FROM A SWATH of shortgrass prairie to a chain of alpine peaks, early morning light floods the big country of Vermejo, flushing out its inhabitants. Barreling up a ridge near the eastern boundary of the guest ranch, guide Brian Palmer brakes his truck and hands over a pair of binoculars. “I think it’s a golden,” he says, pointing to a majestic eagle soaring in the sky, as we tour the 560,000-acre Ted Turner Reserve.

Palmer says the bird appears to be a mature male. Something in the tilt of its wings seems to turn the eagle into the owner of everything it surveys in this breathtaking northeastern corner of New Mexico. In a way, it is. Turner purchased the historic ranch in 1996 to create an unfenced free-range conserve aimed at recultivating elk and bison populations, in tandem with the philanthropist’s larger goal of preserving and restoring native ecosystems.

Anglers cast for trophy trout. Photograph courtesy of Vermejo, a Ted Turner Reserve/Deann McBride.

Those aims resulted in Turner becoming the country’s second-largest private landowner, as well as the owner of the world’s largest herd of bison. Now guests at the property’s cabins, cottages, and lodges pay for the privilege of wildlife’s ever-presence at Vermejo, which offers a luxury North American safari experience that sits at a crossroads between conservation and connection.

Over the next few hours, we spot two bald eagles, a pronghorn, a few elk, a fleeting cluster of wild horses, and several beaver dams—the latter of which, Palmer notes, can sometimes divert ranch roads. “The beavers get a hall pass,” he says, showing a detour that helps conserve their habitats. “That’s pretty cool because they were dang near trapped out to extinction in New Mexico.”

Vermejo’s visitors stay in guest cottages situated around the main lodge at the ranch headquarters and tend to get up early for activities that include skeet shooting, archery, and horseback riding, along with hiking, mountain or gravel biking, and disc golfing. Expert guides like Palmer, who was raised in nearby Cimarrón and is in his 28th year of working on the property, are key to guest experiences. They design custom hunts during elk, deer, pronghorn, and turkey seasons and guide fishing and fly-fishing via 30 miles of streams and more than a dozen lakes.

Vermejo offers a range of bucket-list experiences, from catching and savoring a native Río Grande cutthroat trout to tackling the Four Peaks Challenge. Photograph courtesy of Vermejo, a Ted Turner Reserve/Deann McBride.

Vermejo bucket-list experiences include catching a native Río Grande cutthroat trout and having it expertly cooked for you; the Four Peaks Challenge, a series of hikes in which guests summit four mountains in five days; and a family-friendly Survivor Challenge, where groups race canoes across a lake, hit archery targets, use flint to start a fire, and build a makeshift shelter. Less structure-oriented visitors can meander the network of self-guided trails, explore the sites of several abandoned mining towns and their towering, eerily empty charcoal ovens, or check out a new via ferrata climbing route.

Palmer says many regular vacationers have generational ties to the place that date back to when the vast property was owned by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler and hosted Hollywood types like Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford. These days, the crowd’s more down-to-earth in the main lodge, where diners are clad in Stetson and Pendleton or Gore-Tex and Carhartt, depending on what they’re up to that day. The dark-wood-paneled central building hosts visitors who trickle in for executive chef Giovanni Lanzante’s three gourmet meals a day, plus evenings spent socializing around the bar and outdoor firepits. Nearby, deer and elk congregate at dawn and dusk.

Chef Giovanni Lanzante grills bison steaks on an open flame. Photograph by Jen Judge.

On my second day at Vermejo, I order the savory bison French dip at lunchtime, served with fresh greens from the greenhouse next door. That afternoon, I see the herd my sandwich came from during a guided trip to the other side of the ranch. We’re following the winter migration of more than 1,200 wild North American bison that have ended up munching grass near the borders of Philmont Scout Ranch. Originating from Yellowstone National Park, the Castle Rock herd has roamed this land for more a century, in increasingly robust numbers.

I watch a couple of young bison jockeying for position on a low bluff. A herd of pronghorn rush past in the distance. The group of guests rewards the moment with a hushed silence. Outside this place, the future of the natural world often seems to hang in the balance. Here, wild hearts beat on, offering the promise of sustainable refuge for everyone who has the good fortune to spend a little time nearby.

Read more: Hunt, fish, ski, and hike to your heart’s content at these outdoorsy retreats.

Casa Grande was Ted Turner’s residence. Photograph courtesy of Vermejo, a Ted Turner Reserve/Ben Clark.

 

DON’T MISS

Vermejo’s dramatic 25,000-square-foot Mission Style stone mansion, Casa Grande, was built in the first decade of the 1900s by then owner William H. Bartlett. Once Ted Turner’s private quarters, the lavish marble guest residence includes a library, billiards room, conservatory, and chef’s kitchen, and is available to book per room or as a 10-bedroom accommodation