are especially noted for rapid gains and losses in elevations as we traverse the mountainous terrain of the Klamath Forest.
Children are welcome to ride as well.
Accommodation:
The cabins and homes are located conveniently close to ranch activity centers, but are remote enough to allow you to find solitude in the lush shade of the forest margins. The accommodations include fully furnished deluxe homes and housekeeping cottages with full kitchens, as well as smaller units that come with kitchenettes. Meals and activities are included in packaged vacations during the main season of June through September and are available a-la carte during the shoulder seasons. Each cottage provides beds with linens and towels, bathrooms with toilets and showers and a kitchenette at a minimum.
If you are visiting during non-peak season (Before Memorial Day and After Labor Day) you may choose to rent a home or cottage a-la-carte and design a more self sufficient Bed and Breakfast vacation. The kitchen units are stocked with utensils, cookware, stove and a refrigerator and easily enable vacationing chefs.
Food:
Guests utilizing the "all inclusive packages" during peak season share home-style meals with other guests, family, and staff, in the dining lodge. Meals are bountiful as well as eye-pleasing. They serve home-baked breads and desserts, salads, and vegetables fresh from our own garden, and select meats smoked and roasted over native hardwoods.
Other Activities:
Additional amenities available during a B&B visit include the fitness room, pool, casting pond, gardens, hiking trails, and fly fishing guide services.
Rafting: Klamath River Rafting is suited to whole family participation, with warm Summer river flows, great swimming, and beginner to intermediate level rapids (class II and III). The white water rafting and kayaking adventure at Marble Mountain Guest Ranch is scheduled in the warmer afternoon hours and covers a new and exciting stretch of the river each day. The afternoon departures place you on the river after the first push of rafting traffic and gives you an almost exclusive use of the canyon. This strategy also enables the Ranch's signature "raft and ride" program of scheduling horse rides, and shooting in cooler mornings with rafting trips in the warmer afternoons. Since you are central to each of these rafting locations, shuttles take no more than 35 minutes to the launch site on any day.
Fishing: Stand alone fishing rates are based on a $200/person drift boat guide day and $200/person jet boat guide day with a double occupancy in the drift boats. Single person drift boat bookings are $350 daily.
Clay Sport Shooting: Sporting Clays at Marble Mountain Ranch are an opportunity to experience a sample of the Western Firearms tradition in a sporting "non-kill" venue. A visit to the range is included as part of the daily itinerary. Your sporting clays experience starts on the first visit to the course with an orientation on fiream safety and review of rules for the range. EAr protection and eye protection are required and are provided along with the shotguns, 0.22 rifles and ammunition.
Minimum age for participants is 7-8 years with input from the guardian in attendance.
ITINERARY:
Each day's riding schedule includes a morning schedule block for trail rides and a schedule block for arena games /"trail-kana" / lessons. You will also have a third schedule block for the sporting clays and rifle range before you break for lunch. After lunch you raft/kayak a new stretch of the river daily, or depart for the Fish Lake outing.
Monday- arrival and check-in after 2:00 P.M., horse riding orientation, hay ride, pool swimming, campfire games
Tuesday – morning horse-rides or lessons, shooting range, class III rafting with waterfall hike
Wednesday -choice of either advanced trail ride with lunch or class II kayak & raft trip followed by ranch BBQ, campfire games and karaoke night.
Thursday – horse-rides or lessons, shooting range, excursion to Fish Lake with evening BBQ
Friday - morning horse rides or lessons and shooting range, afternoon class III rafting
Saturday – arena trail riding games, jam making or cider pressing (seasonally), departure after lunch.
Guest Ranch Rate Schedule for 2011 - 5 night/6 day all inclusive package rates
Youth (5-13 yrs): $1250
Non-participating seniors: $949
"Young Buckaroos" aged 3 & 4 yrs: $675
Non-participant children 2 and younger: free lodging & meals with babysitting as needed @ $15/hr, $18/hr two children. If you have "Young Buckaroos", your child will be involved in ranch arts and crafts, feeding the small animals, swimming, and nature walks during the times that you are scheduled for activities that are inappropriate for your buckaroo.
