VENTANA WILDERNESS OUTFITTERS & GUIDES
Horse Camping at Ventana Wilderness Ranch
The Ventana Wilderness Ranch has been owned and operated by Nason family for over 100 years. The Nasons are both a pioneer Monterey County ranching family and descendants of the Esselen Indian tribe, which inhabited the Santa Lucia Mountains for over 6,000 thousands years. The Nasons have a long and colorful heritage in Monterey County and since the early 1900s have hosted thousands of guests from all over the world--guests who come to experience the incredible beauty that Monterey County has to offer.
The Nasons extend an invitation to you and your friends, your family, or your horse club to visit the Ventana Wilderness Ranch for your next outing.
The Setting
The Ventana Wilderness Ranch has been in our family for over 100 years and is rustic and definitely not a fancy outfit with lighted arenas, covered stalls, and pipe corrals with shavings. We are a working ranch with a pack station for outfitting and guide services. We are located in the wilderness and we have no electricity or pay phone. We are located several miles off the pavement and we like it that way.
If you are looking for a place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, or the heat, humidity and fog of the San Joaquin Valley, then the Ventana Wilderness Ranch is the place for you and your horse. The ranch is located at an elevation of 3,500 ft. and 25 miles inland from Monterey Peninsula, so we are high above the fog. The temperature is always comfortable and there is ocean breeze that comes in daily and acts as an air conditioner.
The Ventana Wilderness Ranch is the only privately owned ranch that is open to guests in the 1 million acre northern Los Padres National Forest. We are located immediately adjacent to the 500,000 acre Ventana Wilderness Area. Over 500 miles of trails are accessible directly from the ranch. You can ride on trails that we use for our daily guided trail rides. These are well defined trails 5 to 15 miles in length, and rides generally take between 2 and 6 hours. You can ride along with one of our guides, or set out on your own with your lunch and camera.
Our facilities include an old fashion barn with saddle room and tie stalls that are used mostly for our own horses and mules. There is a large riding and roping arena, a round pen, and several individual corrals. You can stay in our campground in tents or you can rent our Indian tepees which are located in a meadow with large oak trees, or you can stay in your own RV, camper, or horse trailer with living quarters. We do not have RV hook ups but we do have water hoses for filling your tanks.
We have an area situated in a meadow with nice views of the mountains where you can you park your rig and set up your own portable corrals and electric fences, or you can use the tie lines we have set up for guests.
If you have a group of riders we have a group campgrounds that is set up for groups of 8 to 100 people. The camp has a kitchen with stoves, sinks, hot water, and propane refrigerator. There is a 40 ft. round dinning room that seats 100 people. There are restrooms with flush toilets and hot showers. We also have a private observatory with a 30 inch telescope for looking at the stars.
1998 Horse Camp Prices
Rates are $35.00 per person for an overnight stay (two days and one night), including one horse. We provide a place to camp, or to park your rig, and you can set up your own corral or tie post. We have tepees at an additional $10.00 per person per night.
We can provide a guide familiar with the miles and miles of trails at $20.00 per hour or $100.00 per day. If you want to rent an extra horse the price is $55.00 for a maximum of 6 hours of riding.
Guided Packtrips
The Nason family are guides and outfitters, and invite you to bring your own horse and join them for either a 3-5 day wilderness pack trip where we take care of everything from packing your gear on our mules to cooking some of the tastiest camp cooking found in the west. We will guide you into some of the most unique and spectacular country to be found anywhere in California. The Ventana Wilderness is not overrun like the Sierra and you will hardly see another human on our wilderness trips. We will share with you those lands our ancestors have called home for centuries, we will visit old village sites and caves with pictographs, sacred healing hotsprings that will soothe your muscles and, if you love to fish, we will guide you to streams that are rarely visited.
We can accommodate up to 15 guests at a time and if you don't want use your own horse we have plenty of sure-footed horses that were raised in these mountains and will get you in and out of the wilderness.
Prices are $100.00 dollars per day per person (with their own horse). If you would like to use one of our horses we charge $55.00 per day on top of the $100.00 daily charge. This price includes all guides, mules, camp equipment (except your own bedroll and pad) and meals prepared by our chefs.