How to live the Wild West dream in Arizona's cowboy country

“Everyone wants to be John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, don’t they?” Jeff Sayers is grinning as he unbuckles his dusty chaps after another thrilling day in the saddle.

I didn’t travel to Arizona with any underlying Wayne, Eastwood or even Westworld-style cowboys-and-indians fantasies, but within an hour or two of being on the ranch, I was a convert: whistling the theme tune to The Magnificent Seven and feeling totally at ease in Stetson and leather boot combo.

On these ranches, the history and soul of the Old West is just a coating of dust away. After ten days at three very different ranches across Arizona, not only did my wife and I learn how to ride a horse Western-style – and do battle with rattlesnakes – but we had been taken back 150 years to a simpler time that began with chuckwagon breakfasts at dawn and ended gazing out at forked cacti on craggy peaks, silhouetted against starry night skies.

Getting on a horse for the first time in 25 years at White Stallion Ranch was terrifying, but once upright, the Western style of riding felt instantly more comfortable and easier than the rigid UK horse riding of my childhood.

Friendly but direct, the wranglers did not mess about. After a very brief instructional, we were on our first walking ride, and our first proper look at the Sonoran Desert up close. It was utterly thrilling – I was subconsciously grinning like a fool until my cheeks hurt.

A dusty narrow path wove its way through cacti and rock. Jackrabbits and coyotes scampered away as the horses made unflappable progress up into the hills, dust devils swirled around their hooves, unending species of birds swooped beside us, eagles glided overhead and vultures grouped together ominously. There was dust in our eyes, mouths, hair, under our fingernails, caked on our jeans. It was, as one of our party said, “hotter than the hubcaps of hell”, but our Stetsons came into their own – and a swim and ice-cold beer back at the ranch left us refreshed and desperate for more.

By the second day we were no longer clinging on for dear life. A couple of lessons helped build confidence and we learnt how to post (trot). My horse, Magnum, would occasionally look back at his heavy, 6ft 4in, graceless rider with a combination of pity and contempt – but he never really complained and was generously rewarded with biscuits.

White Stallion Ranch itself dates back to the early 1900s but has been recently modified, in keeping with the Old West style, and features cosy, detached bungalows complete with outdoor fireplaces on the porches. The rooms aren’t luxurious – “it’s not a chocolate-on-the-pillow type of place” – but are supremely comfortable. 

In the cool of the night, an ethereal peace descends on the desert; the air is heavy with scent and the only sounds are the wind in the trees and an occasional whinny. The dining room serves up homely, hearty food – think barbecue ribs, fried chicken – while the bar area is perfect for unwinding in the evenings, sharing a bottle of wine with new friends from all over the world who visited as either singles, couples, groups or whole families. Every evening, we certainly felt saddle sore – both from the riding and the saddle bar stools that we sat on for hours on end chatting away, not a smartphone or TV in sight.

After a reluctant departure from White Stallion, we drove through stunning landscapes two hours south to ranch number two. Tombstone Monument Ranch is more rough and ready, and there is a gimmicky side beyond the Wild West replica: a man dressed as Wyatt Earp was running a poker game in the saloon bar the night we arrived. Each room is a shopfront on the old main street, replete with porch and rocking chairs – a slightly contrived set-up it just manages to get away with, sitting as it does just outside the town of Tombstone and beneath the atmospheric burial place of Ed Schieffelin, the prospector credited with being first to discover silver in the area and with founding the historic town in 1879.

Under the watchful eye of David, the ranch’s wrangler, who “hasn’t been east of New Mexico in more than 30 years”, our riding kicked on a level. We stepped up from posting (trotting) to loping (cantering), which was teeth-rattling, dust-flying fun. The terrain was rougher than at White Stallion and we were repeatedly scratched by cacti as our horses bounded around the rocky hills.

On the second day, we graduated to a half-day outing, and rode into Tombstone. The place has an incredibly rich history rooted in the mining prospectors – and all their related shenanigans – and its past is the only reason the town “too tough to die” still functions today. This really was where cowboys chased indians and where there was once gold – and lots of it – in them thar hills. The tour of the OK Corral and re-enactment of the famed gunfight was fun, while the main street, with its swing-door saloon bars, shooting ranges and tanneries, is like an adults’ theme park in itself. After the long ride back to the ranch, past Old Ed’s tomb, we certainly had raw hides and sore backs, coupled with a huge sense of achievement.

The next morning, we enjoyed a chuckwagon breakfast – and yarns – hosted by “Arizona Bill”. Crispy bacon, sausage, rice and scrambled eggs laced with chilli have never tasted as good. 

The final ranch of our trip, Rancho de la Osa, was also the most beautiful, right on the Mexican border and surrounded by the Pozo Verde mountain range to the west, San Luis range to the east and the majestic and spiritual Baboquivari Peak to the north, which is 7,730ft high and lauded by the Papago Indians as the home of the god of creation.

Originally built as a Spanish Jesuit mission in the 1700s, the centrepiece of de la Osa is a beautiful cantina that is the oldest continually occupied building in Arizona. It became a working cattle homestead at around the time of the American Civil War, but as the ranch has evolved and expanded, it has never lost its Spanish-colonial and Mexican charm.

The buildings are the colours of an Arizona sky: cobalt blue, orange, pink, purple and all shades of red. Towering eucalyptus trees give welcome shade from the sun-drenched courtyard, and deckchairs by the stylish swimming pool or on one of the many verandas are the perfect place to read or doze.

De la Osa acted as hideaway of the great and good of the Democratic party in the Forties and Fifties, with luminaries such as Lyndon B Johnson among regular visitors. William Clayton wrote the Marshall Plan here. John Wayne and Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell were also regulars: conversations around the hacienda dining table must have been quite something.

We took a Jeep drive along several miles of the US-Mexico border. For much of it, there’s a large fence, patrolled by border force guards. We saw a small group of people waiting for nightfall to take their chance and make the crossing. When the fence hits the Tohono O’Odham Nation Reservation, it abruptly stops, and it’s possible to step over the border into Mexico. The reservation has vowed to do everything possible to prevent the building of President Donald Trump’s border wall and protect their ancient territory, where they have lived since long before there was any border at all.

Following a hearty lunch served by host Lynne that featured many products grown in the ranch gardens, we walked up a small hill overlooking the ranch to de la Osa’s overgrown, slightly spooky cemetery. Bending down to look at an old grave, I was greeted by the unmistakable rattle nearby of a certain type of deadly snake and then another rattle directly behind me – a near miss and chilling reminder that this can be hard country.

As the sun’s blaze cooled, there was just time left for a late afternoon ride on greener and more gentle tracks than at Tombstone – and one last opportunity to breathe in the unique sights and smells of the Sonoran. It was time to return to 21st-century life, but the desert will stay with us.

The essentials

British Airways (ba.com), in conjunction with American Airlines, operates direct flights between London Heathrow and Phoenix from about £750 return in July. 

White Stallion Ranch (whitestallion.com) packages cost from $216 (£170) a night.

Tombstone Monument Ranch (tombstonemonumentranch.com) start at about $204 a night.

Rancho de la Osa (ranchodelaosa.com) cost from about $185 a night. 

Prices do not include service fees of 15 per cent or taxes.