As the snow starts to fly in the Southeast Idaho area, there are many options to choose from for a day of fun in the snow.

    Terrain parks, snowmobile trails and ski resorts aplenty offer many choices for those who want to schuss, drive, ride, or flip on the white stuff.

    But if you are looking for a calmer and quieter retreat to the mountains, the hills outside Lava Hot Springs offer a different kind of experience. It’s Baker Ranch, and it’s far from the maddening crowd.

    Baker Ranch Cross Country and Snowshoeing has 1.5 miles of packed trails for cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. A warming hut at the halfway point in the trail offers a heated respite from the chill. With no snowmobiles or ATVs allowed in the area, it is quiet and serene; just you and the snow. And it’s all on private property, part of Baker Ranch, a family owned destination point for recreation in both winter and summer.   

    “There are great views of the whole valley that can be seen on a look-out point about one mile from the starting point,” said Rex Baker, who is the owner and operator of Baker Ranch, along with his wife, Peggy Ann.

    Skiers need to bring their own cross-country skis to Baker Ranch, but it does offer snowshoes for rent.

    “We also have a few sleds and snow tubes to slide down a nearby hill,” added Baker.  

    Baker Ranch started out as a working ranch decades ago by an Australian immigrant.

    “My great grandfather arrived in the Dempsey Valley in 1896, decided to stay and raise his family here,” Baker said. “The place that we are on now was earned by my father, from my grandfather, by taking care of a herd of sheep for him. We purchased it from my parents in the early 1980’s.”

    As time went on, the working ranch started to become a tourist destination.

    “The idea to start the tourism part of the ranch came about mainly from me getting laid off from the railroad,” said Baker.

    This gave the Bakers more time to develop different uses for their ranch property.

    “About 10 years ago, we sold our 50 head of beef cows and jumped in with both feet into the tourism part of the ranch,” Baker said.     

    In 1993 the Bakers started offering the wagon rides, and soon learned that they enjoyed catering to the tourism business. They started offering snowshoeing seven years ago, and added the warming hut.

    “The hut doubles as our ticket office in the summer, which is why I built it on a set of skids, to move it around,” said Baker.

    In the winter the hut is used by skiers, snowboarders, sledders and snow tubers to warm up, rest and eat any snacks they may have brought.  

    The Bakers are not just busy with visitors to their ranch in the winter months when there is snow on the trail, but they also welcome guests to their group horse-drawn wagon ride excursions, complete with a hot dinner and live entertainment. The Ranch has four horse-drawn wagons, and can easily feed 50 to 60 people a night. The ride and dinner takes about three hours and ends just before dark, and are arranged by reservation only.

    “In the late summer, we also get busy picking raspberries in our commercial berry patch,” Baker said. “We feature the berries in ours wagon ride desserts and raspberry lemonade. We also sell fresh berries and are now doing jams and jellies, bottled in our commercial kitchen.”

    Winter or summer, berry-picking season, or waiting for the snow to fall, the Bakers have made their ranch not just a great place for their family to live and work, but also a place for others in Southeast Idaho to take pleasure in.

    “The most enjoyable part of running Baker Ranch is meeting new people all the time,” Baker said. “And hopefully showing them a good time.”