Circle Bar Guest Ranch is a Montana gem
Living the western life, for a weekend
By JENNA JUSTICE and KAMBEL WYSE/Montana Living
Bouncing down the dusty road, you already get the impression that you are entering Cowboy Country.
And when you turn into the Circle Bar Ranch, just outside of Hobson, Montana, you know it for a fact: The horses are lined up near the corral, saddled up and ready for you.
Wranglers in jeans, boots, hats and belt buckles mill among the horses, and prepare to help riders mount the iconic animals. Most of all, you know you are in Cowboy Country because the friendly ranch folks at the Circle Bar immediately greet you and make you feel right at home.
The Circle Bar Ranch is in central Montana, on the banks of the meandering Judith River. The Little Belt Mountains tower nearby, and the epic vast blue Montana skies stretch above. Circle Bar is part of the True Ranch Collection, which has five ranches in Montana, Wyoming, and Arizona. True Ranch has owned this 550 acre property since 2020 and strives to make every guest experience a memorable Montana ranch vacation. The capacity of the ranch is 36 to 40 guests who are hosted by nine staff members.
As guests on this rustic, homey dude ranch, we were first led to our weathered historic log cabin, where we had electricity, running water, and all the comforts of log cabin living, with chinking in the walls, and the wind through the windows. Our cabin sat right on the edge of the gentle Judith River, creating a peaceful and private corner to sit and read in the warm July breeze.
Now when you are on a dude ranch, you must do dude things. And so we saddled up with about 10 other riders and took a two-hour hour trek on one of the over 20 trails that surround the ranch.
We learned the quirks of our horses (mine was determined to eat every piece of foliage on the trail), and saw the beauty of the landscape. When my feisty horse, Stache, decided to pick up the pace I easily slowed him down with a pullback on the reins, cementing my belief that I, too, was a cowboy, or at the very least, a dude.
I am certain that our wranglers would not concur, but they were kind enough not to say so.
When we got back to the ranch we hopped into a side-by-side to take a ride to the cabin where famed cowboy artist Charlie Russell lived with fur trader Jake Hoover for over nine years. Russell was a prolific painter, producing more than 2,000 works depicting cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes. Russell's body of work also includes bronze sculptures, and can be seen at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, 85 miles northwest of Hobson.
With a sod roof and a dirt floor, the tiny Russell/Hoover cabin is a stark vision of life in rural Montana in the late 1800s. A fur rug covers the front door, and a small desk sits in the corner of the cabin, reflecting its previous inhabitants and their trades. It is not hard to imagine, in the light that bleeds through an oil-papered window, how brutal a Montana winter would be in such a hard-scrabble environment.
The ranch keeps you busy, if you so choose. We followed this excursion with a trip into the mountains to try our hands at archery. We were given a quiver of arrows, given safety directions for our recurve and compound bows, and turned in the direction of high density foam animals--- a deer here, a bear there, and a coyote over yonder. A few of our group proved themselves to be crack shots, and the long-suffering foam animals took a lot of piercings, with nary a cry.
BACK AT THE RANCH
Even a cowboy gets tired after a day of riding, exploring, and shooting, and so it was back to the ranch for some down time. During this time, guests often wade, float, or fish in the Judith River using equipment that can be checked out from the ranch's Trading Post. We borrowed camp chairs so we could read peacefully on the wooden porch of our cabin and at the bank of the river.
You can enjoy your down time and relax in your cabin, or go line dancing in the old red barn, practice with lariats on the metal roping dummies, try your hand at skeet shooting, playing cornhole, branding, or playing pool in the rec center. A cozy hot tub will help you soak your weary bones.
There are a variety of housing options, from the large Ranch House, which is considered family sized, to rooms attached to the Lodge, to spacious and comfortable cabins.
From the cabins, you can watch the morning and evening parade of horses as they move from the pastures to the corral and barn in a ritual called “jingling them in." Back in the day, wranglers would put bells on mischievous horses to keep them from wandering off.
While they no longer practice this method of horse management at Circle Bar Ranch, the phrase has stuck and continues to be the way they describe this twice daily chore.
ON THE MENU
One of the most extraordinary parts of our trip to the Circle Bar were the meals.
Chef Renee Sturros is a master of what she calls “homestyle, church luncheon, comfort food."
We had three rib-sticking meals a day, all in a family style serving fashion, and not a bite of it was less than wholeheartedly delicious. We enjoyed trout and squash casserole, pancakes and hashbrown pie, and desserts from chocolate mousse to fruit pie to Rice Krispy treats.
One night, Chef Renee mixed the Rice Krispy with frosted flakes, covered them in the familiar marshmallow goo, and the result was the most delicious, decadent treats you can imagine. Excuse me while I wipe this drool off my chin. “Food is my love language,” she said. “I just want you all to know I love you.”
ABOUT THE CIRCLE BAR GUEST RANCH
The ranch was built in 1902 as the Middle Fork Cattle Company, later renamed the S Lazy 4 Bar Ranch and finally known as the Circle Bar Ranch.
Corralling the multiple moving parts of this busy ranch is manager Angela Collick. She describes her job as “the best job in America," as she loves meeting guests from all over the world and remains awed by working in nature and with horses.
She said guests become like family, swapping recipes with Chef Renee, and staying in touch throughout the years.
She has repeat customers, who love the ranch’s ability to be adaptable to each guest’s needs and wishes. Multiple generations of families have found themselves returning to Circle Bar Ranch to celebrate the pioneer spirit and to reconnect.
For some, it is a lifelong dream to live the life of a wrangler, if even for only a few days.
During our visit, a young man named Lukas, from the Netherlands, was a guest at the ranch. He had longed throughout his boyhood to experience ranch life, and arrived in a newly purchased pair of cowboy boots, Wrangler jeans, a big silver belt buckle, and a black cowboy hat.
He turned out to be a fine horseman, marksman, and gentleman, and the staff determined that he had earned his “wrangler” status, a distinction that thrilled him.
The Circle Bar Guest Ranch is an enjoyable experience, especially if you want to feel the authentic cowboy vibe. (If you are expecting luxury and decadence, you are in the wrong corral.) But if you want to encounter real wrangler skill, homestyle cooking and kind and helpful down-home staff, the Circle Bar Ranch might just be the perfect spot for your next Montana vacation.
IF YOU GO
Potential guests should note that the Circle Bar Ranch does not have a liquor license, so you will need to bring any alcoholic beverages that you would like to enjoy during your stay. It is also a good idea to bring snacks, as the kitchen is only open during daytime hours.
Circle Bar Guest Ranch
206 Porcupine Ridge Rd., Hobson, MT 59452
Jenna Justice is a writer from Bigfork, Montana, who travels Montana in search of fun, interesting and quirky adventures.
