Saddle Up, Ride Tall in Colorado Rockies

Looking down at the world from a 13,000-foot mountaintop, life really does appear to be peaceful.

You can see a field of yellow, pink and white wildflowers, and the sky is a royal Colorado blue, streaked with cotton-ball clouds.

My 6-year-old son and I had researched for a summer trip we could take together. We thumbed through catalogues and brochures, ogled photographs and tried to make up our minds before finally contacting New York City’s Adventure Guides about several Rocky Mountain horse-packing trips.

Camp at 9,000 Feet

The whole family had gone to a dude ranch a few summers earlier. Riding horses an hour or two a day had been fun, and the pack-trip descriptions seemed like a logical next step.

Adventure Guides steered us in the direction of Dellis Ferrier’s family trips in Colorado’s West Elk Wilderness.

A big selling point was that camp was at 9,000 feet, where you stayed each night in tents set up ahead of time. Day trips were from there. There was no breaking camp and settling in elsewhere each day.

That seemed reassuring for a 6-year-old. Also, we were able to sign on for a four-, five- or seven-day trip. The four-day trip sounded just right.

As the day drew closer, apprehensions surfaced. We had done some camping, “But I don’t know how to saddle a horse,” my son said the night before the trip. “Will they let me go?”

This was a moment for hugs and reassurances. “Of course they will.” Truth was, he couldn’t reach a horse to saddle it unless he was standing on a ladder.

Fortunately, Ferrier’s experienced staff includes a wrangler for every two guests. You don’t have to do a thing except keep from falling off the horse.

All the packing, camp setups, cooking and horse care were handled for us. And these people apparently knew every tree in the forest.

“Did you see those elk tracks?” Ferrier asked, pointing to the next mountain. Or, “I saw the bear putting those claw marks on that aspen on a trip when I was 7.” By the second day we were even seeing some of these things ourselves.

The Ferrier family is the staff. Wife Linda and daughter Julie came along, as did Dellis Ferrier’s father, Grant, a spry 80-year-old who has been leading trips into this 330-square-mile wilderness since 1935.

His first visit to the area was in 1915. Grant Ferrier rode every day. He was the first up every morning, wrangling hobbled horses, saddling mounts, clearing trails.

Julie Ferrier, who is a barrel-racing champ in the Little Britches Rodeo, proved that maturity comes with experience.

My son rode for four days on one of her horses. She never took her eyes off of him, riding behind him all the way, helping him on and off his horse.

The Ferrier horses were the best-trained animals I’ve ever seen. “Matching people with horses is the most important thing,” Dellis Ferrier said. He does it so well that you don’t even have to know how to ride.

It’s real camping, too. First we drove 30 miles on a discouraging dirt road to the Ferrier’s base camp. The last obstacle before we reached this outpost was a river.

We drove through it. Then in a clearing we came upon a circle of parked trailers, MASH tents and an old school bus that had been converted to a kitchen and cozy dining room decorated with wildflowers.

We slept on cots in the base camp that first night. Then early the next morning, after an enormous breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, oatmeal, fresh berries, melon and coffee, our gear--along with food for four days and other supplies--was loaded onto pack horses.

Flowery Mountain Meadow

The pack string headed up to 9,000 feet and the riders followed, taking a slightly more circuitous, scenic route.

Two hours later and 1,000 feet higher we dismounted in a flowery mountain meadow for a sack lunch and break. Those unaccustomed to riding were starting to ache--at least the adults.

There was no sign of civilization after base camp. But Ferrier, his wife and his dad are trained in first-aid, with kits and equipment along at all times.

We were never more than an hour or two from a phone and a helicopter rescue. As tough as the trip was, the most common injuries were sunburns and sore bodies.

It was about five hours’ riding time on day one to the camp. The children relished every minute of it, splashing through streams, climbing sharp slopes and trotting to high wildflower meadows framed by granite peaks topped with snow.

They raced into camp, flew off their horses, cut willow sticks for fishing poles, caught grasshoppers for bait and Huck-Finned it down to a spring to cast for rainbow and cutthroat trout.

An hour later they returned triumphantly with five specimens that were delicately sauteed in a 30-inch frying pan to supplement a dinner of fried chicken, burgers, tossed salad, mashed potatoes, Dellis’ campfire gravy and fresh fruit.

Be sure to take snacks along for young ones. They don’t eat as much at a meal as an adult, but three to four hours on horseback works up quite an appetite.

It took some patience by adults in the wilderness, but once a child slowed down enough to feel a little sore, or a stomach started talking back, or the sun went down and the temperature dropped into the 40s (even in August), the children listened to reason a lot better.

The next day’s ride covered 18 miles through sun-dappled aspen groves, with ferns as high as a horse’s haunches, to a secluded waterfall and then to an abandoned cattle rustlers’ hide-out where we cooked hot dogs on sticks and gorged on wild raspberries in the shade of an aspen and spruce forest.

Animal Tracks

Dellis pointed out elk beds and animal tracks, but it wasn’t until the next day at 13,000 feet that we crossed paths with several mule deer and elk.

The second day proved the hardest, with most guests stiff and sore, but then miraculously, by the third day it didn’t hurt anymore. On the last day, heading back to base camp, it felt normal to be on a horse.

You get more comfortable on a trip like this as time goes on. Also, there are wonderful moments of peace filled with echoing sounds of wood being chopped, horses’ hoofs clapping on rocks or the wind rushing through trees.

The smell of pines mixed sweetly with wood smoke and fresh coffee. Horses moved so slowly that you could almost fall asleep in the saddle.

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The Ferrier’s season runs (eight people maximum) from July 1 to Labor Day. The weather is too unpredictable the rest of the year.

It costs $80 to $100 a day per person for two supply horses and saddles, plus all food and camping equipment except for sleeping bags and air mattresses, which are not required but are highly recommended.

Dellis or Linda Ferrier will pick up guests at the nearest airport in Montrose, about 60 miles from base camp.

For more information, contact Dellis Ferrier at (303) 527-3010, or Pat Dickerman at Adventure Guides, 36 E. 57th St., New York 10022; (212) 355-6334.