Five a.m. coffee. Hunter breakfast before light. The mid-morning quiet. Lunch on the porch. The chuckwagon at sundown. A real day at a 138-year working ranch from the kitchen end.
By Lauren6 min read
Most days at Elk Glade start in the kitchen.
I'm in the lodge a little before five. The kitchen is dark; the dining room is dark; the porch lights are off. The first thing on is the percolator on the right burner of the propane range — twelve cups, strong, going by five-oh-five.
By five-fifteen the wranglers are coming in the side door from the bunkhouse. They get coffee first. Andre comes in by five-thirty if it's a hunt week, six if it's a cattle-drive week.
Breakfast before light
If we have hunters in camp the breakfast bell goes at five-thirty. Hot food, big — eggs, bacon, hash browns, biscuits, whatever fruit we have. Coffee. Juice. We feed the hunters first because they're out the door by six, before the bench is hunt-able.
The wranglers and the kitchen crew eat after the hunters roll out. The dining room is quieter then. The light is just coming over the east ridge. You can hear the side-by-sides starting up in the equipment yard.
By six-thirty the hunters are at their bench positions, the wranglers are saddling, and the lodge is empty except for me, the dishwasher, and whatever guest is having a slow morning.
Mid-morning quiet
The hour from nine to ten is my favorite hour at the lodge.
The hunters are out. The wranglers are out. The cattle work is done for the morning. The lodge porch is empty, the kitchen has been cleaned and set up for lunch prep, and the only sound is the cottonwood at the east end of the meadow moving when there's wind. If there's no wind, you hear the creek.
This is when I'll sit with a second cup of coffee on the porch and not do anything for fifteen minutes. The job will take it back from you in an hour. Take the fifteen.
Lunch on the porch
By eleven-thirty the wranglers are back from the morning work, the kitchen crew is back from cleanup, and the dining room sets up for lunch. We do lunch family-style on the porch in warm months — long table, board, knives, bread, cheese, soup, whatever's in season.
Guests who are off-program for the day eat with us. Some of the best conversations happen at the porch lunch. Andre tells the bull elk story from 2019; Jamie talks about the spring drive; the Texas couple talks about their granddaughter; the guest from Maine asks about the aspen.
By one we're done. The kitchen cleans up; the wranglers head back out.
Afternoon
Afternoon is the variable. If it's a hunt week the hunters are back at the lodge between ten-thirty and twelve, then out again at three for the evening hunt. If it's a cattle-drive week the riders are on the bench all day. If it's a ranch-stay week the guests are doing horseback, fishing, or sitting on the porch reading.
I'm in the kitchen prepping dinner. The chuckwagon goes out at four for evening hunters who want a hot meal in the field; otherwise the dining room sets for six o'clock.
The hour from three to five is the quiet hour at the lodge. Andre is hunting or scouting; Jamie is fence-mending or moving stock; the wranglers are working. The lodge fills back up around five-thirty.
Dinner
Dinner at the lodge is the meal we make a point of. Family-style still — same long table — but hot, two courses, dessert. Steak, elk, trout from the creek when we have it, whatever the garden gave us that week. Bread we baked that morning.
Twenty people at the table is a normal night in October. Less in May. More on a holiday week. Andre or Jamie sits at the head; whoever's coming in late from the field eats whenever they sit down.
The stories happen at dinner. The hunter who tagged out tells the table. The wrangler who watched a mountain lion across the south meadow at noon tells the table. The grandmother from Texas tells the table about the granddaughter's first ride. Nobody's looking at a phone — the lodge has Starlink but the signal at the dinner table is the dinner table.
The fire after
Coffee and pie at eight-thirty. Some guests head to bed by nine; others sit by the fire pit out front until ten. The wranglers usually stay by the fire longer than the guests. There's a story at the fire that doesn't happen at the table.
By ten-thirty the lodge is dark again. The percolator is loaded for five a.m. The kitchen is set for breakfast.
Why I write this
People ask me what a day at Elk Glade is like. The short version is: it's a working ranch. The long version is up there.
If you want to read more about the ranch itself — the 1888 founding, the 1929 homestead, the family that runs it now — that's on the Roots page. If you're thinking about coming, the trip planner has directions and gear notes.
We're at eighty-five hundred feet. Coffee's hot at five.
