A scenic 37-mile drive south from West Yellowstone, Montana, on U.S. Route 20 will take you to Harriman State Park in Island Park, Idaho. The highway crosses the continental divide at 7,072-foot Targhee Pass about seven miles from West Yellowstone and then descends into southern Idaho's big-sky country. Distant snow-blotched mountain ranges encircle the wide-open space. The sparsely populated town of Island Park lines both sides of Route 20 for miles.
Harriman State Park
Watch for the entrance to Harriman State Park on the west side of the highway a few miles south of Mack's Inn. The 11,000-acre park, formerly a cattle ranch and retreat, is now a wildlife refuge. It contains 20 miles of non-motorized trails into the backcountry of forests, lakes and meadows, where moose, elk, deer, bears, sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans live among other wilderness denizens.
Dry Ridge Trail Rides
A trail ride with Harriman's Dry Ridge Outfitters will take you where the wildlife dwells. The rides start from the stables and proceed on trails within the park and the adjacent Caribou-Targhee National Forest. In June and July, you'll likely see moose, deer and waterfowl. In September, you may see and hear elk bugling, says Russ Little, owner of Harriman's Dry Ridge Outfitters.
Little's outfit is unique among the other outfitters that offer trail rides in the Island Park area, he says. "Our horses are the best I've ever been around, because we've raised most of them ourselves and bred them just for this job." We have quarter horses, mustangs and some half drafts, Little says. "Draft horses are built to pull, and we cross them with a regular saddle horse; they weigh half again as much as a regular saddle horse to accommodate heavier folk."
Dry Ridge offers one-, two- and four-hour family-friendly rides for all types of riders. The laid-back wranglers will mount you on a suitable horse, and provide instructions. Listen carefully, for if you are an inexperienced rider the instructions may save you from saddle soreness.
We booked a four-hour ride in August. After we kissed civilization good-bye, we wound through pine forests, where we heard a great gray owl call. In grassy meadows of goldenrod and lupine, our horses wanted to graze. We passed lakes graced with trumpeter swans and ascended a ridge. On the ridge top, we dismounted for a break and enjoyed views of the Teton peaks, 40 miles away.
See Idaho's backcountry by horseback with Dry Ridge Outfitters in Harriman State Park for a glimpse of today's Wild West.
Pamela Crowe - Pamela Crowe
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