Laura Schara

Many of us have fond childhood memories of RV road trips taken with our families. Mine tended to revolve around family reunions. The campsites we stayed at most often were the definition of simple: basically dirt parking spots with some spotty electricity. There were no fancy showers or bathrooms, no on-site grocery stores. We spent our days tubing down lazy rivers, fishing and cooking over campfires.

Visiting Brush Creek Ranch in Saratoga, Wyoming, has been on my wish list for years. This all-inclusive working cattle ranch nestled in Medicine Bow National Forest effortlessly preserves the spirit of the American West as well as its own unique heritage. The property sprawls across 30,000 acres, with something for everyone to do. An invite to a friend’s birthday celebration at Brush Creek was all the motivation I needed to hop on a plane and head out west.

I was told to “get comfortable being uncomfortable” years ago, and this has become one of my mantras. I have repeated those words to myself many times during outdoor adventures, tough workouts, challenging professional projects and more. In fact, it was one of the reasons I decided to try winter fly-fishing in Big Sky, Montana. I knew I was signing up for a challenge — cold hands and feet, exposure to nature’s elements, slow fish bites and the chance of no trout on the end of my line.