Let's Geaux!: Horseback Riding

Holy cannoli! We decided at the last minute that we were going to get a trail ride in before we left Montana. All of the outfitters in Glacier were completely booked so we began looking for independent outfitters in the Whitefish area. After a few tries, we came upon Artemis Acres. Mr. Cecil is the owner and also the person who answers the phone and takes reservations. What a true gentleman and cowboy he proved to be!

Mr. Cecil was recently featured in a local magazine 406 Woman (page 15). He has also been featured in National Geographic Travel.

Our ride began at 10 am and would last for just over two hours. We needed the restroom when we first arrived at the stable- here was our option:

It was clean and beat popping a squat in the wilderness!

We were then sized up and paired up with a horse. My horse was named Frankie. Dean, Becky, and Steven rode on Archie, Cappy, and Sam respectively. Everyone boarded their horse and our wrangle, Alexis, lead us off to climb the mountain.

It was a beautiful ride up and down and our horses were so very calm. The only issue we had was trying to keep them from eating grass along the path when we got a little slow.

When we reached the top of the mountain we were so excited about the view. All of the Flathead Lake area was in clear view.

We stopped to eat at a local restaurant in Kalispell before heading back to Whitefish Mountain. We drove straight into the resort and took the chairlift to the top of the mountain to take in the view. Becky was very apprehensive about the chair lift. Her first ride ever was on the 4th when we did the zip lining tour. When we first spoke about going to the summit, she insisted she was taking a closed gondola and not an open air chair to the top. By the time we were ready to board the lift, she was coming with us on the open chair. It was nice because all four of us could fit in one lift seat.