Highlights: Our Room was wonderful for a family of five. We stayed in "The Spanish Room" and it had a king bed and two sets of bunk beds. It also had two shower stalls - very interesting feature. The room was great. Rustic, but nice.

The interaction with the summer camp kids was great. As we had young kids, the camp staff invited us to all of the evening activities. My kids got to participate in a scavenger hunt with the camp kids, as well as a game of Capture the Flag. Very accomodating.

The location is everything the website says it is. It is Ft. Davis/Davis Mountains at their finest moment. No, there are no mountain peaks in view, but high hills surround the location, and it is three miles to town and three miles to the Observatory.

The price - we paid $75 a night. I appreciate that the cost was so reasonable for such a destination place. However, I would have probably paid more had some of the other stuff found below been available...



Lowlights: Horseback riding for a family of five is $100 for an hour. It seems as if they could throw in one ride for free as they market themselves as a ranch. My kids were disappointed that they only got to ride horses one time.

The food is school cafeteria quality. I "get" the whole community-style ranch eat-together routine. No problem there. But the quality of the food was similar to a high school cafeteria. Also, they only offer chuckwagon-type dinners for groups larger than even two families (I'm not sure but I think 20 is the smallest group).

This might sound picky, but the place is in serious need of a fancy hot tub. The pool is typical for an indoor pool - freezing cold even in July. A ten person sunken hot tub adjacent to the pool area would be awesome, and something they could feature on the website for sure.

Finally - the website and all the resources on the place talk about the astonomy connection - but I saw no astronomy connection at all during my stay. The Observatory is three miles away and Prude Ranch does host a week-long astonomy seminar in May. But what happens in July? My advice would be two-fold... 1. Prude Ranch should have small telescopes to rent for a fee. 2. Prude Ranch should offer a weekly astonomy lecture by someone from the Observatory who could come down and host it.

So, my review is neutral. A lot of positives, but Prude Ranch needs to do some serious updating to get my business repeated. Thanks.