NEAR CHOUTEAU — Along the Rocky Mountain Front, where mountains rise straight from the prairie, Deep Canyon Guest Ranch has welcomed generations of visitors into the quiet of the backcountry.
Now, after nearly five decades of ownership, longtime stewards Chuck and Sharon Blixrud have handed the reins to a new family; one they say will preserve the land, the history, and the heart of the place they built.
Madison Collier reports - watch the video here:
Rather than an ending, the Blixruds call it a new beginning. Sharon says, “This is exactly what he’d hoped and prayed for, for a long time.”
Chuck and Sharon have spent 66 years working in the canyon, running both an outfitting operation and the guest ranch. Their story at Deep Canyon began in 1975, when they purchased the property. Which was, at that time, a rustic lodge and grazing land dotted with rocks, trees, and horses.
The purchase wasn’t simply business. Land along the Rocky Mountain front was beginning to sell and fragment, mostly being broken into smaller plots for homes. They bought Deep Canyon to support their outfitting operation and to prevent the development from happening.
What followed was decades of steady work, rebuilding the ranch one structure at a time. They tore down old cabins and built new ones, eventually adding three duplex guest cabins, a large A-fram cabin, staff lodging, barns, and saddle sheds.
By 1996, they began welcoming guests regularly.
Today, the ranch comprises roughly 600 acres, plus another 360 grazing acres leased from the Bureau of Land Management — about 1,000 acres of sweeping foothills.
“It became a place where people didn’t just visit,” Sharon said. “They stayed, they met people, they came back.”
The ranch also became a place of learning for guests and employees alike.“You become a teacher,” Sharon explained. “You take them out, show them flowers, put them on a horse across the river, that’s something they’ll remember forever.”
For Chuck and Sharon alike, stepping away was not easy. They say they’ll never completely feel separated from the property.
They weren’t willing to sell to just anyone. With many Montana ranches being converted, subdivided, or put under corporate management, the Blixruds carefully searched for buyers who shared their own values, owners who would keep the ranch whole and continue welcoming guests.
Then, they met the Abbott family.
“We saw the excitement in their eyes, we thought, 'I think that you're the ones we might have been looking for for some time.’”
Sharyn and Tim Abbott first visited the ranch after their daughter, Chelsea Abbott, and her fiancé, Trent Osburn, had reached out. Chelsea had spent several summers working on in Montana as a ranchand and had fallen in love with the lifestyle.
“I came out here kind of on a whim,” she said. “I thought it would be one summer. Now it’s been five.”
Tim explained that within hours of walking the property, they felt a connection to the land and to the people who had shaped it. He explained, “We’ve gained family. They did all of the hard work; now we just get to have fun with this.”
The Abbotts say their top priority is preserving what the Blixruds built.
“We want to keep the legacy,” Tim Abbott said. “Let’s not change what’s working. Let’s add to it.
That continuity means guests can still expect the same “quiet, serene experience.” They will still be offering the traditional services while hoping to add some new experiences for guests to enjoy as well. Tentatively, the Abbotts plan to reopen to guests next Spring.
