The historic guest ranch dates to the 1880s and serves as a bed & breakfast in winter
By Eileen Ogintz
Who needs to find pen pals when they come to you? Bailey Kilmer, 13, has made friends from all over the country and beyond.
“I don’t even know how many pen pals I have. And I haven’t had to travel to meet them. It is really cool to know what different places are like without going there,” she said. That includes her friends, Valentina Ducharme, 10, and Emma Price, 16, who are here from San Diego for 10 days.
Bailey’s parents, Kari and Brent Kilmer, are raising her and her two younger brothers and sister at the Vee Bar Ranch near the Snowy Range of Wyoming, about 20 miles west from Laramie along the banks of the Little Laramie River.
The ranch dates back to the 1880s and is now on the National Registry of Historic Buildings with some of the original buildings still in use. Bailey’s great-grandfather and grandfather bought the ranch in 1994; Kari and Brent Kilmer took over from her father and grandfather in 2006. The main lodge serves as a Bed & Breakfast during the winter.
This is Emma’s fifth visit and Valentina’s third. “I feel like this is my second home,” Emma Price said. “We love it so much,” agreed Valentina.
They are never bored because there is so much to do. Besides riding, there are hikes, archery, fly fishing, wagon rides, cookouts, and the “John Wayne Saloon,” where they can play pool and board games.
“If Emma disappears for hours, I don’t think twice about it. I know she is totally safe,” said her mom, Amy Phillips.
She and Valentina’s mom Nicola Ducharme added that a real plus has been the friends their two daughters—both only children—have made, including Bailey Kilmer.
Bailey has introduced them to many of the ranch animals — goats, calves (there is a 650-herd of cattle), sheep, and the ranch dogs, including a corgi named Penny, and her daughter named Dot.
Though there is Wi-Fi in and around the main lodge, the girls are glad for the lack of TVs in the cabins. “It makes me want to get outside,” Emma said.
There are just a maximum of 30 guests. Our river-front cabin, thoughtfully decorated in Western style (I love the log headboard and quilt!), can actually sleep six or more with its loft that kids would love.
Bailey (and the other girls) said she wants kids who are visiting for the first time is to trust their horses and the wranglers. “They do a really good job matching you to a horse,” said Valentina.
“The wranglers all want to know you and help you,” said Bailey.
Older guests also appreciate the focus on safety.
“I don’t have a lot of experience riding and I have the best comfort level here,” said Barb Dosemagen, a return guest from Kenosha WI, who has visited other ranches. “If I’m bringing up the rear there I always a wrangler watching.”
We set out on a beautiful morning ride across meadows where blue and yellow wildflowers were just popping out. Unlike other ranches, we didn’t have to ride head-to-tail, and Brent Kilmer explained that if some in the group wanted to lope or gallop, and others wanted to simply mosey along, that’s doable with enough wranglers along.
There are guests like Marisa and Kevin Ray, from North Carolina, who have never been to a ranch or ridden much. Others like Emma Price and Nicola and Valentina Ducharme own horses and ride at home in California. One couple riding with us is in their 80s as is wrangler Tom George, long retired from managing a huge ranch nearby. His son, he said, now a school principal in Laramie, went to a one-room schoolhouse in the area until eighth grade.
Bailey and her siblings (except for two year old Cooper) are home schooled, which suits her just fine, giving her plenty of time out on the ranch helping with chores like tagging the newborn calves and tending her horse.
There are now 29 ranches in Wyoming, according to the Dude Ranchers Association, and each one is a little different. But one thing they all have in common is the opportunity for kids as well as adults to get to know people whose lives are very different.
“I don’t normally sit down and talk to random people,” said Emma Price. “But it’s so fun to get to know everyone’s back story.”
Guests note how accommodating the staff is. “If I don’t like what’ for dinner, they’ll make me something else,” said Valentina.
Food is served buffet style and offer many choices — waffles, eggs, yogurt, granola, and fruit for breakfast one morning; pizza (veggie or meat) with salad, watermelon, and brownies for lunch. There was a birthday cake for grandmother Tabatha Harders, here with her three granddaughters from Nebraska that everyone shared after she blew out the candles and everyone sang “Happy Birthday.”
“I love everything about the ranch,” declared six year-old McKayla Kilmer.
Valentina and Emma nodded in agreement. “I love it so much,” said Emma Price. “I want to work here when I’m older.”