Hunewill Guest Ranch

Hunewill is one of the oldest family ranches in California. Napoleon Bonaparte Hunewill and his wife Esther founded it in 1861 in the Bridgeport Valley, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada north of Yosemite National Park, and the family started welcoming guests in the 1930s. Several generations of Hunewills still live and work on the ranch, which runs around 1,200 head of cattle and about 180 horses on 4,500 private acres, with tens of thousands of acres of public land beyond.

That working-ranch character is the point. Riding is the main activity, at around 6,500 feet with the Sierra as a backdrop, and the ranch offers spring and fall cattle-work weeks plus a traditional fall cattle drive to its winter ranch in Nevada. Families are well looked after, with children’s programs from age 2 to 17 and babysitting available. Evenings bring hayrides, campfires, creekside barbecues, a family dance and a talent night, and there is trout fishing in the East Walker River and nearby lakes.

The ranch hosts about 45 guests and is open from May through November, with a three-night minimum. Guests stay in cottages near the horse pasture and eat home-style meals in the founder’s Victorian ranch house.

Mammoth Yosemite Airport is about 60 miles away and Reno-Tahoe International about 117 miles. Ask the ranch for current rates and cattle drive dates.