How big-sky thinking is spurring a ranch revival out West

The American West has held the US in a kind of cultural trance of late. It’s visible in the collections on runways, the perverse popularity of rodeos and the resurrection of heritage bootmakers but, above all, in the extraordinary reach of a TV series, Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone. Few cultural products have done more to revive the archetype of the ranch: the hardscaping of land, the management of herds and rough justice meted out under vast skies. Sheridan didn’t just create a hit, he also reminded Americans of a myth that they already knew.

But those myths rest on extraction of land, resources and animals whose value has traditionally been measured in yield. The frontier, for all its cinematic beauty, was never harmless. So it is interesting to watch a handful of properties in the contemporary West experimenting with a different approach, one that doesn’t require abandoning the ranch entirely but fundamentally rethinking what it means.

The Lodge at Blue Sky, Auberge Collection – 35 minutes from Park City by car – is one such place. At first glance, it’s every inch the classic Western property, with some 1,400 hectares of open rangeland, barns and paddocks, as well as interiors that feature timber, stone and oversized fireplaces. You’d almost expect to stumble on a branding pen or cattle chute. Instead, the main animal population is a herd of rescued horses. Rather than the usual ranch work – breeding, managing, and preparing livestock for market – the daily rhythm is orientated around welfare and rehabilitation.

The programme is led by Blue Sky owner and horsewoman Barb Phillips. Many horses arrive anxious, exhibiting behaviours that stem from years of mishandling or overuse. Guests aren’t invited to saddle up and conquer terrain but to participate in quieter activities, from learning to read equine body language to accompanying a horse on a walk. Stand tensely and they retreat. Breathe deeply and they soften. The relationship is a striking inversion of the frontier narrative in which breaking in a horse was the point.

The familiar props of Western life remain in place – leather tack, timber fences and that big-sky backdrop – but their meaning shifts entirely. What was once a theatre of control becomes a setting for repair. The work is restorative and this subtle reframing produces a different atmosphere altogether.

It mirrors a broader societal turn. As Americans re-engage with the West, there’s a growing appetite for experiences that feel grounded rather than performative, more attuned to stewardship than domination. Travellers are looking beyond cowboy cosplay toward properties with genuine purpose. The success of properties such as Brush Creek in Wyoming or Montana’s Ranch at Rock Creek – places that balance luxury with land conservation – suggests that the market is ready for this evolution.

Blue Sky belongs to this emerging category: spaces that acknowledge Western ideals but decline to re-enact their more troubling past. The property still offers fly-fishing and mountain biking, and serves whiskey by the fire. But at its core is this radical reorientation toward care rather than conquest.

The West will always trade on romance – it’s part of the landscape’s power. But it’s refreshing to find a ranch where frontier spirit isn’t expressed through extraction. Perhaps the next chapter of Western storytelling might not be about taming anything at all but learning to meet it on an equal footing. After all, who wins by playing to yesterday’s script?

Colin Nagy is an LA-based journalist and regular Monocle contributor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.