Inn Roads

Roughing it in Luxury: Westgate River Ranch

Our cabin at Westgate River Ranch

If you have yen to explore nature luxury style, try Westgate River Ranch, the world's largest dude ranch. This rustic style dude ranch lets you return to the thrilling days of the Cracker cowboys right down to their Saturday night rodeo. Park your RV in the full service campground or stay in one of the cabins, efficiencies or inn room. No matter your choice of accommodations, you will find nature at its best here. Our cabin was in front near the entrance and we could watch buffalo, sandhill cranes and other wildlife from the porch. The interior was very plush and well equipped.

Airboat returning to the marina

We took an airboat ride down the Kissimmee River with Captain Ben Heilman. It was a thrill. Just out from the dock we spotted a large osprey perched atop a light pole. That was just a start. Ben was able to locate two nesting alligators and pull the boat in close enough to observe the nests. The mother ‘gator was not happy with our close inspection of her home and let us know it by circling the boat menacingly. We skimmed across the water plants and were able to spot several other birds.

The people give a scale so you can judge the height of that thing off the ground

For other water fun at the Ranch, you can rent a canoe, jon boat or pontoon boat for fishing, wildlife watching or just relaxing. There is a full service marina, with a bait and tackle shop, if you bring your own boat. On land, you can ride on a swamp buggy tour enjoy a hayride, go horseback riding or hike into the backwoods to enjoy nature.

We opted for the swamp buggy tour and didn't regret it. It's a heart stopping thrill-a-minute to equal any carnival ride. That buggy sits about six feet off the ground and I'm using "ground" loosely. Mostly we traversed a swampy soup that seemed more water than land, hang-on-for-dear-life terrain. We did manage to spot some wild life, an alligator that scurried out of our way. There was a sand hill crane that seemed to enjoy all the commotion as we passed him by. As for the ranch bulls we passed, they are used in the rodeo so they didn't pay us any attention to us at all.

Pacman cooling off in a pond

The steers at the Ranch are not destined for anyone's barbeque grill. They are raised to be either bucking bulls or Corriente steers used for bulldogging or team roping. One that we met was called Pac Man, because of his spots. He seemed to spend a lot of time submerged to his shoulders in a pond.

Many of the bulls at the ranch were born there and spent time in the petting zoo as calves. For the young and young at heart, petting zoo is a real treat. Even if you don't stay at the ranch, it is open to the public and well worth a visit.. We got to meet. April and her mother Abigail, the miniature donkeys, who were both very pregnant.

There are 45 or so horses on the Ranch. They range from bucking horses, like Dynamite, a feisty palomino, to a horse you might ride if you visited. Naturally, there are several ponies, some of whom earn their keep giving happy kids a ride, others just freeload.

Cricket

Bob Mount, the resort manager explained that many of their animals are rescues. Either their owners no longer wanted them or they had been injured and were given to the ranch to live out their days. One he showed us was Cricket who had two club feet. She cannot carry children but loves the attention she gets here. She had belonged to a family with several children who grew up and lost interest.

Mary and One-Eyed-Jack

Mary, one of the petting farm workers, was grooming a little Shetland, called One-Eyed-Jack-the-Pirate-Pony. He wears a patch over his missing eye and loves to give children a ride on the carousel. A mare and her colt frolicked in the nursery pasture.

One large colt has a special destiny. Bob Mount told us "We have one horse out here that hopefully will pull my carriage." He was referring to a very important carriage, the one that is used for weddings.

Bob and Bambi

Among the other residents of the petting farm are a turkey family, a lama, a very fat pig, some mini goats, a mini mule and one unbelievable cute fawn. Bob Mount explained, "Her mother was killed by a truck so he is named Bambi."

In their front pastures, we were thrilled by the buffalos. They are all female and since they bring in a stud bull there were a lot of babies.

A mockingbird chases a much larger caracara

Among the wild birds that flock to the ranch, sandhill cranes are the most numerous. Every day we saw flocks of these birds. They would rest in the pasture with the buffalo, or roam along the side of the road, usually in groups of three. This area is filled with birds. We also had chance to photograph a limpkin, a Coopers hawk and a crested caracara. The crested caracara was in a pasture with some longhorn cows and was being chased by a couple of mockingbirds. The mockingbirds carried the day and drove the larger bird out of the pasture.

If you tire of cooking in your cabin or RV on weekends, you can bird watch or look for a ‘gator floating in the water while you enjoy a meal in the Smokehouse Grill, located directly on the water by the marina. For the night owl in you, there is a western style saloon open weekends. There are also lots of other non-nature related activities like golf and skeet shooting. There is a fitness gym, county store that sells pizza and lots of snack food even a post office. You can play golf or miniature golf. There are horseshoe, tennis and basketball courts for sports enthusiasts. You can rent a golf cart to scoot around the grounds. Or you can just relax in the swimming pool. It's a pet friendly place and has WI FI available. What more can you ask?

www.wgriverranch.com

If you enjoyed the above article there is much more of the same in Wild About Florida: Central Florida  which will be available in Oct. 2009 or any of the other Wild About Florida series.