Top Weekend Getaways
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| Be prepared to saddle up at Double E Guest Ranch, a working ranch that lets visitors join in the cowboying, too. |
Cowboy Wannabe Weekend
Destination: Gila National Forest
What to bring: boots, wild rag, no-whining attitude
Locals—who call it, simply, “the Gila” (pronounced HEE-lah)—insist that the best way to explore the Gila National Forest, one of our nation’s largest intact natural areas, is atop a horse. Most of the Gila’s 3.3 million acres of mountainous public land in southwestern New Mexico are uninhabited and roadless.
“This country is incredible,” declares Debbie Eggleston, who, with her husband, Alan, operates the Double E Guest Ranch, outside the village of Gila. “But it’s some of the roughest terrain you can imagine.”
The Egglestons’ 29,000-acre Double E Guest Ranch offers the perfect destination for those wishing to cowboy up and explore this rugged country. The ranch runs 35 horses and 150 head of cattle along the western edge of the Gila, and guests are invited to ride, rope, and brand alongside the ranch hands. Besides Western-style horsemanship—which will allow you to explore the area’s forested peaks, steep canyons, and year-round streams—the Egglestons offer expert instruction in mounted shooting and advanced bovine care, from herding cattle to branding and doctoring them.
“This is a working ranch,” explains Alan, who relocated here with Debbie in 1996. “It’s not a spa.” Debbie describes the Double E as “a place to taste a way of life that is disappearing.”
Visitors are encouraged to spend at least a week on the land to give the experience justice, but weekenders are also welcome. Overnight guests stay in a rustic cabin or bunkhouse along cottonwood-shaded Bear Creek, and join the Egglestons and crew for family-style meals in the main ranch house, and then, maybe, a campfire.
A typical day includes working livestock on horseback, with stops to admire breathtaking views, native critters, and ancient Native pit houses. Roundups and rodeo weeks occur regularly; women riders get special attention during the semiannual cowgirl camps. The Double E also schedules barrel racing, breakaway roping, team sorting, and team penning.
All that cowboyin’ got you hungry? Try Glenwood’s Blue Front Bar & Café for homemade New Mexican food and barbecue, or Mogollón’s Purple Onion Café for burgers and pie. And after a day in the saddle, nothing beats a soak at Sundial Hot Springs, outside Pleasanton.
If You Go: Double E Ranch, 67 Double E Ranch Rd., Gila, (866) 242-3500, www.doubleeranch.com; Blue Front Bar and Café, N.M. 180, Glenwood, (575) 539-2561, www.bluefrontbar.com; Purple Onion Café, Main Street, Mogollon, Friday–Sunday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., May–October, www.mogollonenterprises.com; Sundial Hot Springs, privately owned campground and hot springs, (575) 539-2712, www.sundialsprings.com—Richard Mahler
