Trail Riding in Cline River with McKenzie Trails West

Epic postcard views on our ride today

Since the beginning of the trip, Rosie (and Zoe) have been patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) awaiting the day we go horseback riding.

Today was that day.

Since our trail ride didn’t start until 11am, we let the girls sleep in and have a bit of a lazy morning. After a tasty breakfast, we headed across the highway from our campground, and into the compound for McKenzie Trails West.

The set-up was absolutely picturesque - with a beautiful ranch surrounded by spruce forest and towering mountain peaks.  We were quickly given our packed lunches and introduced to our guides and to our horses.

McKenzie Trails West is a family-run outfit, and you really got that feeling as you looked around the compound, and spotted several toddlers and young kids all playing and having a blast.

Rosie being helped onto her horse, Rosie.

The horses were all beautiful and they definitely had individual personalities.  Rosie was thrilled to be riding an eponymous (though male) horse called Rosie. 

Rosie and Rosie

Zoe was riding a beautiful grey and white horse named Chief, who turned out to be a bit of a diva if any of the other horses got too close.

Zoe and Chief

Brad was riding a bay horse named Hudson, who apparently had just got off of a series of longer pack rides and made his impatience with today’s comparatively slow pace known by getting all up in the business of whatever horse happened to be in front of him (usually Rosie, but he made Chief pretty annoyed enough times that we had to re-order the horses. Hudson also seemed to have a bit of a gas problem.

My horse’s name was Angus and he was a very muscular stocky dude who seemed to delight in trying to grind me into the trees at every opportunity. 

Do I look dusty? Turns out riding 12th in a line of 12 riders is quite the dusty affair when it's been this dry. Note the death grip on the saddlehorn.

We were given a quick lesson in how to control the horses by our guides Maddie and Tara, and we were quickly on our way. 

Almost immediately, we headed off into the forest and up, up, up the mountain toward Corral Creek Canyon.

The thing to know here is that the girls spent a week at horseback riding camp earlier in the summer in preparation for this adventure. Brad and I……did not. He and I went into this as absolute greenhorns (unless you count the one hour I spent on a pony at girl guides when I was 12….which I most definitely do not).

The girls took to trail riding like a horse to water and had no trouble managing the steep slopes of the canyon, and the narrow ridge walks at the top.

I think it’s safe to say that Brad and I will not be signing ourselves up for multi-day pack trips (though they do look amazing). Brad did not find horseback riding to be a tremendously comfortable experience, and he also had to work pretty hard to keep Hudson in line). I deathgripped the saddle horn and did my best to persuade Angus that he didn’t need to grind me into EVERY tree.

After about 5k of steep uphill walking (and the occasional impromptu trot….thanks for that Angus), we made it to the top of Corral Creek Canyon, which was just stunning. The scenery along the entire ride was just an absolute postcard.  We enjoyed our tasty lunches, and then were helped back up onto our horses, and started on our way down. 

Thankfully the route down wasn’t quite as steep as the route we took on the way up, because as greenhorns, Brad and I found the hills to be a little uncomfortable. But the horses knew what they were doing and they were confident and surefooted the entire way down.

The ride down went a little faster than the way up, and the scenery was just as stunning.

Note that all these photos are taken by Brad. Hard to take photos when you are death gripping the saddle. I got a good video though - check it out on Insta!

All in all, we rode for about 10km (about 3 hours). Brad and I agree that the experience was really cool (and I think the photos show that!). Our bodies will likely tell a different story tomorrow (pretty sure that riding 10k is going to leave me more sore than hiking 10k ever has!). The girls were thrilled with the entire experience and we would highly recommend this to anyone in the area. The three hour canyon ride was an amazing taste of this amazing area and really had us appreciating these beautiful animals and the people who love them so much.

But in the meantime, I think I’m going to pop an anti-inflammatory and a glass of wine for….reasons.

Tomorrow we pack up camp and go hiking near Lake Louise before setting up our next camp in Golden.