Women, Horses and the West: Writing Wyoming’s Lands and Lives
with Dr. Bonney MacDonald
reserve your spotPaintrock Canyon Ranch
June 15 - 20, 2025
Join Dr. Bonney MacDonald for this year's Women, Horses and the West, where you'll explore Wyoming's rugged landscape and rich history through readings and discussions of stories and essays that celebrate the state's paradoxes, beauty, and struggles, offering endless inspiration and material for memorable conversations.
The Program
Read and draw inspiration from the ranch and landscape around you to see just where you are. Read and discuss Wyoming stories and essays of growing up in this windswept landscape; tales of difficulty, grit, and even the macabre; and tributes to the wide-open lands of the region known as both the “Equality State” and the “Cowboy State.” This mixture of paradox, beauty, and struggle in these rugged plains and mountains will help us place ourselves in the landscape and give us endless material for memorable discussions
About Bonney MacDonald
Bonney MacDonald is a Professor of Western Literature at West Texas A&M University. She holds an M.A. from Univ. of Nottingham, England, a Ph.D. from Yale University, and has conducted on-site ranch retreats and classes since 2004.
Her workshops combine the best things you remember about college seminars with great horses, friendship, and the wonderful Western outdoors.
Accommodations
The accommodations at the Paintrock Canyon Ranch are designed to put you as close to nature as possible, but with all the comforts of home. Large, private safari style tents are stylishly furnished with full-sized beds, bedside tables, dressers and chairs. These sturdy, elegant tents are located next to the Paintrock Creek at the entrance to the spectacular Paintrock Canyon.
Meals
All meals will be creatively prepared by a private chef, featuring Ranchlands beef and local produce and dairy whenever possible. Meals at the ranch will be seated, but casual and friendly and accompanied by wine and beer. We are happy to accommodate all dietary preferences with advance notice.
Location
The ranch, located near Hyattville, is 1 1/2 hours from Cody, Wyoming, and 3 hours from Billings, Montana. Both cities have airports with multiple daily flights from major airports. Roundtrip shuttles from the Cody airport to the ranch can be booked via Explore Cody Transportation.
Rates
$4260 per person includes all lodging, meals, and activities. Tax and optional gratuity not included. All tents are private.
Please reach out to us with any questions at: stay@ranchlands.com or 719-641-2089.
Paintrock Canyon Ranch
The Paintrock Canyon Ranch sprawls across northern Wyoming and is made up of rolling meadows and streams carving through high alpine valleys. The ranch’s landscape is characterized by the Paintrock Canyon, which starts at the ranch headquarters and meanders for 8 miles, opening into the Paintrock Basin at the foot of Cloud Peak, the highest peak in the Bighorn range. The Canyon itself is shaped by steep limestone slopes that climb thousands of feet high above the trail. Red sandstone cliffs, whose color transforms from deep orange to burgundy red with the changing light, rise above the meadows surrounding the ranch’s headquarters. The ranch is located 1.5 hours from Cody, WY, and 3 hours from Billings, MT where the largest commercial airports are. Shuttles through a third party are bookable to the ranch from Cody. Car rentals are also available from both airports.
learn more about Paintrock@ranchlands
