Kevin Watkins knew he was a dude rancher at heart after he and a college buddy headed west for what was supposed to be a summer job.
“I stayed for a year,” he says. “It actually delayed my graduation.”
Watkins — who grew up in Deep Run, N.C., about 90 minutes southeast of Raleigh — did return to campus and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in animal science at NC State in 1990. Then, with diploma in hand, he headed west to stay. At 51, he’s president/general manager of Spotted Horse Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Spotted Horse is a resort for tourists with a hankering to experience life on a real dude ranch with log cabins, horseback riding, cookouts and fireside singalongs under the stars. Three rivers offer spots to cast for trout or enjoy a lazy float. Those with a more adventurous bent can go white-water rafting, back-country hiking and big-game hunting. The all-inclusive price includes plenty of fresh air and Rocky Mountain scenery.
But there’s one thing visitors won’t find at Spotted Horse.
Kevin Watkins
“There’s no cell service,” Watkins says. “When you see the teenagers come here and they’re trying to call their boyfriends, you should see the looks on their faces! I’ve seen them hike all the way up the ranch to find cell service. No dice.”
During the summer, when visitors book a Sunday-to-Sunday stay, even the Type A folks manage to adjust. “Everybody is so spun up on being available and in touch with people all the time now that they forget that not long ago that didn’t exist,” Watkins says. “After a day or two of not being in touch with anybody and not being on Facebook, they realize that there is life after electronics.”
Watkins has been in charge at the ranch since 2002. Before that, he was a wilderness guide, leading back-country expeditions through the Tetons, Yellowstone and the Shoshone National Forest. “When I got married, I decided I shouldn’t be in the mountains 115 days a year anymore,” he says of his move to the ranch, where he, his wife and two daughters make their home.
Watkins still spends more than a month each fall leading visitors into the wilderness on four- and five-day hunts for elk, deer, moose, black bear, antelope, sheep and mountain lions. “The only means of transportation is horse or foot,” he says. “The furthest back country is a 4-1/2-hour horseback ride.”
It’s strenuous business: Elevations on the ranch range from 6,300 feet to 10,800 feet, and it has snowed every month of the year except August, he says.
Watkins says he learned the ropes from packers who were schooled by a couple of old-timers who had been traversing the mountains and canyons since the early 20th century. “I had really good mentors, so it wasn’t a terribly hard adjustment,” he says.
His first summer out west, Watkins worked as a “camp jack” at another ranch, helping the chef with cookouts and then going along in the fall for hunting trips.
“They tell you what to do and you do it,” he says. “The next summer, I worked under another guide, an apprentice-type thing, and three years later I was taking people out on my own.”
During tourist season — May to November — Watkins and his staff of 25 are always busy. That’s because the ranch is almost always 100 percent booked. Most visitors are repeat customers or referrals, and these days, those referrals are likely as not to be their Facebook friends.
Watkins says a family from Southern California has vacationed on the ranch ever summer since 1968; the fourth generation upholds the tradition now.
The people are the best part of his job, he says. “You meet some neat families, just quality people,” he says. “Typically, people who come to guest ranches and this kind of vacation are really fun people, they’re easy to get along with. It’s like seeing old friends again.”
—Carole Tanzer Miller