sharing a favorite riding spot

We headed out for another group trail ride, this time at one of my favorite riding spots - Yellowstone Wildlife Refuge. We haven't been there in a couple years. Oh how I've missed the gorgeous, remote quiet serenity these trails offer!!

We hauled Koda & Nemo in our trailer, and loaded up another with four other horse's - our Cierra, Checkers (the reiner) Phoenix (the show horse) and one of our trainers younger horses, Stella. Half of the riders had never been to Yellowstone, which made it even more fun to share the refuge with them. We enjoyed pleasant high 70's with sunny weather, a lot nicer then our recent cool weather group ride.

heading out

Nemo, Checkers, Phoenix (L-R)

Yellowstone provides rolling hills, woods, and meadow/field type riding. The best time to ride it is during Fall colors, as is any trail in WI. The leaves and grasses were just starting to turn, but views were pretty regardless. Once again trails were quiet and we enjoyed the refuge to ourselves. After a climb up through the woods, we took a break in a clearing to enjoy the views and some group conversation.

pow-wow

Nemo, Checkers, Cierra, Stella and Phoenix (L-R)

Phoenix

Nemo taking a closer look at the field of dried sunflowers.
He unexpectedly plucked a head off and decided to taste them...silly boy!

Checkers

Not too long after we headed out, Phoenix became very concerned with the dropping leaves, walnuts, bugs etc. Somewhere along the trail, musical horses happened. At the time I was leading along the winding paths, and it surprised me to find Brad on Cierra as he rode up to join us! It made me do a double take. Now our trainer was riding Phoenix, and her owner was on Nemo. 

At times we rode as a group, and others in pairs, or set's of three, the group stretched out along the long and winding grassy paths. All horses led, rode in the middle, and brought up the rear - as it should be. The highlight of riding at Yellowstone is always crossing the raised wooden bridge, at the bottom of a beautiful valley. It goes over a flowing stream, complete with creaking, some shifting, warped, see between boards, and steeper then usual, step off's. It's a fun one, and is bigger then it looks in photos.

Bridge Work

Cierra leads the way

We are so proud of our three horses!! It's clear that Cierra really loves trail riding. She rode off with no warm up and didn't have a problem leading the group with confidence, or anything else that was asked of her. Brad really enjoyed spending time on the trail with her. I wondered how Nemo would react without his favorite human, who was often out of sight. In true Nemo style, he took good care of his new rider.

Nemo's new friend, relaxing at the end of the ride

Koda was such a good boy as well. He was on forward march the entire ride, but listened well and did everything I asked. We sure lucked out and got three amazing horses...all keepers, with unique different personalities, that each hold a special place in our hearts. 

yellowstone in the fall

After a looong week of work, and attending/photographing a couple of our son’s footballs games, I was thrilled when the stars aligned and we were able to head out on the trail to Yellowstone! We had ridden this remote slice of paradise for the first time early September, when we were still experiencing summer, and were lost more then we were found. It takes a good hour and a half on the road to get to Yellowstone, but it’s ohhh so worth it.

We really needed to put some hours on the boys before our upcoming trip up north, and this proved to be the perfect place. It was the first weekend in October, peak color season in WI, when we arrived to once again find only one trailer. We tacked up, hit the trail, and were quickly awestruck by the serene landscape, this time painted in green, orange, yellow and red...

heading out

...the colors were the most vibrant, inside the woods...

the woods were alive with color

...Koda had his walk on much of this ride. We forged ahead, up and around the bends. I don't know if he knew the bridge was coming up or not, but I did. I thought to myself, this is it...and without hesitation we crossing first! I am so proud of Koda, not a big deal, but it was to us/me. I love that bridge area, it's in a big valley and it's so pretty. We took many pictures, here are a few of my fav's...

view from a mohawk

riding through the tall grass

koda (k) color

crossing the bridge (helmet off for photo opp)

...and then, my hubby captured my comical horse scratching on his spur...

apparently Koda's gotta an itch

hubby said "um, that's my spur"

...seriously Koda, it's a good thing we love you! After riding a new looong trail, we headed back towards the trailer...

sunny prairie ride

even the grasses were colorful

...we soaked up the many bright colors...

