Wickenburg, Ariz.: Of baseball and ballads
DETOURS | Arizona's Rancho de los Caballeros is just a wild pitch away from preseason baseball
WICKENBURG, ARIZ. -- Caroline Markham is the only wrangler in the United States who cut her chaps with the Chicago Symphony chorus. The Chicago native began making annual spring visits to Rancho de los Caballeros ("gentleman on horseback") in Wickenburg at the age of 3.
Today, Markham assists in the care of more than 100 horses at the ranch and golf club. The 50-year-old wrangler conducts trail rides at the ranch, 55 miles northwest of Phoenix. And at night Markham can be found singing folk and western songs in the ranch saloon. She's back in the saddle again.
(AP)
. . . and if you want to avoid the crowds at the Cubs home base of Mesa, Rancho de los Caballeros is for you. The remote resort is just 30 miles north of Surprise, the spring training site of the Texas Rangers. The Cubs visit Surprise at 1:05 p.m., March 12, the White Sox at 1:05 p.m., March 11.
Rancho de los Caballeros is an American Plan guest ranch. Rates include three meals daily and use of ranch facilities. Children 4 and under stay free with adults. Rates range from $200 per person for a ranch room (double occupancy) to $616 for a Maricopa Suite (private king bedroom, large living room, kiva fireplace and spa tub). Free Wi-Fi service available throughout the ranch, but not in rooms.
Allow for a 90-minute drive from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport: exit airport westbound and follow signs to I-10 west. Take I-10 west to I-17 north for 29 miles to State Route 74 (Carefree Highway, as Gordon Lightfoot sang). Stay on 74 west for 30 miles to U.S. Route 60. Turn right on 60 and go northwest 12 miles through downtown Wickenburg to the third stop light (Vulture Mine Road). Turn left on Vulture Mine and drive south one mile to ranch entrance.
The ranch is open from October until mid-May. Call (800) 684-5030 or go to SunC.com.
The late cowboy Gene Autry -- and former owner of baseball's Los Angeles Angels -- would be proud. As spring training expands into Surprise and Peoria (within a 40-minute drive of Wickenburg), baseball snowbirds are discovering the Western respite of the ranch. The 20,000-acre hideaway is celebrating its 60th anniversary. The family-owned and -operated ranch has been a destination for a generation of Chicagoans. Markham's late father, John, was a partner at the brokerage firm of Hornblower & Weeks. Her homemaker mother, Alice, still lives in Wilmette. Her parents found the sunny ranch on a tip from friends.
"They fell in love with it right away," Markham said during a morning conversation at the ranch. That day Markham was a little hoarse (excuse the pun). She had just flown in from Los Angeles where she was nominated for four Grammys (Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance, Best Surround Sound Engineering and Best Engineered Album [classical]) for her work with the Phoenix Bach Choir and Kansas City (Mo.) Chorale.
The groups share conductor Charles Bruffy. The choirs won for Best Engineered Album. But Markham couldn't wait to return to her ranch chores. One of the highlights of a stay at the 79-room ranch are the twice-daily horseback rides through the hilly Sonoran Desert. The resort is 2,400 feet above sea level. There's beginner, intermediate and advanced rides. ($42 for a two-hour morning ride, $35 for a 90-minute afternoon ride).
I've been on a horse twice before in my life. I was assigned Custard, an 11-year-old slowpoke for my afternoon ride. At first I thought I was getting Custard because it was his -- or my -- last stand.
"Custard is big, gentle and predictable," Markham said. "Was he eating all the time?" Yes, the 1,200-pound gelding tried to eat brush as we climbed up a mountain., forcing me to pull back on his reins. Markham said, "Horses are very intuitive. They know they can get away with an extra mouthful and we're greening up with all the rain we've had."
It's not uncommon for Markham to break into a song like "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" while on the ranch trail.
"That song is from 1912," she said. "My mother used to sing that to me when I was a kid." (On March 8 Markham will open for singing cowboys Sons of the Pioneers at the new 600-seat Del E. Webb Center down the road from the ranch.)
Markham grew up in the shadow of the Drake Hotel in Chicago. After Markham's father died in 1969, the family moved to Winnetka where Markham attended New Trier East High School. Before becoming a wrangler, Markham managed buildings for the Wrigley Company. She sang soprano (she's now a mezzo) with the Chicago Symphony from 1987-90. Chicago winters played into her decision to go west.
"I walked out of my Chicago office one winter day," she said. "The wind chill was 60 below. I had to go down to Orchestra Hall and after symphony rehearsal I walked back to my apartment. I had to leave. Life is too short. And Chicago winters weren't fun anymore. I always wanted to come out here. Always."
Markham keeps her classical training close to her vest. "I get compliments from people in the saloon saying how they can understand every word," when she sings, she said. "Classical is more about vowel and resonance placement. That's all my [conductor] Robert Shaw training. He was such a stickler for pronunciation and diction."
Markham's deliberate pacing is perfect for the ranch. Telephones weren't added to guest rooms until 1987. Credit cards were first accepted in 2004. A full-service spa finally was added in fall, 2006.
The current owner, Dallas "Rusty" Gant Jr., said, "People came here just to hang out. It's not the frantic vacation now where everybody has to be doing something. We try to maintain that, but you also try to serve what people want. The horses have been part of the deal from the start. And they're just as popular now than ever."
Markham added, "There's a feeling when you go out riding by yourself of being back 100 years before automobiles and planes. Its a feeling of wonder. You have a great animal to go out with. Its very spiritual." It's a classic song in the Old West.
For the lowdown on Dave Hoekstra's ride with Custard and a post-ride recipe for the killer Rancho de los Caballeros Prickly Pear Margarita, pony up to the Scratch Crib blog at http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoekstra/.