"Another day in paradise!"

I'm sure I've been on horse trips with people who grow weary of hearing me use that exclamation, but I can't help it. When I get to spend a day or a week on horseback living the cowboy life, it's another day in paradise! And I wish everyone could have the same experience.

There's just something about stepping up into the saddle that makes the real world disappear, and transports you into a much better place: the cowboy world. And there's no place more comfortable or relaxing than sitting on the back of a well-trained horse.

Now I know about the two-hour trail ride you went on years ago, how you bounced around in the saddle and how sore you were when you got off the horse. But that won't happen if you learn to ride. Just like driving a car, anyone can learn. You just have to want to ride. And there's no shortage of opportunities. It's like learning to ski. Many people snow ski once. They spend the day falling down, say that's no fun, and never try again. But spend a week at a ski resort with a good instructor, and you'll be getting the hang of it by Wednesday. At week's end, you may want to move to a ski town.

Learning to ride is exactly the same. Go to a dude ranch for a week and let them know you're serious about learning to ride. While different ranches have different programs, they're all experts at making nervous city slickers safe and comfortable on horseback. "We can take a guest, bring 'em from a walking ride to a jogging ride to a canter ride where they're comfortable, the horses are safe and they're having a great time," says John Loftis, owner of the Kay El Bar Ranch in Wickenburg, Ariz. "And they go away from here saying, 'You know, I learned how to ride a horse!'"

Riding is at the heart of the nation's dude ranches, which also do much to preserve an important part of the nation's Western heritage. The Kay El Bar, for example, is on the National Register of Historic Places. "We love to show people the way the West was and can still be," adds Loftis.

You can give yourself a head start by enrolling in one of the many riding programs offered at stables and colleges around the country. I thought I knew something about riding until I took a few classes at the very enlightening horsemanship program at Pierce College in Los Angeles. I not only learned the fundamentals of riding (like how to comfortably handle a trot) but also was taught how to bridle, saddle, and groom a horse.

A great way to take your riding skills up a few notches is by visiting three working ranch families that call themselves the Russell Country Ridgeriders. For a week in the spring and one week in the fall, guests get the chance to live the real Montana cowboy life.

In June, you'll roundup and brand calves, then go on a real cattle drive as you move them dogies to their summer pasture. September guests participate in the fall roundup, working as one of the crew. And it all happens in the legendary and beautiful area of Montana known as the Missouri Breaks.

When you arrive, you'll be matched with a ranch horse that will be yours for the week. And while you'll have plenty of freedom, you'll also have real Montana cowboys and cowgirls by your side, guiding and teaching you horsemanship, handling cattle and other skills. You can even learn to drive a wagon!

I had that opportunity on the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive. I actually got to ride on a historic Saratoga wagon, spending half a day on the front seat next to John Schwartzer, as he drove his team of horses. While it's Conestoga wagons you see most often in the movies, Schwartzer says the smaller and lighter Saratogas were easier on animals and the type used most often by pioneers crossing the plains. The harness looks like a complicated can of worms to me, but John can almost hook up the team in his sleep. "I appreciate the simplicity of how well it works," said the civil engineer." primitive, but effective."

It was one of seven authentic wagons along for the five-day cattle drive. I was one of four dozen guests, driving some 300 cows the better part of 100 miles through the high desert outside Reno. The last day we drove the herd right through the city, where cheering crowds that lined the streets made us feel like conquering heroes.

The only problem with that exciting conclusion is that it meant the very memorable trip was over. It all began with that first night in camp, buzzing with excitement, as cowboy wannabes from all over the country realized they were about to make their own personal City Slickers fantasy come true.

After meeting our horses, guests were divided into teams, each led by one of the very experienced wranglers along for the ride. On the trail, each team took turns riding the different positions on the cattle drive, such as drag (the rear) or right and left swing. The wagons carried our personal gear as we drove the herd. A friendly crew of volunteers had camp ready when we rode in at the end of the day. There we enjoyed excellent food, a wellstocked bar and evening entertainment around the campfire. Hearing award winning Western singer-songwriter Dave Stamey perform his wagon train song "Wheels," with the covered wagons circled up behind him, was especially memorable.

