Travel To The Luxury Lodges of America With Fox Nation’s Katie Pavlich

Explore Some Of America's Most Wild Hunting & Fishing Lodges

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If you’re an outdoorsman and haven’t seen an episode of the Fox Nation show Luxury Hunting Lodges of America, you owe it to yourself to do so. And one of the best reasons for watching is Katie Pavlich, the host of the show and an accomplished young huntress who helps make the program one of today’s most interesting, and off-beat, hunting shows on television. 

Luxury Hunting Lodges of America takes viewers along as Pavlich adventures to some of the most mind-blowing hunting and fishing lodges throughout the country, from Texas to Alaska and from Louisiana to California. Along the way, viewers get to “visit” lodges they likely wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience during their normal hunting travels. 

Katie Pavlich Is Hooked On Hunting 

Host Katie Pavlich isn’t just a pretty face, although she is quite attractive. Growing up with a father who is an avid hunter, she has been there, and done that when it comes to pursuing game animals throughout the nation—and with plenty of success from the very start. 

An Arizona native whose family has lived there since before statehood, Katie Pavlich’s first hunt was a combination deer/elk hunt. However, it had somewhat of an interesting twist that posed a challenge. 

“My dad’s a big hunter and he couldn’t wait for his only daughter—I’m the oldest and have a younger brother—to get out hunting with him,” she said. “He took us shooting when we were young and saw to our firearm safety. Then when I was 11 years old, he took me on my first elk and deer hunt, which he was so excited about. He accidentally put me in for both elk and deer on the same weekend, but the hunts were five hours apart. So, we ended up doing both in the same weekend and were successful. So that’s when I was hooked.” 

Of course, any talk of mentors for Katie’s hunting career always leads back to one man. And that man, unsurprisingly, is her father. 

“My dad is definitely my mentor,” she said. “He taught me everything about hunting, and whenever I can I try to get out and hunt with him. He’s still out there hunting whenever he can. If he could do it all the time, he would. He just loves being in the mountains and the great outdoors.” 

Since that first hunt with her father, Katie has pursued many species in different locations around the country and the world. When pressed to name her all-time favorite hunt, Katie said, “I did an antelope horseback trip with my dad a couple of years ago in Wyoming, and that was amazing. We were on this remote ranch riding horses and had to work to find the antelope because they were very skittish. And the area was just spectacular. 

“I’ve always loved hunting elk. And then, of course, upland bird hunting is really fun, too, because it can be kind of a group activity. I think western hunting is probably my favorite genre.” 

Katie On Living The Outdoors Life 

Now living in Virginia pursuing her already successful career as a contributor for Fox News, Katie doesn’t get to hunt as often as she used to each year. But the Fox Nation show has given her a lot of extra opportunities in many great places. 

“The show was an idea of a producer on the Fox Nation team, and they came to me because I think I was the only one qualified, the only one with the experience in-house to really take on the project,” she said. “So, the combination of a real estate show and hunting, and I fit the mold. So luckily I got the assignment. I knew it would be a lot of work, but it was a very exciting opportunity. So, I said ‘yes’ pretty quickly. I mean, if you’re going to have to work, this is the kind of work you want to be doing. Right?” 

Through the program’s first three seasons, Katie has visited more than a dozen different lodges, all luxurious, and all with something special to offer when it comes to hunting and fishing. And the experience has been exciting for both her and the audience. 

“So far, I’ve been able to visit 15 amazing ranches and lodges and I think the part that I love the most is the people that I’ve been able to meet—the people who own these ranches, what they do for conservation, the private/public partnerships that they’ve done to reintroduce wildlife and to clean up the environment. I mean, it’s just amazing what these people do.” 

Adventures Afield 

While the exquisite lodges Katie Pavlich visits have luxury accommodations and gourmet chefs, there’s also some danger involved, but Katie brushes that aside taking it as simply part of the job. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever really felt in danger, but definitely overly excited,” she said. “And there have been some challenging situations, like when we were out in Wyoming doing some predator management and it was -6 degrees. That was a little rough.” 

Katie jokingly continued with, “I stepped in a pile of fire ants in Louisiana. So, maybe that was when I was in a little bit of danger. That was very uncomfortable.” 

