The Closest We've Come to Camping--Coyote Ranch

This weekend, my husband rode his bike in the Hotter 'n Hell Hundred bike rally in Wichita Falls, Texas. This was his 3rd year riding this race with over 13,000 cyclists, but our first year going there with our entire family. We found this placed called Coyote Ranch that had cabins to rent, so we snagged a reservation exactly 1 year in advance for this popular race weekend (hotels are really hard to come by during the race weekend).

We rented one of the loft cabins. It had a front porch and a back porch that wrapped around the side, with four rocking chairs and a dining table on the porches.

The living room with a sofa bed:

The kitchen with a small refrigerator/freezer, 2-burner stove and microwave. We brought our own food with us for the weekend. This is probably the closest we've come to camping, ever.

The loft where the kids slept:

The loft had a futon bed and space for another 3 kids in sleeping bags on the floor. In total, you could sleep 8-9 people in the cabin. Although the loft is very short! Only 2 of my 3 kids could stand up in it.

There was storage under the stairs--or as my kids called it, the Harry Potter room.

The master bedroom with a king-size bed:

The entire cabin was decked out in country western decor. Like this pistol lamp in the bedroom.

There are 24 cabins at the resort and many RV hook-ups. The resort also has a wedding chapel and a few conference centers for receptions and family reunions.

Out the back door, we could walk to some of the park's amenities.

What is that yellow thing in the ground? A jumping pillow!

On the way there, we stopped to play tetherball.

The jumping pillow was a huge hit with my kids! I guess it's like a huge in-ground trampoline.

I got on for a while--it was even fun for teenagers and adults.

As you can see, we stayed on the jumping pillow into the evening both nights.

Near the jumping pillow, there were some wagons to explore:

And a playground:

With a treehouse:

The resort had 2 pools. Neither were huge, but we played at the smaller one with a water slide.

It had a small splash pad, also.

The resort had a stocked fishing pond (which we didn't explore) and some miniature horses.


The office sold ice cream bars and popsicles, which we had a few times.

The resort had a fish fry on Friday night and a grill-out on Saturday night with a band. And it offered breakfast to the cyclists at 4:30 a.m. on the morning of the race.

Overall, we had a great time here while Brian was riding his bike in the race. The kids thought we were on vacation and have asked when we can come back here again. We loved that our kids found such joy in the activities here. We plan on coming here every other year this same weekend for the race. But in the meantime, we've been inspired to check out other cabin rentals within the state of Texas. I think Glen Rose is on our list for next summer.