I’m a 50-something dad and spent a couple of nights at Rancho Grande last Friday and Saturday nights with my 17-year-old son and two of his buddies. I stayed in one of the African safari tents which was a dream come true. What an experience. We are all seasoned campers (cars, hiking, primitive). The safari tents are the most luxurious camping ever. It was surreal to fall asleep to the light of the moon and the sounds of all the night wild life, and then to by awaken naturally by the light of the sun and all the morning wild life, all the while sprawled out across the king size bed. To park, we were able to park right outside our tent, and then Richard and Alex lent us the use of one of their ranch buggies to drive around during our stay. Think the rancher/farmer version of a golf cart but with a more serious 4-wheel drive motor, drive train, and tires. We zipped around from one side of the ranch to the other multiple times of day to make the most of it, tossing whatever we might need in the truck bed. For our stay, we had access to a refrigerator and kitchen facilities to cook. To make the most of your stay, plan to spend time outside, both during the day as well as during the evenings. There’re trails to hike during the day and time to build a fire and look at the stars at night. The night sky is excellent since the ranch is at ~3,500 ft altitude and a good distance from any major metro areas. Also, to take advantage of the firewood and a fire ring for making smores next to the lake; I recommend putting the ingredients for smores on your grocery list. There a few grocery stores in Ojai that you could easily plan to drop into on your way up to the ranch to get whatever food you want to have on hand. If it’s a hot day driving up, consider a cooler for the period from store to putting it away in your accommodation’s fridge. During your stay you’ll be able to truly unplug. It was interesting to see how both the kids as well as the adults became accustomed to not having cell service except for a few visits nearby the main house where Richard and Alex were staying. This is a real working ranch, so these city boys I brought along had so many unique experiences involving various activities that relate to the day-to-day work of running a ranch. Feeding the horses and talking with their care taker while she worked on taking care of each horse. Horseback riding. The boys with me had each maybe one prior experience riding a horse; the lady who handles the rides did a great job showing the kids all of the steps to readying the horse and finally riding by themselves. Feeding the chickens. Visiting the potbelly pigs. Visiting the cows; a calf had been birthed just the day before we arrived. We also visited the sheep and the alpacas and the macaws. It was fun to just listen to the macaws practicing the various words they seem to be learning. Also visiting the goats; they have a good number of goats so don’t be surprised if a baby goat is on the way or just arrived during your stay. We also spent some time checking out the night sky with the telescope as well as just laying on a picnic table and watching the shooting stars and visible satellites pass over head. The altitude is about 3500 feet so it’s certainly cooler than down the road towards Ojai and Ventura. We were happy to have brought sweatshirts even for the late August evenings. I recommend bringing a headlamp for walking between facilities at night although Richard and Alex were happy to lend us various lights when needed. Their dogs are all very friendly and get very excited as each party arrives. The dogs only barked to let each other know something interesting was happening somewhere on the ranch or to get your attention because they wanted you to throw a ball or throw a stick. We also visited the game room and enjoyed the pool table and ping pong table and the dart set up just like you find in pubs. The kids also enjoyed playing horse shoes and spent a good many hours each day fishing in the lake from the shore of from a canoe or from a paddle boat. They enjoyed catching and releasing plenty of little perch as well as catfish.

-Ray A
 August 2019