Taking the Kids: Visit a unique family owned Montana ranch this summer

Some families said they were inclined to spend more this summer because spring breaks and the kids’ summer camps and programs were all canceled. Others here scrambled to change course after their plans were derailed.

Sam Adicoff explained that his multigenerational family of 18 mostly from Seattle was here because they couldn’t go on the Alaskan cruise his mother-in-law had planned. With activities to suit everyone from the preschoolers to the twentysomethings and seniors, everyone was pleased. “We meet for lunch and dinner,” he said. “And everyone can do their own thing the rest of the time.”

Doug Averill chuckles at how this generation of guests race from activity to activity. “If people went on a five-mile hike, you needed to bring people back on horses, he said.

Averill’s Dad Les bought the ranch, originally a boys’ camp, cheaply when he returned from World War II. Averill struggled at first but got unexpected help from mobster Bugsy Siegel, the driving force in the development of Las Vegas, who happened on the place when he was hiding out in Montana.

Within a few years, a well-heeled clientele found the place and would return summer after summer. Now after more than 40 years, Averill and his wife Maureen have turned over the reins — literally — to his oldest son Chase and his wife Kate, who met working at the ranch.

The couple, in their 30s and the parents of three young children, are making changes to cater to the new generation of active, affluent families. There are plans for a show kitchen and outdoor pizza oven. Activities have expanded, including three mountain bike trails An organic garden to supply the ranch is planned at the farm nearby, which will also offer kids the chance to see where their food comes from.

The ethos remains the same: “To build bonds around authentic experiences,” Chase Averill said,

Even things that go awry — and that inevitably happens — inspire bonding. Take the traditional steak fry that is always a highlight of a stay here. Adults can ride up on horseback while the kids and everyone else arrives on antique fire trucks, sirens blaring.

Unfortunately, it started to pour on the way to the cookout. Of course, no one had rain jackets, then there was the popcorn-sized hail.

Finally, the drenched guests were shepherded to the lodge where hot toddies and hot chocolate were waiting by the huge fire along with the brownies no one had a chance to eat. No one was complaining.

Said return guest Nicole Byrne, here with her family from Las Vegas, “For us, this place is a slice of heaven.”

No matter what the weather.

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kid’s Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kid’s guide series, will be out this spring.)