For people who've dreamed about this for years, actually getting to do it can be pretty emotional. "Absolutely wonderful," smiled Ohio guest Karen Erb at the end of her first day's ride. "It's a very, very moving experience for me... absolutely."

As the week wears on, it just gets better. Your body gets accustomed to days in the saddle and nights camping out. Keeping your eye on the cows and paying attention to your horse takes your mind off the rest of the world. Trading stories in camp about adventures along the trail builds a growing bond of cowboy camaraderie every day. And after we rode into town, the 48-year-old Erb told a local TV news crew that the cattle drive was, ".the greatest thing that's ever happened to me."

I hear similar reactions on every cowboy adventure. Take the Bishop-to-Bodie ride for example. There are no cattle to drive, but like Reno, there are people taking your picture as you ride into town at journey's end. However, this time it's the genuine ghost town of Bodie, Calif.

The remains of the historic ghost town.

Now a State Historic Park, Bodie was the quintessential Wild West mining town and a dangerous one at that. Legend has it a gunfight left someone dead most every day. Today it looks like the set of a Clint Eastwood western, except it's real!

As exciting as it is to actually ride into a ghost town, the best part is getting there. You can bring your own horse, or ride one of the fine mounts provided by Red's Meadow. The outfitter's very able crew of wranglers will lead you through four days of riding through some of the most unspoiled country left in California. Hard to imagine you're in the same state as congested Los Angeles as you look out on vast, wide-open country of sand, sage, and snow-covered mountains. Along the way, you see mysterious petroglyphs left by the Indians who once lived here, more recent ruins from 19th century pioneers and the wild horses that live here today.

The horses, the country, the creak of the saddle, the clear blue sky, the taste of dinner around a campfire-it's all great. But what makes a trip like this really special are the people you meet. There's the airline pilot, school superintendent, and the woman who takes troubled city kids to the wilderness, showing them a world they've never known. And how many people can tell you what a grizzly bear's breath smells like? I heard that story as I rode with a National Park Ranger who played dead to survive a very close encounter with a grizzly in Yellowstone. But in the saddle, we're all cowboys! And as we rode into that ghost town where the Wild West really happened, you just knew every tourist snapping pictures wanted to trade places with you.

Millions of tourists have visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, where General George Armstrong Custer fought his last stand. Now you can ride horses where Custer rode in the days before that epic battle against Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Just 20 miles from the battlefield, on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, lies the F Heart Ranch. Owner Rowdy Alexander can give you a horseback tour of the still unspoiled country where Custer and his men rode in pursuit of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

From atop a ridge, Rowdy points out Davis Creek, which Custer and the 7th Cavalry splashed through on the way to meet their fate. To the west lies the ridge known as the Crow's Nest, where Custer's Crow scouts could see the immense pony herds of the Indian village and warned him to turn back. Just beyond that ridge lies the Battlefield National Monument. "I'm able to take 'em out horseback and see the reservation from a completely different point of view," Rowdy says. "Plus the amount of history that's here is phenomenal."

Along with that history, Rowdy also offers his guests the chance to learn about presentday Cheyenne life and meet tribal members working to preserve their culture. He also has access to private ranch land adjoining the reservation where both Custer and Sitting Bull camped before their legendary clash at the Little Bighorn.

That makes for a great trip. But there are tens of thousands of people all over the country who relive the Wild West all year long in their own hometown. Every weekend men and women put on a Stetson and spurs, strap on a holster with a Colt .45-caliber, pull that trigger and blaze away. We're talking about the Single Action Shooting Society, better known as SASS. Its 75,000 members participate in the fast growing outdoor shooting sport known as Cowboy Action Shooting.

