Top Weekend Getaways

Men struggle mightily to remain civilized at work, only to suffer several more hours of cuss-free living at home. So if he can find real relaxation only away from the wife and wee ones, give a guy a break. At the base of the Rocky Mountains, in terrain so rugged that it stopped wagons on the Santa Fe Trail, Ratón, 175 miles north of Santa Fe off I-25 in remote Colfax County, teems with destinations for the rugged individual. (Believe us, the fairer sex will want to stay clear of this trip.)
Nothing says buddy love like beating the pants off each other, so head to the NRA Whittington Center, where you’ll get a million chances. Twenty bucks buys a full day on the rifle, pistol, trap, skeet, sporting clay, and a mess of other ranges, including .50-caliber rifle and magnum (bring your own).

Guns too sedentary for your inner rambler? Spend Saturday afternoon hoofing it around Sugarite Canyon State Park, northeast of Ratón, where excursions range from hiking, to fishing the 120-acre lake, to vertical climbs of all levels on the massive basalt columns that line the canyon.

When hunger threatens, head to a sure-fire protein emporium: The oddly named Pappas Sweet Shop Restaurant, in old-town Ratón, serves up a nostalgic menu of steaks and pot roast with a full bar, in rough-hewn early-1900s décor.

When a nap—what man doesn’t enjoy a power nap?—beckons, pick from lodgings that offer plenty of activities for Sunday, too.

Teddy Roosevelt himself might have booked a weekend’s lodging at Vermejo Park Ranch, Ted Turner’s luxurious hunting resort 45 minutes west of Ratón. Elk, deer, bison, and antelope roam nearly 600,000 acres of lake-studded wilderness suitable for your choice of custom shooting tours (including mountain lion, black bear, or film), plus horseback riding, clay-target practice, and smoking cigars on the veranda of the log lodge.

Supposing, however, that your traveling pardner is not yet five feet tall, head to the Boy Scouts of America’s legendary Philmont Scout Ranch, 37 miles southwest of Ratón off U.S. 64. Enjoy hiking and horseback riding, and cookouts and chuckwagon dinners for groups, on 200 square miles of New Mexico wilderness, while roughing it in Philmont’s tent city (where every convenience is actually close at hand).

Even the gruffest guy is likely to smile after a weekend with his fellow fur-bearing brethren—because, as women well know, nothing tames a man’s inner beast like an encounter with a real bear.

If You Go: NRA Whittington Center, 10 miles S. of Ratón on U.S. 64, (800) 494-4853, www.nrawc.org; Sugarite Canyon State Park, on N.M. 526, 2 miles N. of N.M. 72 E. of Ratón, (575) 445-5607, www.emnrd.state.nm.us/PRD/Sugarite.htm; Pappas Sweet Shop Restaurant, 1201 S. Second St., (575) 445-9811; Vermejo Park Ranch, (575) 445-3097, www.vermejoparkranch.com; Philmont Scout Ranch, 17 Deer Run Rd., Cimarrón, (575) 376-2281, www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HighAdventure/Philmont.aspx—Keiko Ohnuma