While hunting continues to be a male-dominated sport, more and more women are entering our ranks every year, and that’s a good thing. I wondered aloud if Katie ever experienced any pushback from being a woman doing a hunting show. 

“Everyone’s been pretty supportive actually,” she said. “Of course, you have some of the nonhunters who don’t like it, but that’s to be expected. You can’t please everybody.  

“But I think it’s a good intro for people out there who don’t know so much about hunting. It’s a kind of a combination show where you get to see the lodge and the history of these places too and the interesting nuggets here and there along with the hunting. So, I think it’s a good entry level for people.” 

Katie hopes that the show resonates with viewers and that people just hearing about the show will check out some episodes. And she hopes it shines a light on not only fantastic lodges but important conservation efforts. 

“The goal of the show for me personally is to show off the work that private hunters, private enterprises, and other people voluntarily do for conservation, the outdoors, and wildlife,” she said. 

“But the real goal of the show is to show off the lodges, the different things that they offer, the different kinds of people who are there and to really give people a different look at a side of hunting that they don’t always see.” 

Like most humble people, Katie Pavlich gives most of the credit for the show’s success to all of the people working behind the scenes to make sure every episode is as good as it can be. 

“The success is definitely the great team that gets us to these amazing lodges and the crew and the photographers who go around and make the show look and feel the way it does,” she said. “It’s always just very well organized in the editing and the final product. I think that’s really why it’s a success. 

“Plus, they make it exciting even if I don’t always get something. That’s why it’s called hunting. And, even on those episodes, they make me look pretty good.” 

Wrapping It Up 

Katie and her crew have completed filming all five shows for Season 3 and with the big presidential election coming up she’ll be back on the political beat. But whether she’s in the studio or visiting a fantastic hunting lodge in some faraway place, she’ll probably be thinking about her next hunt 

“We’ll see if we get another season, but for now we’re just riding high off of Season 3,” she said. “The future right now is on the election. So, we’ll get through that and see what happens, take a breather, and just continue working hard every day on the news. But I’m excited to be doing some fun side projects like the Fox Nation series as well.”  

How To Binge Luxury Hunting Lodges of America 

You can watch Luxury Hunting Lodges of America by downloading the Fox Nation app or by going to the Fox Nation website. All three seasons are available for viewing. 

“They’re shorter episodes, so they’re kind of bite-sized,” Katie said. “You don’t have to sit for an hour to watch an episode. One of the reasons I think it is so successful is that you get a lot of action packed into a short, 25-minute episode.”

Katie Pavlich’s Top Three Luxury Lodges 

With so many adventures, it’s difficult for Katie to pick her single favorite lodge where they’ve filmed the show. But she can narrow it down to a few that offer unique opportunities. 

Three Forks Ranch

“I think my top is Three Forks Ranch on the Colorado-Wyoming border,” she said. “We went there the first season and it’s just a spectacular, amazing place and they have a really great conservation story. David Pratt, the owner, funded the largest private river restoration in the history of the country on their ranch. So that was an amazing property, but also an amazing story.”

Wing and Barrel Ranch

Next up is the Wing and Barrel Ranch in California, which also offered a unique experience, and one very unlike that experienced at Three Forks. “It’s an upland bird-hunting ranch, and they also do a ton of wine and food out there,” she said. “And it was really awesome to see how they have separate qualifications, as it’s a private club. So, all these vintners and winemakers want to get in and sell their wine there. But, Darius Anderson, who’s the owner and founder, said, ‘Look, if you want to be part of this, you have to actually be in the shooting sports industry or be a hunter.’ So, it was really cool that they have these requirements that it’s not just a club, it’s a conservation hunting shooting sports club.”

Cibolo Creek Ranch

Katie’s third favorite was Cibolo Creek Ranch outside of Marfa, Texas. Both learning the history of the area and hunting for an aoudad there are experiences she’ll never forget. “It was an old historic fort that they have turned into a resort, but it looks like a fort and still has the old footprint,” she said. “So, they haven’t really changed anything except for updating the interior. And the history there was just awesome. Plus, the aoudad hunt I went on there this season was pretty cool, too.”