A Day In The Life At Lone Mountain Ranch

A pro photographer/avid adventurer heads to Big Sky Country to carve out her own piece of history at this 100-year-old log ranch-turned-resort.

- Heidi Long

Leaving the “no vehicles beyond this point” sign behind, my friend and assistant, Tia, and I amble past a horse corral, across a meadow and over North Fork Creek to arrive at Lone Mountain Ranch — our destination and my latest photographic assignment. Our log cabins are at the edge of the woods, wedged into a 90-degree bend in the creek and adjoined by a deck at the same angle. Lodgepole pines frame our views. The environment feels like a warm embrace.

“Chipmunk,” as my cabin is called, was one of the original structures built on this 100-year-old ranch. I’m the first guest to stay in this cabin since its recent restoration, but as I settle in, I wonder how many others before me have fallen to sleep inside these chinked log walls, listening to the rushing creek outside.

It all started in 1915 when Clarence Lytle homesteaded this property in Big Sky, Montana, as a working cattle and horse ranch. His brother and a friend built many of the original structures, corrals and fences. Twelve ​years later, a paper mill tycoon from Chicago bought the place for $50 an acre and sank an additional $110,000 into improvements and new cabins. Native lodgepole harvested from the upper part of the property were wrapped in burlap, dragged down the mountain by teams of draft horses and then triple washed, notched and stacked on site. Each guest cabin featured linens that matched the wildflowers blossoming on their respective sod roofs.