Simply put, Cowboy Action Shooting is timed, competitive target shooting using the guns of the Old West. Dressed in mandatory period clothing, competitors use single action pistols, rifles, and shotguns that are either identical or very similar to the ones used in the late 1800s. (Those guns are still manufactured today by Colt and a variety of other companies.) And to leave the real world even further behind, everyone goes by an Old West alias during SASS events. (Mine was Josey Rawlins-Josey as in The Outlaw Josey Wales. Rawlins was the family focused on in How The West Was Won. Okay, I'm obsessed. I admit it!) Matches are often held at shooting ranges dressed up to look something like Dodge City. With everyone packin' six guns and outfitted as if they'd just ridden in from 1876, it's easy to imagine you really are in the Old West.

But it's all very safe. Safety is the number one priority of SASS. No one is allowed to walk around with a loaded gun. Guns are only loaded under the supervision of a range master just before a competitor shoots. Once that shooting turn is over, the guns are rechecked to make sure they're empty.

With safety assured, the fun can begin! At a typical "stage" (as a round of shooting is called), a competitor fires off six rounds from a pistol, holsters it, blazes away at another target with a lever-action Winchester, then finishes off with a couple of blasts from a shotgun. "Oh it's fun!" smiles Colorado Katie, also known as Californian Lee Lindell, one of the sport's many women competitors.

Lee's been target shooting since she was a kid in Illinois. But this is the most fun with a gun she's ever had. "It's a little bit more difficult because you have to do things in order...and you're on the clock." she explains. Matches are usually a weekend affair. And when the shooting stops, the smoke in the air often changes from gunpowder to charcoal. The guns go in the trunk, the steak goes on the grill, and the men, women, and children of SASS kick back for some Old West style dinner, dancing, and socializing.

"So it is a little bit of a social club too," beams Lee from under her broad-brimmed hat. "That's one reason why I like it a lot!" And you're welcome to join the party. SASS members have been known even to loan their guns so newcomers can give their cherished sport a try. Don Busik, aka Gunhawk, got the treatment the first time he showed up at a match. "They said, 'Well come on, shoot... you look like a cowboy,' and I said, "Well, I don't have any guns! And about five cowboys jumped in, and were handin' me rifles and shotguns..."

There are SASS affiliated clubs in all 50 states and 18 foreign countries. The national organization hosts a number of major events during the year, including a world championship and Wild West celebration known as END of TRAIL, held outside Albuquerque, N.M., at the SASS-owned Founders Ranch.

Another group takes competitive Old West shooting a step further: shooting from horseback! Cowboy Mounted Shooting is something like barrel racing with guns. Riders race a predetermined course using real single-action handguns to shoot 10 balloon targets set up in a riding arena. The guns are loaded with blanks, but the powder from that blank round is enough to break the balloon, if the rider fires the gun properly and in the right direction. "So by using the blanks, you have the sound and the black powder and the smoke," says Joe Whitely. "But it's really safe, and we don't have to worry about... shooting anybody."

Remember, you're riding a horse as fast as you can, making turns, and using a singleaction gun, which means you have to pull the trigger back every time you take a shot. It's not easy! But man, is it fun!

"Kinda like potato chips!" laughs former Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association World Champion Kim Harmon. "Can't eat just one!"

I met Kim at a match of the California Desperados, one of the country's bigger CMSA chapters. Like SASS, CMSA requires everyone to dress in the period clothing of the late 1800s. But dressing up is a great part of the fun. "Where else can you go and relive the Old West and shoot off your horse and have a good time?" says Desperado President Whitely.

Modern day gunslingers of the Single Action Shooting Society blaze away with Old West style rifles, shotguns, and single action Colts-but no one gets hit but the target!

These guys are also a very welcoming bunch. Joe even loaned me his six-guns and his horse and let me ride a few rounds. What a blast! (no pun intended).

You do need a horse to participate in CMSA, and that usually means a truck and a trailer as well. With no horse involved, SASS is, of course, less money. Either way, you're certain to find plenty of likeminded friends and have a great time.