Guest Ranch Short Stays for 2011 (3 night stays)- limited availabilityCan't stay for the full 5 night/6 days? Try a 3 night stay! Three night packages begin Mondays and end Thursday at lunch. Short stays are available on a limited basis, so please check availability. As usual, trip fares cover all scheduled activities, meals, private lodging, and taxes.
Adults - $875/three nights/four days
Youth - $785/three nights/four days
Buckaroos ages 3 & 4- $450/three nights/four days
Non-participating adult - $620/three nights/four days
Guest Ranch Rate Schedule For Stand-Alone Cabin RentalsBefore the Memorial Day holiday and after the Labor Day Holiday (shoulder seasons) we can rent our cabins a-la-carte without our all inclusive full service packages. All inclusive packages are still available in these shoulder seasons, but they are not required as in our prime season.
1. Standard cabin : $125/night double occupancy plus $20/additional occupants. Standard cabin rates are reduced to $100/night double occupancy if you are doing meals with us in our dining lodge
3. Quail's nest Deluxe home: $275/night with a queen, full and bunk bed (would sleep 4 individuals in private beds or a family of 6-7) and has two full baths.
4. Sleepy Hollow Deluxe home: $250/night with a queen, and two twin beds, and one and a half baths.
A-la-carte meals in the dining lodge are $30/dinner (all you can eat, with dessert and drinks included), breakfasts and lunches are $15/person
Holidays can generally be of any duration and start on any day (except where specified).
Make a reservation / enquiry.
These prices are guidelines only. Please contact us for an exact quote since prices will vary depending on the season, the amount of riding you wish to do and whether you are travelling alone or with a group. To calculate the equivalent cost of your holiday in another currency, please visit XE.com's Universal Currency Converter.
Flights and Getting There:
For our guests who prefer to fly in, the nearest airport is a two-hour drive from the ranch and we suggest either the California Arcata/Mckinleyville airport (ACV) or the Medford Oregon airport (MDF). Shuttle service is available at $25/person each way ($150 minimum) and is free to guests staying on the 5 night package.
Flights to Los Angeles from Heathrow are available through Air New Zealand, American Airlines, British Airways, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Connecting flights to California Arcata/Mckinleyville Airport or the Medford Oregon Airport can be made though many commercial airlines.
Equipment:
Horseback riding on mountain trails requires participants with proper attire and some minimum physical conditioning. Please come dressed with long pants, sturdy shoes or boots, a hat and no large or expensive jewelry. Your boots should have a 1" heel minimum and have soles smooth enough to allow easy extraction from the stirrups. We encourage all riders to wear a hard hat. We allow adults to choose the option of wearing a riding helmet on walking rides, but require all minors under 18 years to wear an equestrian helmet.
Weight limit:
Sorry, riders must weigh less than 240 pounds. For rides leaving the level ground portions, you should be able to get on and off their horse unassisted. If you have members of your family that have never ridden before, you might also consider maximizing your experience here by taking a few basic riding lessons at home prior to arrival.
Mobile reception and WIFI:
There is no cell phone recpetion at Marble Mountain Ranch but WIFI access is available in the lodge and on the patio.
Environmental issues
You can calculate the CO2 emission of your journey to USA at Climate Care and compensate for your 'environmental footprint'. If you let us know how much it is we will be happy to pay this on your behalf.
In the office, we use paper from sustainably managed forests and recycled material where possible.
We encourage you to travel onwards from your arrival airport by rail when possible, and will book seats on your behalf.
How to book
To make a non-binding enquiry or a provisional booking, please fill in the reservations & enquiries form. Once we have checked availability, we will send you a quote with a holiday reference number by email. To secure your holiday, a deposit is required of £200 per person (or half the cost of the holiday, whichever is lower) and forward any insurance premiums to the insurance company. You should book your flights at this stage, and forward details to us so that we can organise your transfers. The balance of payment must be received by us not less than eight weeks before departure. Payment instructions.
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Insurance: all riders must be fully insured. We can recommend this travel insurance policy. The application form may be printed out to send with your premiums direct to the insurance company.
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