Alisal Ranch
The Eagle’s Nest
By Irene Lacher 06/01/2009
When I gazed onto Alisal Lake, it may have been the only instance in recent memory when I truly felt as though I’d stepped back in time. All around me were things I remembered from my baby booming childhood at summer camp and nothing I didn’t — canoes, bows and arrows, air rifles, even horseshoes. There, the world of high technology was no closer than a Jetsons cartoon.
As far as the eye could see, there was, well, nothing… nothing except oaks and sycamores, sky, shimmering lake and a symphony of birds, including a family of bald eagles. (“Alisal” means “grove of sycamores” in the Chumash Indian language.)
To appreciate how extraordinary that is, consider the lake’s location smack in the middle of Santa Barbara’s rich wine country. The lovely 100-acre lake lies wholly within Solvang’s Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort, which is itself part of a working ranch that’s been in the intensely private Jackson family for three generations. When the late Charles Pete Jackson Jr. originally converted the cattlemen’s quarters into an inn for dude ranch guests in 1946, the place had a maximum capacity of 30 guests. It’s not much larger now, with only 73 guest rooms and suites tricked out in ranch décor — Native American blankets, blown-up vintage photographs of the working ranch and wood-burning fireplaces tended every day by a chimney sweep.
“It’s an authentic working cattle slash guest ranch,” says Sherrie Fitzgerald, the Alisal’s marketing director. “Even before the Jacksons owned it, it was a working cattle ranch. Friends would help with the round-up, so they built seasonal accommodations. They keep it very simple. There are no TVs or telephones. [Die-hard fans can watch television in common rooms.] That tradition is what it is. It might not be for everybody.”
It does seem to be the thing for a lot of families, who come back year after year, lured in part by an extensive summer program of games, crafts and sports for kids. There’s still plenty to do during the cooler months — horseback riding, hiking, golf, fishing, tennis, archery, a swimming pool for aspiring polar bears and more — so it seemed the perfect place for a recent Lacher family reunion. My sister and her family live in New York, and I’ve found vacations to be the ideal time to reconnect with far-flung relatives — no one can be distracted by the demands of life on home turf, and we’re all feeling pretty relaxed.
My sister, Didi, and 15-year-old nephew, Sammy, met me in Los Angeles, and we drove two-and-a-half hours up to the Santa Ynez Valley, arriving late in the evening. We checked into our two-room suite, which mercifully had two bathrooms, and conked out, Sammy and Didi nodding off to the crackling embers in the sitting room.
The next morning, Didi and Sammy hopped the shuttle bus for the ride to the lake, where the air rifle range was located. Sammy is apparently the only member of the family with any eye-hand coordination, and after knocking off multiple metal squirrels and cans, he fast became the instructor’s star student. I came down for an archery lesson next to the air rifle range but soon discovered that practice made imperfect. So I abandoned ship after four increasingly off-the-mark rounds and took my weak wrists back to the room.
An activity I was more experienced in was massage — being on the receiving end, that is — and I gratefully submitted to the ministrations of a masseuse in the Alisal’s rare concession to the 21st century: the 5,500-square-foot fitness center and spa, which opened last year. I selected the “Alisal Hot Stone Treatment,” 75 minutes of warm, smooth strokes alternating with manual, deep-tissue kneading the therapist employed to work out the kinks in my back. By the time she finished with an organic rosemary-salt foot scrub, I wasn’t so sure that being vertical was all it was cracked up to be.
Thus fortified, we dressed for dinner — another traditional touch at the Alisal is the requirement that men dine in jackets — and went to the dining room to sample the hearty American cooking and nice selection of California wines (including the ranch’s own label). We were assigned the same table for each meal — a great one next to the roaring fireplace — but my sociable nephew did a fair amount of table hopping, targeting every group with other kids, all of whom he knew by the end of the trip.
Much as I enjoyed our repasts, there’s one thing that’s even better than eating on vacation, and that’s riding a horse to a fabulous rural spot to eat on vacation. Indeed, all the guests at the Alisal seemed to converge on the corral for the three-hour pancake breakfast ride. After being asked to rate our horsemanship — in our case, minimal — we were assigned horses (mine was the Pig-Pen of the group, clearly preferring a roll in the mud to the hay) and set off in small groups, each led by a wrangler.
Ours led us over hills and streams, past moseying cattle and across temperate coastal valley land that seemed untouched since Spanish padres established the Mission Santa Inés in the Chumash village of Ahajalapu there in 1804. Our destination was a restored adobe house that used to house ranch hands and is now the setting for private dinners. We grabbed plates and lined up for a pancake breakfast — actually, an everything breakfast, with eggs, cereal, meats and hash browns — and found spots at picnic tables for our outdoor repast.
Although the surrounding area is full of temptations — including an extensive wine trail that boasts the Zaca Mesa, Curtis and Firestone wineries, among many others — the all-purpose Alisal tends to hold onto its guests until checkout. American-plan rates (including breakfast and dinner) start at $475 for two people in a studio, and most activities carry an additional charge. But the place also offers some intriguing packages, such as “Mother-Daughter Cowgirl Bootcamp” with daily rides, and an Australian-themed retreat from Sept. 17 through 20: “Outback at the Alisal” includes a wine dinner with a celebrity chef from Down Under, an Australian wine-and-beer tasting, a screening under the stars of the film “Australia” and unlimited activities, starting at $2,495 per couple for studio lodging.
“People do relax when they get here,” Fitzgerald says. “Things are a little spread out, but once they get up to the lake, they want to go fishing and wait for the eagle to fly out of its nest. It’s a magical experience, especially for people who are in a city all the time.”
Call (800) 4-ALISAL or visit alisal.com.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT