Find Your Perfect Ranch Stay in Nebraska

Niobrara Riverview Retreats

Valentine
Outdoor serenity is the trademark of this working cattle ranch that borders two miles of the Niobrara River and Schlagel Creek Canyon.

At Niobrara Riverview Retreats, rolling sandhills give way to pine river breaks and mixed hardwood-covered valleys filled with wildlife. The rustic, air-conditioned lodge, accommodates 10 to 64 guests and features a large kitchen, dining hall and seven bedrooms, each with a bathroom and shower. 

Spend your evenings roasting marshmallows around the firepit and playing yard games. Water-lovers will welcome the easy river access for swimming, wading or sunbathing, and arrangements can be made for tubing and kayaking. Nesting trumpeter swans and numerous bird species call the 30-acre marsh home. Catch-and-release northern pike (some larger than 10 pounds), largemouth bass and bluegill can be fished from the shore or from provided kayaks and canoes. 

Among the ranch’s many trails, owner Steve Hansen, a biologist by profession, offers a self-guided nature hike using a handheld GPS. Overnight stabling and trail riding are available for horse owners.

Rowse's 1+1 Ranch

Burwell
Connect with your inner cowboy at Rowse’s 1+1, a seventh-generation working ranch. Spend several days or a week and experience ranching life as you work alongside lifelong cowboys. Located on more than 7,000 acres in the heart of the Sandhills, the ranch raises 800 cow-calf pairs and has an award-winning quarter horse breeding program. You’ll be teamed up with a gentle, trained quarter horse that will be your four-legged companion during your stay, with the opportunity to ride approximately six hours every day. 

Guests accompany the Rowse family and staff as they work the ranch — helping the cowboys with their jobs by checking pastures, working and driving cattle and sorting bulls. After morning chores are finished, head to the arena for afternoon roping lessons and additional horsemanship instruction. 

Log bunkhouse rooms feature decor with cowboy flair and each has its unique personality filled with antiques, hand-carved headboards and rocking chairs on individual front porches. Each room boasts a private bath, stocked coffee bar and mini fridge. 

At the main ranch lodge, you’ll share Tammy’s buffet-style, home-cooked meals with the family. Specialties include chicken-fried steak, wood-grilled ribeye on Friday nights and often-requested cherry cheesecake and red-velvet cake. Note that ranch guests must be 18 years or older.

Double R Guest Ranch

Mullen
Cattle outnumber people amidst this wide-open prairie adorned by sparkling spring-fed lakes and dazzling sunsets. Tucked into towering pines, cabins at Double R Guest Ranch are furnished with your comfort in mind, featuring air-conditioning, satellite TV, fully equipped kitchenettes, barbecue gas grills and yard games. 

Hike the tall-grass prairie and evergreen groves searching for wildflowers, birds and photo opportunities. Fish for pike, perch, bass and bluegill for your evening meal. Take a guided ranch tour in a double-seat four-wheeler. Hunt for whitetail and mule deer or for geese and ducks in the lakes and marshy flatlands. Paddleboat on the lake near the main house, and tank down the nearby Middle Loup River. 

For a nominal fee, board your horse and explore the hills and trails (use of corrals and grazing included). History resides on the property at the original homestead, a 1908 sod house and one-room schoolhouse containing a treasure trove of books available for reading. Cap off your evenings with stargazing, in one of the best viewing places nationwide due to zero light pollution, and ogle at the inky star-filled sky.

Big Blue Ranch

Burchard
You’ll definitely be occupied at Big Blue Ranch, located on one of the state’s only remaining preserved tall-grass prairies. 

Custom designed, the lodge’s great room has 18-foot vaulted ceilings, floor-to-ceiling stone fireplaces and leather sofas. French doors lead to a spacious porch overlooking the lake. In spring, witness the stomp, strut and boom of the greater prairie chicken’s mating dance. For exceptional viewing, you can be dropped off at the blinds overlooking the mating area. Fish for largemouth bass, bluegill and northern pike from the 60-foot dock or a complimentary kayak, canoe or flat-bottom boat. 

In winter months, conditions might be ideal for ice fishing. Depending on the season, you can hunt for trophy buck or wild turkey. Any evening, view a spectacular sunset and stargaze under the visible Milky Way.

Our Heritage Guest Ranch

Crawford
A firsthand account from Mike Whye:
Driving through northwest Nebraska on my way to Crawford, I’m amazed by the landscape. Alien from the state’s rolling fields and pastures, white limestone bluffs topped by dark trees run ragged across the bottom of a never-ending sky. Deep gullies rip through grass-topped plains.

Imagine my surprise to learn that someone lives in such a place, at once so desolate and so pretty. Meet Jean Norman. In 1887, her great-grandparents, immigrants from Sweden, homesteaded this land. Today, Jean and her husband own and work the place where grasslands, badlands and the Pine Ridge, a series of pine-covered hills, come together. They call it Our Heritage Guest Ranch, and you’re welcome to stay a night or two ... or more.

I retire to a two-room accommodation near the ranch’s horse arena. The cozy unit features Western- and Plains-style art as well as furniture made by Jean. Outside, horses rest in corrals and graze on grasslands. Jean invites her guests to bring their horses with them, or take to the saddle on one of the ranch’s horses. 

She also teaches natural horsemanship and leads rides across Our Heritage’s 3,600 acres, including multi-day trips for groups. Solo travelers and small groups can request the all-inclusive ranch experience, including horsemanship, meals and lodging.

Of course, guests can pitch in with regular chores such as inspecting and repairing fences, haying and working with lambs and calves. But like the surrounding landscape, some ranch activities might surprise you. Our Heritage hosts art and holistic health retreats in addition to single- and multi-day fossil hunts along “the wall.” That’s what locals call the rambling line of 60-foot-high bluffs that define the ranch’s pine ridge. I step out of my room and gaze at “the wall,” imagining how it must feel to explore it. Jean employs an expert guide to identify what guests find and can keep. Among the fossilized discoveries: sheep-like oreodonts, hyaenodon (similar to hyena) and saber-toothed cats that lived 30 million years ago. Yet, there are few places where I feel content just standing still. Jean’s corner of northwest Nebraska, with its unique beauty, is one of them.