The Hideout Story and Your Experience
The story of The Hideout Lodge & Guest Ranch consists of many tales and experiences that blended together, create “Your Hideout Experience”. The stories below attempt to put into words what kind of experience that you can expect while vacationing at The Hideout in Shell, Wyoming.
The story of The Hideout Staff, our secret ingredient…
Our staff comes from different backgrounds, cultures and education. Each staff member has a story that reflects why they love to work at The Hideout and why they believe that this is the best valley and place to call home. The Hideout staff all share a genuine passion for the West, hospitality, horses and respectful horsemanship. They all want you to have the best guest riding vacation in the world. We want The Hideout Lodge & Guest Ranch to be the best guest ranch to work at, as we believe a happy, well respected and passionate staff is the foundation of an exceptional guest experience. All our core team live and work in Shell year-round. Read more about our culture.
The Story of our Guests
Many of our guests come to The Hideout looking for an experience that is focused on equestrian activities, the remote outdoors, an authentic ranch experience, upscale pampering and bonding with people from around the world. We are not perfect, but we want The Hideout to be a place where you can “hide-out” from the world during your stay.
Guests are looking to enjoy a week in what they define as a “perfect world”. Our repeat guests notice that each year we strive to do better and make improvements to The Hideout. Guests arrive from around the world and return frequently. Each guest has stories to share about The Hideout, but they will all agree that the reason they return is “The Hideout Story”.
In the end, returning guests and positive word of mouth are the best way to understand our guests’ satisfaction. We do not take this for granted. On the contrary, it puts more weight on our shoulders to do better every year.
Meeting and bonding with riding friends from around the world
Many of our guests tell us that one of the unique experiences at The Hideout is meeting travelers and staff from around the world and spending 6 days riding and dining together while sharing stories and cultural experiences. For many visitors it opens new perspectives and an appreciation of how they see the world. A growing number of guests forge friendships and travel to other ends of the world to visit the travelers they met during their stay at The Hideout. To many of our staff this is also the reason they enjoy working at our ranch.
The Story of our Horses
Horses are the heart of any riding and horsemanship equestrian destination and riding focused guest ranch. At The Hideout we invest a lot of time, resources, care, and training in our horses. All our young horses have been started doing lots of groundwork while allowing them the time to mature gradually. We don’t rush any horse through its training and handle them consistently. When a new horse comes in to the herd we quarantine and have our vet and farrier check out the horse. Marijn and Nina, our head wrangler, will be spending time riding the new horse, doing groundwork and playing at liberty. Marijn will also use the new horses in her weekly clinics. If needed the horses get additional time with one of our horse trainers. We believe that our horses are as good as they get at a guest ranch. Once they are ready new horses will be ridden by our wranglers during rides with guests and when they have proven themselves, they join the guest riding string.
Whether you ride every day or are swinging into the saddle for the first time, we have the horse that is right for you. Natural horsemanship is standard practice at The Hideout. This means we handle our horses in a gentle, low stress and respectful way, designed to keep their stress, and ours, to an absolute minimum. Our year-around barn team continues to train and fine tune our guest ranch horses and offer clinics and training at The Hideout Lodge & Guest Ranch. Marijn, one of our owners, holds a Parelli Level 4 Certification.
Throughout your stay we want you to learn more about riding and horsemanship. Most of our guests will ride different horses during their stay.
When it comes to trainers, clinics, methods, and philosophies of how to work, play and improve our horses and our staff, we are open to learning from any concept that is respectful, professional, fun, and ethical towards both horse and rider.
The Story of The Hideout Lodge & Guest Ranch
Paula and David founded The Hideout in 1995. The ranch started out as the new Trapper Creek Guest Ranch, named after one of the first guest ranches in this part of Wyoming, which was operational from 1899 through 1932. Owen Wister, Roosevelt, Hemmingway, NC, and TC Wyeth where some of the famous guests staying at Trapper Creek Guest Ranch.
The Wyman’s, founders of The Trapper Creek Guest Ranch, were one of the few guest ranch owners and founders who did not come from the East Coast. Instead, they hailed from Washington State. The Wyman’s were one of the seven founders of the North American Dude Ranch Association (DRA) who recently celebrated their 100-year anniversary. That’s why The Hideout is featured in the beautiful coffee table book showing pictures of renowned western photographer Scott Baxter who traveled for two years visiting the 100-year ranches.
In 2006, Peter (Paula’s nephew) and his wife Marijn took over the reins and bought The Hideout in 2017. Over the years, the focus of The Hideout became more about horseback riding, trail riding & hacking, horsemanship, and stockman ship attracting growing numbers of riders from around the world.
Peter, leaving an international corporate job, moved from Brussels, Belgium to Shell, Wyoming with Marijn and their twin sons Edward and Victor aged 13 at the time. The Hideout welcomes a growing number of visitors from around the world each year, and leverages diversity as an asset.
The Story of Shell and The Big Horn Basin.
The Hideout is located in Shell, Wyoming, (population 74, elevation 4,200 feet – 1200m) in the beautiful Shell Valley of the Big Horn Basin at the entrance of the dramatic Shell Canyon at the foot of The Big Horn National Forest. It is only 110 miles east of Yellowstone National Park, and 76 miles east of Cody, Wyoming.
The nearest town to the East of Shell across the Big Horn Mountains, is approximately a one-and-a-half-hour drive on Highway 14 East. One of the most scenic highways in this part of Wyoming. The story of Shell starts millions and millions of years ago, and many exposed formations are a visible testimonial of this history. Shell is a popular destination for paleontologists from around the globe digging for rare species of dinosaur remains and other fossils.
Population 2.1 per Square Mile…
Wyoming is the least populated state in the West (except for Alaska). The area of Shell enjoys a population of only 2.1 people per square mile. Compare this with New York City with over 27,000 or more people per square mile, and you realize that cattle, horses and wild animals outnumber people by far.
Only 12,000 people live in Big Horn County which encompasses 2,000,000 acres of which 82% is public land.
Wyoming vs Colorado
Wyoming is 7% smaller in surface than Colorado. Wyoming has a population of around 580,000 and Colorado around 5.8 million people.
The Story of the Big Horn Mountains, the Big Horn National Forest and Cloud Peak Wilderness
At 4,200 feet in the high-desert valley of salt sage, cactus, and prehistoric dinosaur discoveries, we climb the rocky canyons of Shell Creek, White Creek, and Trapper Creek through wide-open range, to an elevation of over 10,000 feet in the Big Horn National Forest and Cloud Peak Wilderness.
The Big Horn National Forest comprises 1,107,671 acres and is one of the oldest National Forests in the US.
The Cloud Peak Wilderness Area at 187,000 acres, has elevations which measure up to 13,067 feet. The green alpine meadows and pine forests are home to majestic elk, moose and mule deer. Crystal-clear mountain lakes and streams harbor native trout.
With this as our backyard, The Hideout Lodge & Guest Ranch is the perfect spot for your next vacation
