I Lived Like a Dutton at the Best Montana Dude Ranch for 'Yellowstone' Fans

Cattle, cowboys, horses, and wide-open landscapes—the visual portrait of Montana offered in the hit series Yellowstone is nearly impossible to resist. The state, of course, is nothing like the cutthroat, neo-Western world of the Dutton family, but there's one place in Big Sky Country where you can experience a scene akin to the Dutton Ranch fantasy, and it’s not on the property where the series is filmed. It’s at The Resort at Paws Up, a 37,000-acre dude ranch in Montana featuring its own herd of bison, weekly cattle drives, fly fishing on the pristine Big Blackfoot River, luxury camping (aka "glamping") with butler service, and sweeping mountain valley views to remind you why the American West remains so wildly seductive.

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I realized this on the first morning of our stay at the ranch, tucked into Montana’s Blackfoot Valley. It wasn’t because of the bald eagle I spotted while sipping coffee on our front porch, or the gray fox we saw (bird in mouth) that ambled across the dirt road to our glamping tent. It wasn’t even the herd of bison we passed while heading to Paws Up’s main restaurant. The moment came during breakfast, in front of a roaring fireplace.

As I was scarfing down huckleberry pancakes and eggs benedict, one of Paws Up’s managers introduced himself, then casually mentioned that a mountain lion had traipsed through our camp last night. The tracks in the mud were clear as day—and only a few dozen steps from our canvas tent.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’re gonna run the dogs through early this afternoon and make sure she hightails it back up into the mountains. What can I say,” he added. “That’s fall in Montana.”

A Real-Life Dutton Ranch

The Resort at Paws Up is massive. Full of wide-open meadows, treed-covered foothills, and rock cliffs set along ten miles of the Blackfoot River, the property could pass for its own national park at several glances. Deer and elk roam freely among the ranch’s bison and cattle herds, as do lynx and mountain lions.

The ranch includes 28 luxury homes and three dozen deluxe tents divvied across six picturesque glamping areas, anchored by the resort's headquarters equipped with a pair of 1800s-era barns, an Old West themed bar, and two restaurants. In the middle of the property is a still-active one-room schoolhouse where kids play outside at recess. Hiding up the road is a ghost town from Montana’s silver mining days.

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Staying here can feel like you’ve been transported into another era, or perhaps a whole other reality. This is one reason the Resort at Paws up has become something of a stand-in for the fictional Dutton Ranch in Yellowstone—minus the political feuds, soap-opera drama, and extrajudicial killings, of course. During our stay in early October, I saw three different people wearing Yellowstone branded fleece jackets or vests, the Dutton Ranch logo sewed prominently on the chest. When I asked one of the men about it, he chuckled.

“Can you tell I’m from New York?” he said. As it turned out, he was a lawyer in Manhattan and he and his wife had specifically sought out a Montana property for a family vacation because of their shared interest in the TV series. They were staying for a week, and had horseback rides scheduled for nearly every day.

“Our two girls love it,” he said. “The horses are the only thing that can get them to put down their phones.”

A Wild Range of Activities

For guests, days are structured around the resort’s long list of adventures on offer: fly fishing on the Blackfoot River, whitewater rafting, ATVing, electric mountain biking, hot air ballooning, sporting clays, and more. The top activity, no surprise, is heading off into the resort’s huge canvas on a horse.

During the height of summer, hundreds of horses roam the ranch—in the meadows and corrals where guests saddle up. Even more of them inhabit the north side of the ranch at the Saddle Club, a 72,000-square-foot equestrian center that bills itself as the largest in the state. It’s here that Paws Up organizes regular cattle drives and longer rides into the mountains for guests who are comfortable on horseback.

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Because my wife, who had joined me for the trip, wasn’t, we stuck to a quick two-hour outing. After some hesitation on her part—and an equal amount of patience by our guide—we set off for a ride through the pine forest, where we passed a herd of deer, then settled into a slow gait. The rhythmic clopping of hooves, combined with the fresh breeze, forces you to slow down, relax, and take in the surroundings. More than once, I found myself staring up at the sun filtering through the trees without really thinking about anything. My mind was empty—in a good way. The entire ride was uneventful but also unforgettable. To this day, my wife still remembers her horse’s name.

“I wonder how dear Paco is doing,” she’ll often say for no reason, other than we’re outside walking under some trees.

During our three-night stay, we also joined a guided hike on the property and took out ATVs for a spin. One afternoon, while my wife decamped to the spa for a hot stone massage, I saddled up for a ride on an electric fat tire mountain bike. With more than 100 miles of trails on the property, it’s pretty impossible to exhaust all the exploring options on the ranch. Just in case, the 1.5-million-acre Bob Marshall Wilderness is next door, offering an endless back-up of backcountry adventure opportunities.

Western lore is everywhere here. After rolling past an elk herd and whitetail buck on our ATV ride, we stopped to clamber atop Lookout Rock, a prominent outcropping standing high above the Blackfoot River. It was on this high point that Captain Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition reportedly searched for a river junction on the way back from the legendary cross-country voyage. Today, the resort uses the cliff overlooking the river for rappelling adventures. No opportunity for adventure here goes untapped.

A Lodging Experience Unlike Any Other

It should be noted that Paws Up isn’t cheap. Rates start above $2,000 per night for two adults in one of the five-star resort's safari-style luxury tents—available seasonally from May through mid-October. What you get for your money, in addition to all-inclusive food and drinks, is one of the most unique lodging experiences in the West, described by Paws Up as "roughing it, redefined."

We stayed at “Cliffside Camp” (equipped with a full camp kitchen and cozy lounge) in a luxury “tent” equipped with two rooms, air conditioning, and heated stone floors in the bathroom. The room was only protected from the elements by a thin layer of canvas, but it was as plush as any hotel room in New York or Paris.

I was able to wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee from the camp kitchen, then walk down to the river and fish in my pajamas. At night, we sat around a campfire, watched the stars, and had our camp “butler” make us Moscow Mules or some sort of huckleberry spritz. Without asking, they’d come by with s’mores packs after dinner for marshmallow roasting. For a fancier evening, we had the resort pick us up at Cliffside Camp and drive us to the main headquarters, where we played pool in the bar, called The Tank, then headed over to The Trough for dinner.

At Pomp, the resort’s fine-dining restaurant, I enjoyed dry-aged bison ribeye (my wife had wild mushroom pithivier) in front of a massive river-rock fireplace. With the two green-and-white barns visible out the dining room window and the Western decor so detailed throughout, it’s hard not to feel like you’re on a real working ranch—one that just happens to be exceptionally good at hosting out-of-towners.

During the summer, there’s live entertainment on the property most nights of the week, offering plenty more to enjoy once the sun gets low in the horizon. There’s even a new adults-only corner of the property, called the green-o, where guests can stay in luxury “treehouses” in the woods, just a stone’s throw from a culinary headquarters serving 10-course tasting menus and gourmet pizza. The land may be wild, but the rest of the resort is swank.

For a first-timer at Paws Up, it’s hard to get your head around just how expansive this place is. During our three days, we were shuttled around to our various activities in a Lexus SUV. In busier months, Mercedes Sprinter vans whisk guests to their spa appointments and dinner reservations. The property is so enormous that the resort uses a Paws Up-branded app for ride requests on the premises.

Eventually, of course, it all feels wonderfully routine, like this place is actually home. Like you're a Dutton. Then, all too soon, it’s time to relinquish that honorary status and head back to reality, Yellowstone bingeing, and appreciating that your days of cowboying at Paws Up were actually that much better than fictional ranch life on the Paramount Network—with all the perks and none of the melodrama.