At a Montana ranch resort, cattle drives and fly fishing are followed by fine dining

After four hours of fly fishing on the Blackfoot River, I was emotionally preparing myself to admit defeat.

I couldn’t really complain, considering that my four fish-less hours had been spent floating down the river in a little boat, admiring western Montana’s fall scenery with my boyfriend and travel companion, Sky, and our guide, Calvin. Not a bad Saturday afternoon.

Still, Calvin was determined to see me triumph, so he repeatedly paddled back to the spot where Sky had been catching trout all afternoon. Those extra 30 minutes made all the difference. I felt a faint tug on my line and delightedly reeled in a small mountain whitefish, then a cutthroat trout, posing for the obligatory photo with my catch.

Fly fishing on the Blackfoot was just one of many adventures we experienced at Paws Up, a 37,000-acre ranch resort with two Michelin Keys. Wanting to experience the ranch-style stays popularized by the “Yellowstone” series, Sky and I scheduled our Montana trip for late September.

We flew into Missoula International Airport on a Friday and were promptly picked up by one of the Paws Up drivers. Our 40-minute drive went by quickly as our driver shared fun facts about Montana wildlife and Missoula’s logging history.

Paws Up offers three types of accommodations: glamping tents, private rustic houses, and the Green O — an adults-only enclave of ultra-modern stays hidden in the woods around the central Social Haus restaurant. We stayed in the Meadows, a collection of rustic houses conveniently located between the resort’s restaurants and the Wilderness Outpost, the departure point for all Paws Up excursions.

Although staff told us about 60 guests were staying at Paws Up that weekend, we saw only a handful, thanks to the staggered excursion schedules and the property’s sprawling layout. Each guesthouse includes a Lexus SUV, allowing guests to roam the ranch at their leisure.

The next day, it was time to get out into nature. We planned to spend the morning on a horseback ride to familiarize ourselves with the horses before we joined a cattle drive the next day. Sky was assigned a congenial russet-colored horse named Bacardi, and I mounted a headstrong blond named Spartan. Led by our trail guide Hannah, we traversed pastures and prairies, occasionally glimpsing other Meadow houses, and settling into the gentle rhythm of traveling on horseback. The rest of the day was spent customizing our new cowboy hats, fly-fishing, and then back to Pomp, this time for Ōra King salmon and zabuton steak with spinach gnocchi.

We began Sunday, nourished by coffee and fresh croissants from the resort’s Trough restaurant, with an ATV excursion. Our guide led us around the Paws Up trail system to Lookout Rock, a craggy outcrop popular with climbers, where we could take in panoramic views of the ranch and the river winding through it, before riding down to the rushing waters to practice skipping rocks.

Sore from the previous day’s ride, I briefly considered trading the cattle drive for an open-air spa session, but Sky was adamant that we do our most cowboy-esque excursion. So I bucked up and boarded a little bus full of Californian and Canadian guests that took us to another far-flung part of the expansive Paws Up property. The three-hour cattle drive began with a horse-handling demonstration before pairing each guest with a horse suited to their experience level. Our task would be to find the cows, take them to drink water at the river, and then herd them to a different pasture.

Once we set out, it was clear my horse, Peaches, had no intention of listening to me. Luckily, Sky and a few other guests quickly got the hang of maneuvering their horses and the cattle we found napping beneath the pines. Our crew of amateur cowboys led 20 cows and their calves to greener pastures, marveling at the landscape along the way.

Riding the high from the cattle drive, Sky and I were the first to arrive at the Green O’s Social Haus restaurant that evening, planning to sip on pre-dinner huckleberry margaritas by the outdoor firepits. As we sat outside, catching glimpses of deer among the surrounding trees, chef Andrew Garrison stepped outside and introduced himself, our guide on what was repeatedly described to us as our “culinary journey.”

Garrison and his team personally delivered six courses and wine pairings to guests, explaining the ingredients and preparation technique of each mini-masterpiece. We dined on albacore tuna, iberico ham, American wagyu and the best dish we ate all weekend — a dessert of turmeric ice cream with carrots and cream.