Western Fantasy Lives at El Rojo Grande Ranch

OLD WEST DREAMS live on at El Rojo Grande Ranch

OUR QUARTER HORSES PAUSED ON A KNOLL ABOVE THE SUN-GILDED HOLLOW CONTAINING THE STABLES, CORRALS, COACH-BUILDING BARN, GRASSY PARK, AND OFFICES OF SEDONA'S EL ROJO GRANDE RANCH & STABLES. A KNOBBY SANDSTONE RIDGE DEFINES THE NORTH AND EASTsides of the hollow, and Dry Creek meanders along the south. Between these two natural features, ranch owners Jim and Karin Offield are making people's dreams of the Old West come to life.

In Jim's case, that dream took shape during many saddle rides in Alaska, British Columbia, and Yukon Territory. He began to envision a facility where people could enjoy a fine stable of horses and get to know the wranglers and trainers over a cup of coffee.

Karin grew up with thoroughbreds, competing in jumping competitions, and then began teaching jumping. She said she loves to "turn people on to riding." In 1992 she met Jim, their dreams merged, and they found the 143-acre site for El Rojo Grande Ranch, an equestrian center offering an experience right out of frontier days.

As our trail ride group lingered on the knoll, every building and arena below brought back memories of events and activities my husband, Bob, and I have enjoyed at El Rojo Grande.

One evening we dropped by just to take in some atmosphere. In the stable yard, a wrangler taught a boy how to bridle a horse. Nearby a trail horse relished a shower and attention from a ranch hand. Miniature goats and a grinning dog or two wandered around the stable yard overseeing personnel, stock, and training.

In the corral across the way, a girl was learning barrel racing. Karin Offield said the ranch has instructors who teach Western riding, roping, barrel racing, and polebending ("like a slalom," she explained to me) for beginning to advanced riders.

In the next corral, a woman rider practiced cutting cattle from a herd with an "electric cow." The ranch doesn't offer this anymore, but it was interesting to see. The "cow" was a fence-mounted pulley with a large black and white cutout attached that traveled erratically left and right, like a cow evading a rider. The woman's horse pivoted to keep the "cow" contained. When the horse and rider become adept at this, the (PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 38 AND 39) The El Rojo Grande Ranch stage looks like something out of a movie as it heads off into the sunset in this photo illustration. (ABOVE) The ranch features horseback riding and dinner rides, among other activities, amid the splendor of Sedona's red rocks.

(BELOW) Ranch hand Pen Youngman gives Badger his evening shower.

(RIGHT) Will Stone and a driver take visitors around the 143-acre ranch in a coach he built.

El Rojo Grande Ranch

A big cutout was replaced with a plastic cow and eventually with the real thing.

In the last arena, cowboys practiced roping the Offields' steers. A staff trainer suggested fine points, and the cowboys took turns kicking up clouds of luminous dust as the cattle thundered down the chute.

And all this just minutes from Sedona's galleries, restaurants, and shops.

On another day, we witnessed a much different scene at the ranch: a benefit event for the Sedona Medical Center featuring television personality Jay Leno. The event began in a grassy two-acre park at the base of a turreted sandstone ridge, then moved to a multipeaked tent. The park often is the scene for weddings and receptions, with the bride arriving by stagecoach. Sometimes the couple exchange vows out on the trail in the stagecoach itself.

My husband's favorite hangout is the former hay barn where Will Stone, wainwright and muleteer, holds forth at his coach works. Lanky as a fence post, with a dusty 10-gallon hat, drooping mustache, and weathered custom cowboy boots, he intrigued Jim and Karin Offield with his encyclopedic knowledge of stagecoach construction.

As they tell it, they were vacationing in Mancos, Colorado, where they met Stone, who had just completed a hand-built coach. Stone drove them around for two and a half hours, eventually letting Jim take the reins. The Offields purchased the coach, and Stone delivered it to Sedona, where it sat looking pretty but unusable. So Jim called Stone again: "Hey, Will, you got any mules up there I can buy, and can you come down here and teach me how to drive 'em?"

"So Will comes down here with four pretty ranch mules and four pretty beat-up harnesses," says Jim, smiling. Ten days of training later, Jim drove the stagecoach in Sedona's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. For months my husband and I watched Stone build his latest stagecoach. "Did you know," he asked us as we settled in for our first ride, "that passengers facing forward are in Second Class [dust and wind blow in the windows], people facing the back are in First Class [less dust and wind], and people on this," he says, kicking the middle backless jump seat, "are in Third Class?"

I don't know any experience that so instantly put me in the shoes of our early settlers as that stagecoach ride around El Rojo Grande. As we headed for the ranch's open spaces, spoke wheels jounced over rocks and earth, the smells of leather and dust and mules wafted in the windows, and some of the braver passengers eagerly rode shotgun "upstairs." Above the clatter, Will Stone called and cajoled his mule team from the driver's seat. I could almost feel the whalebone stays digging into my ribs, and I could imagine pioneer travelers' wonder at the "foreign" Western landscape. As wranglers helped us clamber down from the coach, their contagious grins convenced me there's an epidemic of dreamscome-true at El Rojo Grande Ranch.

Travel Guide: For more about the Sedona area, we recommend Scenic Sedona ($9.95), an Arizona Highways publication that explores the scenery, culture, history, and people of this popular getaway among the red rocks and, as well, looks at dramatic Oak Creek Canyon, historic Verde Valley, and Jerome, one of the state's liveliest "ghost towns." To order, telephone Arizona Highways toll free at (800) 543-5432. In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., call (602) 258-1000.

WHEN YOU GO

To get to El Rojo Grande Ranch & Stables from Sedona, go west on State Route 89A and turn right just beyond Lower Red Rock Loop Road (past Milepost No. 368). Call (520) 282-1898 or toll-free (800) 36-COWBOY for information on current services: trail rides, stagecoach tours, and roping lessons.