While SASS and CMSA celebrate the West that was, there's a historic cowboy town where you can experience the West as it is today. In fact, The Real West is the slogan you'll see on the sign as you drive into Pendleton, Ore., home of the world famous Pendleton Round-Up.

Held every September since 1910, the Round-Up is one of the oldest and most prestigious rodeos in the world. With its grass infield, wooden chute gates, and absence of advertising banners, Pendleton's rodeo grounds radiate an aura of authenticity. And even if you're not a big rodeo fan, there are many other reasons to be here.

Every evening during the Round-Up, local Native Americans present the Happy Canyon Night Show, billed as the World's Most Unique Indian Pageant. The spectacular outdoor play with a cast of about 500 people tells the story of the area's history, complete with horseback warriors, soldiers, horse drawn wagons, and exciting gun battles.

Hundreds of tribal members spend the week in a massive tepee village adjacent to the rodeo arena. It's quite a sight to see dozens of full-size tepees, horses, and Native American men and women wearing the same priceless, authentic war bonnets and beaded buckskin clothing their grandparents and great grandparents wore.

Downtown Pendleton is also rich in living history. Main Street was once the home stretch of the Oregon Trail. Pendleton's Wild West era boasted a thriving Chinatown and a busy red-light district, and the city's Old Town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Beneath the downtown sidewalks you can take the fascinating Pendleton Underground Tour, and see where Chinese immigrants were once forced to live. The last stop on the Underground Tour is a visit to one of the actual brothels that didn't shut down for good until the 1950s.

The historic Rainbow Cafe is a must see, where the walls bear the pictures of every Pendleton Round-Up champion since the rodeo began. It is party central during the rodeo with a wall-to-wall crowd-living proof the West can still be wild.

But my favorite place is the historic saddle shop that's become the shining centerpiece of downtown Pendleton: Hamley & Company. Founded more than a century ago in the same building where it operates today, Hamley made saddles that were the prized possession of generations of working cowboys. The brand fell on hard times and was in danger of disappearing altogether, until two cowboy entrepreneurs who grew up riding Hamley saddles stepped in and resurrected the business in a spectacular way. Parley Pearce and Blair Woodfield have created what many people call the finest Western store in the country.

It's hard to argue. Three stories tall and remodeled and resurrected to Western perfection, Hamley's today includes a working custom saddle shop, Western art gallery, and a store stocked with anything a cowboy or cowgirl would want. It's the kind of place where you can spend hours and be happy supporting with your hard earned money.

Topping off the third floor is the new Slickfork Saloon. With its historic bar, tin ceiling and hardwood floors, you'll feel like you're stepping back in time. The Slickfork today hosts the best names in Western music, including Don Edwards, Ian Tyson, and new talent like Juni Fisher. I heard Ian and Juni in separate shows during the 2006 Round-Up, as I enjoyed a prime rib dinner. Listening to the great Western songs of those very talented performers in the rich and intimate atmosphere of the Slickfork was a real treat! You can explore the area's Native American heritage at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute just outside Pendleton. And if the rodeo atmosphere makes you feel like getting on a horse, the nearby Bar M Ranch will be happy to accommodate you.

While it's just 30 miles from Pendleton, the 3,000-acre Bar M has a remote ambiance that makes you feel like you're a thousand miles away. Tucked in a valley in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, the Bar M began as a stagecoach stop in the 1860s. The original two-story, hand-hewn log inn and stage depot is now the main lodge. I slept in the same room where weary 19thcentury stagecoach travelers once spent the night. The rugged inn also once provided a refuge from harrowing Indian attacks. Legend has it that arrowheads from those raids have been dug out of the logs over the years.

Today, what strikes you most about the Bar M is its peace and quiet and remote feel. Saddle up, and ride an easy trail to the top of a ridge overlooking the valley as the Blue Mountains loom in the distance. Experience the quiet, and taste the clean air as a wrangler points out the old stagecoach route. Ah yes, another day in paradise. These are just a few of the many ways you can find your own day in paradise throughout the American West. Come this summer, and see what that's like!