If there was ever a trail ride worth the price, it is most definitely this trail ride. What if there was a way to climb a mountain with a horse rather than your own legs? National Park Gateway Stables has the solution. Hiking can be hard, especially for those who haven’t trained to adjust to elevation changes or simply trained their leg muscles to climb period. Bear Lake Corridor has some nice beginner hikes and some great intermediate hikes. But turn left out of the Bear Lake Corridor and you find yourself traveling further into the Rocky Mountain National Park [RMNP]. After a series of curves and gorgeous overlooks, you’ll get to an intersection where you can go straight to continue to Trail Ridge Rd or turn right to go downhill to Horseshoe Park and Sheep Lake. It is at this intersection where you find tons of cars parked, seemingly for no reason. Ah, but there is a reason. At this intersection is the trailhead for Deer Mountain.

The Deer Mountain trail takes you 2 miles up with a 1000 feet elevation gain. Then another mile across the mountain to the true peak of the mountain. The mountain top is a whopping 10,000 feet in elevation – just roughly 500 feet short of two miles. There is, in total, a roughly 1,350 feet elevation gain, and the average (meaning people who hike regularly) time of completion (out & back) is 3 hours. Imagine if you are not a regular hiker, you’re looking at 4-5 hours to hike this mountain. But what if I told you there is a trail riding stable located at the base of Deer Mountain right at the Fall River Rd RMNP entrance? National Park Gateway Stables offers a 6-hour trail ride that goes to the top of Deer Mountain by horse.

Located at the Fall River Rd entrance, National Park Gateway Stables [NPGS] offers a variety of trail rides into Rocky Mountain National Park. For the tiny tots in your group, there are even ponies that are handheld the little ones can ride on nearby trails ($20 for 10 minutes and $30 for 30 minutes). For the trail rides, they offer several different options including a 2-hour ($100), 2-hour Dinner Ride (discount at Trailhead Restaurant, $85), 3-hour ($150), 4-hour Horseshoe Park Trail ($160), 6-hour Deer Mountain Trail ($280), 7-hour Extended Deer Mountain Trail ($350), and the Full Day Ypsilon/Lawn Lake Trail ($400). I have done the 2-hour ride and the 6-hour ride. I can tell you that each has been fun and the scenery of RMNP has made for some great pictures and memories.

The Climb Up Deer Mountain

The 6-hour trail ride leaves and 8 AM promptly. Plan to get there at 7:30AM so you can check in and get on your horse. While the shorter trail rides have morning and afternoon options, because 6 hours is a day itself, morning is the only option for many reasons, the main one being weather. The Rockies have a notorious reputation for afternoon storms if not rain. Grab that coffee and get on the road. You’ll be thankful later.

The stables are at the base of the mountain, and I want to put into perspective how amazing horses are. The trailhead for hiking Deer Mountain is at about 9,000 feet and the peak, remember, is at 10,000 feet. It takes the average hiker 1 ½ hours to climb 1,000 feet which equates to roughly 660 feet an hour. Not bad. However, the elevation of the stables is roughly 8200 feet. This means that in 3 hours, they are also able to do roughly 600 feet an hour. That might not seem amazing at first but realize that these horses are carrying 150-200 pounds of weight via a person on their back on top of another max 10-20 pounds of various supplies from lunches to rain jackets, and water bottles! Could you even think of hiking up a mountain carrying 175 pounds? There is a whole backpacking movement dedicated to “ultralight.” There is no wonder why horses have been ingrained in human history as the ultimate means of off-road transportation!

The trail cuts behind Aspenglen Campground and up to the border of RMNP where you follow Fall River (the actual waterway) to a spot where the wrangler guide will do a quick saddle check. They do this for all rides, but it is, as you can imagine, especially important for such a long trail ride. Once the check is complete, the trail continues to a great spot that shows you Deer Mountain and the peak you and your horse will be conquering.

You’ll eventually ride to the National Park Gateway Intersection (my own name). If you have ridden a few rides with NPGS like I have, you find that there is a spot past the RMNP border where multiple trails cut off and what looks like carriage wheel tracks are seen in the small meadow. The wrangler guides claim that these are indeed wagon wheel tracks as that spot was a popular wagon road used since the 1800s. Nowadays, it is no longer in use. If you are on the 2-hour ride or going to Horseshoe Park, you’ll go straight. But if you are going anywhere in the Deer Mountain direction, you’ll go left and start the ascent to the peak. At this point, the views start to really take shape. You’ll pop out to a great spot that showcases the Horseshoe Park and Fall River Rd Valley. Don’t worry. The group will stop, and the wrangler guide will take pictures of each group with this stunning backdrop to commemorate the memory. As usual, though, pictures cannot capture the view as it appears in real-time.

The trail will wrap around the mountain and at some point, you’ll join the hikers on the trail that runs from the RMNP pavement road junction to the Deer Mountain trailhead. The wrangler guide will do a good job of watching out for hikers, but you’ll just need to keep an eye out yourself just in case. The trail will continue to wrap around the mountain and Beaver Meadows will come into view. Yet another picture moment, but no stopping this time. This is where the trail gets fun but slightly tricky. The trail will turn into rock scrambles as you get closer to the peak. Again, you begin to appreciate horses and their incredible balance shines. The last stretch is the mile of mostly flat terrain to the final peak.