Koda taking in the Fall colors

...tired, happy & fulfilled, we took the winding paths back towards the trail head...

heading back to the trailer

...we rode a good 3.5 - 4 hours. We never saw a soul. The trailer we found upon arrival had been replaced by another, the same one from our September ride. I wonder who they are, and if they recognized our trailer too? It blows my mind, this area is so underused – and yet, that is part of what makes Yellowstone so special.  Being alone in a beautiful wildlife area, surrounded by nature, highlighted in color, on my own horse, with my hubby & Nemo...it was a much needed slice of heaven – at one point in this ride, it brought tears of appreciation to my eyes...it was that peaceful.

adventure found, check

We went looking for an adventure yesterday, and found it! We loaded Koda & Nemo up and headed out to explore Yellowstone Wildlife Area for the first time. It was an adventure just finding the place. Good thing we had the fire number, they jumped so we knew to turn around, and it was then we saw the sole turn sign.

A family was leaving as we pulled in, and we never did see the only other trailer riders in the area. I was expecting it to be busier on a holiday weekend. Just us in the middle of no where, we loved it! However, we were lost more then we were found and that was with a map. The problem was the trail markers, or better said lack of. They had a couple old wooden signs at the very beginning telling you which of the four loops you could head towards, and then the occasional orange snowmobile diamond signs. You would get to a Y intersection, and guess - should we follow this orange sign, or that one? I know, let's try the orange sign!

It was a warm sunny day. The rolling hills and uneven terrain had the boys working up a sweat. We were all thankful for the steady breeze. Not much shade to be found, at least not on the paths we traveled, altho we were riding in the woods. Sunny trails are great for cool weather rides. The area was sooo beautiful, and serene...

riding grassy trails

...we ended up on a trail that suddenly had a no horse sign posted in the middle of the trail, huh? Still not sure if it was meant for the trail, or maybe they meant the meadow, but we backtracked regardless and went the other way. We want to be good land stewards, and follow trail rules. The new direction we headed, following the other orange diamond signs, dumped us out on this beautiful rolling field...

looking for paths

...we weren't sure if the field was part of the trail, or not. There was a strip along the edge that looked like it was mowed differently, we saw some tracks...

are we heading the right way?

In the end, we believe the field edge was one of several intersecting routes on our map. There was a rifle range off in the distance, that we used to reorient ourselves. We got back onto the first "no horse trail" in a different section. It was clearly a horse trail, by evidence of droppings and where it took us....

everything was such a pretty view

...eventually we rode down a hill to explore a bridge indicated on our map. We found a raised wooden bridge, with a big step up/down. The boys did good! As soon as we crossed, we couldn't believe what we saw on the path above us...a large black team of fully dressed drafts (looked like percherons) pulling a big covered wagon! I thought Koda's ears were going to touch the sky. He's never seen a team of horses, and the wagon had a huge white cover. I was stunned, it was so pretty to see! You could hear the clippity-clop and jingling, as they rode along the tree lined path. Wish I had taken a picture, but I was busy trying to figure out if they were coming down the path by us, and if so, where it was safest for us to be. Definitely not on the bridge. There was a cute little boy jumping off and on, running and pushing the wagon. I think they were a little surprised too, as I overheard the driver praising his team as they passed us. What a sight!! They continued on heading towards a green loop that was indicated at the trailhead as closed for the remainder of the season. Hope they didn't run into a jam, then again maybe that's why they closed the loop. We assume they are a local hitch, and rode into Yellowstone off the rural road.

We decided to take that same path, but towards the trail head. We hit another intersection. The turn we took was starting to resemble an unpaved road, so we found an intersecting path and rode that instead...

Such a pretty area to ride!
Nemo turned into a (sweaty) grey horse.

With Fall colors coming, and hardly any bugs, we'll go back before the trails close in October. There are a lot more areas to explore at Yellowstone. I want to find the rock tunnel I've seen pictures of, and ride through it. We had a great adventurous day riding parts of three different loops, for around 3.5 hours. I think we've kinda got the trail system figured out, all we have to do is follow the orange signs!!