If you wish to hang out with a TRUE Texas Cowboy and Cowgirl, head to the Bar H Dude Ranch. This is not your average dude ranch where guest are treated like "city slickers". Here you are treated like FAMILY! Ignore the less than 5 star accomodations and just relax and enjoy the "layed back" life on the Texas Panhandle. Frank and Dee Dee instantly make you feel at home and if you love 4 hours of horseback riding a day, great meals and a swim in the pool, this is the place to stay.

The Bar H is super authentic. By that I mean that it is not a high dollar spot designed specifically for wealthy people who want to play cowboy and go shoot things (although you can do that). It is more like you are on a family's ranch home, with a cabin room. They live there, carry on life there, and carry on the normal business of the ranch there. They welcomed us in and let us participate as much or little as we wanted. Because we were just passing through and not there to work on the ranch, I can't comment on that aspect, but there were other people there who went boar hunting and seemed to have a good time. They have buffalo and other animals on the grounds.

We set up a hog hunt at this place. We made it clear we wanted to hunt with bows and they told us they could accommodate that as the feeders had lights on them. After make the 40 mile drive from the ranch to the start of where Jimmy the guide starts staggering us in blinds, he starts making comments like, not sure if you can shoot a bow out of this blind or not. Then even dropped one guy off and said, "can't shoot a bow out of this one". Figuring the lights on the feeders had enough light to shoot a bow, which is what they told us, luckily we took rifles too. In addition to this, he was turning the feeders on as we got there. So these hogs weren't even used to coming into the feeders since they hadn't been running for who knows how long. So, I get all set up in my blind and wait for evening to set in. While sitting there, I realized that the guide (which I'm using this term loosly by now) hadn't set up my feeder. So, I had to climb down out of the blind and figure out how to turn the thing on. As time moved on, all evening brought me was darkness. My feeder didn't have a light as promised. In checking in with the other guys who were at 3 other blinds, one had a motion light which was good, and the other two had VERY dim lights. An animal could not have been identified under it. We regrouped, drove the 40 miles back to the ranch comparing notes and confronted the guide on arrival. He again said we should have been able to use the lights to see through a scope. I explained I didn't have any lights on mine, and his comment was "oh, well I have a light on my scope". In complete frustration, we gathered up a spot light, NOT provided by the ranch and headed back out on the 40 miles trek. We got there, set up and waited until about 3:00 AM. Nothing, so after examining all 4 blinds and not seeing a single hog track, we went back to the ranch. The guide was supposed to check some trail cams at other blinds so we figured we'd make a game plan based on that. So during breakfast it was discovered that the batteries were dead in the trail cam so we had no info. As breakfast came out, the cook explained to my friend that one of his sausages fell on the ground so she didn't give him that one. That evidently meant, sorry about your luck, your sausage hit the dirt, so you're only getting one today. On that note we decided to not hunt at this ranch any longer. The beds in the lodging were poor at best, their preparation for the hunt was terrible, in fact nonexistent. The guide was somebody who evidently didn't give a care about anything and was very lazy, we only had one meal there, but it was average at best, and the misrepresentation of the hunt as a whole was unbelievable! I have many, many other little items, but all in all the place was awful. This had nothing to do with not seeing game - that's hunting. It was how the hunt was misrepresented. Had we took only our bows, we wouldn't even been able to hunt.

I have been a guest at the Bar H every November for the last four years. The TenHigh outfitter service bases its hunting operations there during Nov and Dec each year. The ranch is in a perfect location for the best whitetail and mule deer hunting in the state. My son and I have both harvested the best deer in our lives with the expert guides from TenHigh. The ranch owners are able to keep everyone happy by providing outstanding service to both its riding guests as well as the hunters.
The lodge and rooms are rustic but nice, and include all the modern necessities. That is just what you would expect from a real "Dude Ranch".The food is GREAT!. Frank makes the best Ribeye steak I have ever had! You will be treated like family. These are real down to earth honest people. If you want the "real experience" of an authentic Texas ranch, this is it. I look forward to this experience each year and I have taken friends with me who can't say enough good things about their trip. It is a long drive from Alabama, but well worth the trip.
If you are looking for an outstanding deer hunt at a fair price and great accomodations, contact the Bar H. They will put you in touch with TenHigh outfitters to book your hunt.