The Top of Deer Mountain

The peak of Deer Mountain is where you will have lunch and get a break for 30 minutes. The horses themselves can’t take you to the top. There is a horse post at the foot of a short climb that goes to the peak. I’d say after sitting on the horse for 3 hours while they climbed the summit, a quick 10-minute climb is nothing. Believe me, it is worth the spectacular view at the top! From the Beaver Meadows entrance and Mary’s Lake to the Stanley Hotel and Lake Estes. You see the whole of Estes Park Valley and it is breathtaking!

A fun surprise was a chipmunk posing for me on a rock. He was, of course, more interested in my lunch than a photoshoot, but I made sure to not give him access to anything. There were a lot of hikers at the top which makes sense, but I also wonder how many people actually realize this is a hiking trail? I didn’t know until I rode on this horseback trail ride and connected the dots that the intersection with all the cars parked was the Deer Mountain trailhead.

The Descent Down Deer Mountain

True to Colorado Mountain weather, a thunderstorm rolled in about 20 minutes on our way down the mountain. We stopped and the group put on a special rain jacket poncho hybrid that split in the back to cover your legs on the horse. It was weird to wear at first but after a little bit, I got used to it. Just to bring home the point of rapid mountain weather changes, this is a comparison of the sky at lunch and a picture only 90 minutes later:

One thing I would like to mention, and this isn’t to scare you but to make you aware of the possible dangers of riding in a thunderstorm, particularly in high elevations. Deer Mountain is at 10,000 feet in elevation making a high-risk potential for lightning strikes. Now, most of us might conceptually think that lightning strikes one place. With some many options, what is the likelihood of getting hit by lightning? Unfortunately, just because lightning doesn’t strike you, doesn’t mean you still can’t be hit by lightning. When lightning strikes, it is looking to “complete a circuit.” It will travel through the dirt ground to paths available to electrically ground via feet and hooves. This is known as ground current. Yeah, it’s a serious risk. Sure, elk have hooves and four legs giving four possible paths for current to travel, but elk don’t wear horseshoes. Even if you don’t know if your horse has horseshoes on, just assume they are. If lightning strikes the mountain, the current will favor metal first, sadly making your horse a target to get electrocuted.

Again, this isn’t to scare you but to inform you. What to do if you do find yourself caught in a thunderstorm? First and foremost, keep track of the distance between you and the lightning. Count the seconds between seeing lightning and hearing thunder. Then divide it by 5 (National Weather Service). For example, let’s say you count 15 seconds. This means the lightning storm is 3 miles away. Keep in mind that if you can hear thunder, you are at risk of being within striking distance of lightning. Listen to your wrangler guide. They have been prepped with information to gauge how to assess the situation. For your personal knowledge, the biggest things to keep in mind are to get off your horse so you are not the highest option for lightning. If you count and calculate a mile or less, tie your horse to a shorter tree in a wooded area, if multiple horses – spread them out roughly 20 feet apart. Then either put your feet together and ball up while standing (this reduces your exposure) or get a non-conductive object to sit on (backpack, saddle bag – make sure there is nothing conductive in the bags). Luckily, the storm passed from west to east just north of us within 30 minutes. We were able to continue with our trail ride without any issues. What was interesting was how much fog had settled in from the storm. The Rocky Mountains looked like the Smoky Mountains!

The Horses

I had no issues with my horse. He was a gentleman, and the trail had few trees, branches, or bushes for him to accidentally knock me against. There isn’t much else to say except bravo to him for a 6-hour ride that I’m sure he got a good meal that day for that hard-working trip. There was also a couple on the ride. The woman grew up with horses, but the guy had no confidence in his horse which usually indicates to me that he has little experience with a horse. His horse was still somewhat spooked by the thunder noises earlier and he didn’t do a great job of calming her down. We had gotten to a meadow just before the National Park Gateway Intersection. I don’t know what truly happened, but I had picked up on his horse’s uneasiness. Sure enough, his horse got startled out of the blue and caused my horse to think we were trotting. Since I was ready and paying attention, I was able to stop him right away. The wrangler guide thought I started something, but to-ma-toes, toe-mat-toes. I knew how to divert a potential crisis and I was happy for myself for being able to do that.

The Wrangler Guide

Overall, the wrangler guide was good. It was his first year being a guide, so he was still finding his pace trying to multitask by physically guiding as the lead but also keeping conversation with the group by answering questions. I wouldn’t say he was memorable, but he did his job. When the storm briefly blew in, he kept his cool and accessed the situation very well.

Conclusion

If you love to ride horses, don’t want to scale a 1,000-foot elevation gain over 3 miles, but want gorgeous mountain views with stunning scenery – I highly recommend the National Park Gateway Stables 6-Hour trail ride. At first, $280 seems a lot but for a 2-hour ride, the industry average is $90. Times 3 by $90 and you get $270. It is on par with taking three separate 2-hour rides. I just can’t stress the ability to scale a mountain in a reasonable time and enjoy riding a horse. It is truly the best of both worlds! When is your next trip to Estes Park? Looking for other Estes Park reviews? You can check my Sombrero Stables review here. Comment below what you are looking forward to at Rocky Mountain National Park and have a great day!

Written by

Scenic Byhorse

Learn more about Scenic Byhorse here.

I love horses and love taking trail rides to explore beyond what you see from the roads. Join me as I share trail rides I’ve taken across Colorado and all over the country! Plus, enjoy bonus stories of wonderful outdoor adventures!