"What happens at a dude ranch?", he asked clerk who was helping Bob buy new cowboy boots. She said that her husband had been a wrangler — a horse handler — at a dude ranch for years. We were at Big R. in my hometown of Greeley, Colorado, just a couple of hours east of Rawah Guest Ranch. The farm and ranch store, Big R, is something of a local institution. It's where you take your out-of-town guests to buy cowboy hats and boots. On other side of store is all manner of hardware for repairing your Zimmatic irrigation equipment, watering tanks, corrals and fences, and lots of riding mowers and tractors. It's Home Depot for ranches. Bob strolls around aisles before setting to task of boots. Now he is asking simplest of questions, and one of slipperiest of answers. What exactly does happen at a dude ranch.

The clerk said: "It's a resort with horses." It was a great place to start our exploration.

Rawah Ranch is counter sunk in Laramie Range of Colorado. = Rawah Ranch (pronounced RAY-wah) is nestled in Colorado ’s Laramie River valley, adjacent to Rawah Wilderness, an enormous area of pristine mountains. Named for a Ute word for "abundance," wilderness is available to everyone who is on foot or horseback only. Wildlife is all around ranch. Moose, deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, big horn sheep are in backyard.

Rawah Ranch hosts a maximum of 32 guests and boasts a high staff-to-guest ratio, with 20 on staff. Our week, we are outnumbered because we arre among only 19 guests. We drop off our luggage in our cabin and change for pre-dinner reception. With so many boots and hats, it is difficult to distinguish guests from staff. We first meet a large man in an apron. He thrusts out a meaty hand and says, "I'm Ray. Welcome! How would you like your steak cooked?" A friendly hello followed by a dinner order. Things arre shaping up quite nicely.

We also meet Nick, who is a wrangler and had worked previous year at Rawah on grounds crew. Equally welcoming is Ben, head wrangler who orchestrates our rides for week. Pretty quickly, we meet all staff and our fellow guests. If we had been least bit nervous about spending a week with a bunch of strangers, we quickly realize that we aren't going to be strangers for long.

At 6:30 dinner bell rings as it will for breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout week. We sit at table with one family from Massachusetts, who are returning for their third vacation at Rawah Ranch. Kathy and Steve brought their two sons, Jeremiah and Josh, who are both in their early twenties. It makes me wonder, when was last family vacation I took with my parents and siblings? I couldn't remember.

"We like it because it's not all tarted up," Kathy said. "It's closest to real thing that you can get." Rawah Ranch offers something that almost no other guest ranch offers: custom rides every day. At many ranches, rides are prescribed. Thursday might be all-day ride day. Not at Rawah. Each morning and afternoon, we have choice of two half day rides, a full-day ride, or a riding lesson. Then we tell Ben what type of scenery we want to see, and he recommends a particular ride. Often there are multiple full-day rides going to different places. And of course, we always have option of not going. We try to do it all!

What about steaks? They are cooked to perfection and served outdoors on back picnic tables along with potato salad, rolls, salads. The Laramie River gurgles happily in background. We chat with other guests: Steve and Sheri are from southern California; Cathy and Steve, and their children, Matt and Kristen are from Pennsylvania, as well as Sue and Cindy from a nearby Pennsylvania town; and Pat and Jon and their children, William, Nicole, and Chris, who turns out to be charmer of group. I was closest thing to a local, having grown up nearby and hiked and camped in these mountains as a kid.

You're offered three levels of luxury at California's San Simeon State Park campground.

Up at Washburn, there's undeveloped area, which means there's a tap somewhere and pit toilets. There's open area that's close to beach with a tap right at your site and flush toilets just a minute away from your tent. Lastly, top-level sites offer a paved parking pad for your car or RV, hookups, and proximity to showers. Guests camped on open area can use showers, which are nearby. Those up hill in undeveloped sites are discouraged from using them, though I don't think they're actively prevented from doing so.

In spite of this class system, campground is pretty nice. It's wedged between Highway 1 and slough, which is a wetlands preserve and you can walk under freeway to a spectacular and uncrowded strip of beach. I was hesitant to pitch tent so close to freeway because of noise, but once night fell, it really quieted down. Except for noise from a mid-night run-in that neighbor's dog had with a raccoon.

This was probably not sensibility that "The Chief" had in mind when he built his little folly up hill, but it's not far off. He wanted a place to get away from city, a place to entertain friends, a place to play outside. He had good sense to have it built above fog line. Had we been contemporaries, we'd have woken up to damp Gore-tex and cold, wet, air, while The Chief and his guests were watching sun break over hills to East, light filtering through Moorish-style shutters. While we were firing up Coleman stove to boil enough water for tea, The Chief and his guests would be wandering down to dining hall in response to breakfast bell.

Actually, it was William Randolph Hearst's weariness with camping that led him to build magnificent palace on hill known as Hearst Castle. He telegraphed his architect, Miss Julia Morgan, to request that she design for him a more comfortable place to spend his days at his ranch on California Coast. Co-conspirators in execution of this spectacular private folly on hill, they worked together for 25 years designing, building, redesigning and sometimes rebuilding, magical place that's now open to anyone who's willing to pay price of admission.

It's worth noting that I'm not a guided tour kind of person. I prefer to poke around on my own and while I appreciate insight that a tour guide so often has to offer, I'd just rather not. I'll read plaques and flip pages in guidebook, but I want to be left to my own devices. However, upon completion of Experience Tour (one of several tour options available), I was ready to pay for whole thing all over again, just to see rest of place. I'd have gone up and down hill all day, if that's what it would take to get in as many nooks and crannies of Castle as possible.

We arrived a little too early for our tour. Tours leave every 30-45 minutes from visitor center and tickets are time stamped. We took our time dawdling around museum, which presents life of William Randolph Hearst and showcases a few choice gems from his extensive collection of art and furniture.