The Retreat & Links at Silvies Valley Ranch is a wonder of Oregon’s high desert country. Located south of Seneca off Highway 395, the boutique resort has been operating since a soft opening in 2017.

The Hankins and Craddock golf courses, reversible overlapping 18-hole courses designed by Dan Hixson, and the McVeigh’s Gauntlet 7-hole ridge course, featuring goats as caddies, were recognized respectively by Golf Magazine and Golf Digest.

Guests can also play the Chief Egan course, a mountain meadow 9-hole par-3 course.

Founded in 1883, the ranch’s 140,000 acres of deeded and leased land in Silvies Valley is home to mountain meadows, ponderosa pine forests and the Silvies River drainage. Ranch hands manage 2,600 goats and 4,500 head of cattle.

The Retreat & Links at Silvies Valley Ranch is a 34-room resort offering luxurious accommodations, fine dining and a conference center.

The Lodge at Silvies Valley Ranch was recognized as one of the 13 most spectacular golf course restaurants by Golf Magazine, and Chef Damon Jones, recognized as a premiere ranch-to-table chef, was recently selected as the Chef of the Year by the Oregon Beef Council.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served ranch-style every day at long wooden tables shared by guests, staff and management. The beef and chevon comes from grass-fed cows and free-range goats raised on the ranch, and the meat is USDA-certified organic.

Ranch-style meals at Silvies include seven courses featuring what’s available locally and what’s in season, Jones said. Silvies grows some herbs and vegetables in a micro garden and greenhouses. Local ranchers are invited to a more laid-back, buffet-style ranch barbecue on Fridays.

Summertime visitors can enjoy cattle drives, rifle and pistol shooting, fishing in the ranch’s ponds and creeks, and mountain biking on the two-track trails that crisscross the ranch.

That includes shooting at the pistol range, long-distance sharpshooter range and the Western-style range, where guests shoot lever-action, open-sight rifles at metal targets that ping when they get knocked down.

New to Silvies this year is the 17,000-square-foot Rocking Heart Spa, featuring a half-width Olympic-length lap pool, an indoor climbing wall and a complete assortment of fitness equipment.

Guests also will enjoy the Jacuzzi tubs, steam saunas, single and couples massage treatment rooms, a special manicure and pedicure salon and a quiet room outfitted with a stone fireplace.

The resort also offers a wide range of winter activities, from snowshoeing and cross-country skiing on the snow-covered golf courses to ice fishing and ATV tours.

A fun new winter attraction for families is “cool golf” played with tennis balls and large cups on the Chief Egan course. Ozzie and Arnold, the Clydesdale horses that pull guests on wagon rides in the summer, are being trained to pull a sleigh for winter guests.

For more information, call 541-573-5150 or 1-800-SILVIES, email info@silvies.us or visit online at www.silvies.us/contact_retreat.php.