“Good surprises” are what await at Red Reflet Ranch, according to owner Bob Kaplan. A Bighorn Basin ranch in Ten Sleep, Wyoming, Red Reflet is a property that not only offers eye-opening adventures and views that will take your breath away, but nature here is its own revelation, and management’s not-so-minor luxe touches astonish in the best way.
Guest ranches typically exist to give visitors the opportunity to experience Western life on an authentic working estate. Red Reflet offers that and more, transforming arriving eager explorers into extended family by stay’s end.
Bob and Laurence Kaplan purchased the “trophy ranch” property, as Bob calls it, in their retirement in 2001. The former successful baby product competitors, now a dynamic working team, never truly planned to make a living off the land. Rather, the nature lovers intended to enjoy their later years surrounded by wilderness and family. But you can’t keep such bounty of intense beauty to yourself, Laurence explains.
Having never even visited a guest ranch before, the Kaplans had no blueprint or model for their hospitality endeavor. But they knew what they loved – and what they loathed – about visiting properties around the world, and sought to offer the best and most welcoming aspects of all of their many travel memories.
So while Wyoming may have a rugged reputation, the Kaplans have turned a 33,000 acre piece of its wilderness into their own semi-tamed wild west playground. Inviting a capacity of only up to about 20 at a time, the ranch boasts three luxury guest chalets, each with panoramic views of the Bighorn Mountains and those iconic crimson cliffs — the reflection of which in the facing ponds gives the ranch its (partially French) name.
Fly your private plane directly onto Red Reflet’s on-property airport for the utmost in convenience, or arrange for the Kaplans, or staff, to collect you from a nearby commercial hub (Worland is the closest).
Guests’ first taste of the ranch involves a preliminary introduction to their primary modes of transportation on site — horses and ATVs. After settling onto your steed, the rest of the itinerary is customized entirely to your interests. You want to skeet shoot, move cattle, barrel race, trail ride, zip line, trout fish, play tennis, hike, climb, or… something else? It will be arranged. And Red Reflet Ranch’s photographer will likely be nearby, secretly recording souvenirs.
It’s a working ranch, but guests certainly aren’t roughing it. Each chalet features ranch-style furnishings, abundant natural light, stone fireplaces, hot tubs, luxury bath products, hotel-style amenities… and impressive local wall mounts (likely hunted by your hosts).
Fully stocked pantries with fresh offerings from Red Reflet and surrounding farms allow for breakfasts at your leisure, while at midday and after each day’s activities guests gather at the main lodge to enjoy family style meals. Engaging conversationalists, the Kaplans will share interesting tidbits about their guests (never themselves – it isn’t the “Wyoming Way”), discuss wine, boast about local authors, plan to explore community landmarks, and teach about area wildlife.
Families flock to Red Reflet as an opportunity to step out of their comfort zones together. There’s nothing quite like making memories by throwing generations into an uncommon experience for the first time. And with the ranch’s broad range of activity options and capacity for individualization, there’s truly something for every age, ability, and interest.
Bob is Red Reflet’s land expert and local guide, while French Laurence brings a distinctly European flair to her Western hostessing. Leave it to Laurence to arrange for that perfect hike through the property-adjacent nature observatory, complete with in-season floral identification commentary. Or bask in Bob’s love affair with the area wildlife. He’s sure to show you the best place to scout out elk and pronghorn, and will introduce you to the “Code of the West” as together you trek to the ranch’s far remote reaches for streams teeming with trout.
Exploring everywhere, even to the farthest edges of the property, guests get only a glimpse of the vastness that is the Equality State. “The ranch has five or six different landscapes,” according to Bob, and each will make you feel as if you’ve seen the most wonderful part of Wyoming.
Between the gorgeous natural views, the geniality, and all of Red Reflet Ranch’s other boundless “good surprises,” maybe you have.
Red Reflet Ranch is an all-inclusive exclusive guest ranch with limited four season availability.
