Camping with horses recommendations

[Mark Brenckle]

 - My wife and I have had the horses for a few years now, but only camped with them a couple times last year up by Concrete.  Anyone have suggested locations for a decent extended weekend of camping and riding the ponies? We'd like to go east but stay in the mountains, so maybe Ellensburg to Winthrop or there-abouts. Preferably a place we can ride from the campsite.  We're not looking to pack in anywhere quite yet.
  Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[jackelope]

Up the north fork Teanaway River road there's some good primitive camp spots and I think there's some set up for horses. Beautiful country.

[jackelope]

The place I was thinking of was Indian Camp and it's up the middle fork road.
http://traildusters.org/ridemaps/indiancamp.pdf

Still pretty sure there are some spots up the north fork too. I could be wrong. 

[horsehunter509]

There are several nice day rides up twisp river along with several campgrounds. North lake, williams lake, oval lakes to name a few.

[CplRaines]

Kalama Horse Camp. It's on the south slope of Mt. St. Helens up above the town of Cougar. Lot's of trails from the improved horse campsites.

[snowpack]

Might look at Salt Creek outside of Port Angeles.  They have horse stuff at the campground.  The trails are like 5 miles up to striped peak.  One of the other trails goes around the old shore batteries.  And there is some kind of beach riding around the cove--but not sure how far.  I think half the beach is private, but they let horses ride up and down.

[WSU]

Walupt Lake has horse camping and the trails leave from camp and connect to the PCT.  That would be a fun area for a summer trip.

[Mark Brenckle]

Awesome, thanks for all the great replies!  Looks like we've got some exploring to do! 

[RG]

Joe Watt Canyon just west of Ellensburg has a lot of horse campers and a lot of trails.  No facilities but people camp just past the feed station if they have a self contained trailer or camper.  Temporary corrals and high lines are the usual setups for their horses.

[Southpole]

There are several nice day rides up twisp river along with several campgrounds. North lake, williams lake, oval lakes to name a few.

I would highly recommend Twisp River horse camp, but I wouldn't count on going up any major trails until late June or later due to trail clearing and or snow. Also, some of those trails up Twisp River horse can be physically (like Williams lake) challenging to a horse if they're not in shape, so do your research before committing to some of those trails. I would check with the Methow Backcountry Horsemen mvbch.com for more info. Another easier place to go is Beaver Creek out of Twisp off of Loup Loup. There is a horse camp up there and lots of easy rides like Pipestone Canyon, which is beautiful as well.

[Echomules]

Also in the Twisp area, Beaver River Camp. Just starting up Loup Loup a few miles take a left, not sure the road name. But its WDFW property, so just need your discover pass. Some good trails in the area. Big camping area with a creek right there to water the kids.

[6x6in6]

For just a decent Friday thru Sunday trip, there is a pretty good place up at Harry O's/Les Hilde up at Hamilton.
Kalama Horse camp as mentioned is another one to venture off to.
Keenes Horse camp near Randle should be on your short list of places to go too.
Eastside:
Twisp River horse camp is one of my favorites.  Steer clear of the major holiday weekends here, particularly the 4th of July weekend.  Methow BCH has a big shindig there that weekend and it takes up the whole horse camp.
Beaver Creek near Twisp is very good.  Go early as it can get to be a bit challenging with the rattlers as it warms up.
Same with Burke Lake over at Quincy (rattlers).
Haney Meadow/Ken Wilcox horse camp is still shut down due to the Table Mountain fire.  It was great before the fire - you missed out on one of the better places to ride but it will be good again from a scenic standpoint soon enough.
The old Tamarack Springs horse camp on Manastash ridge is a pretty good place to go.
Blackpine up the Icicle out of Leavenworth is pretty good.
Chiwawa River horse camp - don't bother - no trail maintenance done in many years.
Phelps farther up the Chiwawa is worthy of visiting.
Mount Adams horse camp is another must go at least once place.  You'll probably go back even more.
Conrad Meadows is good but your horses must be in tip top shape and very experienced riders only.
Cayuse horse camp near Salmon la Sac is another good one.

Or, you can just skip the horse camps where you can go be by yourselves like we primarilly do and just head up into the LT Murray, Wenas or the Colockum - grab any 'ole hunting camp and toss the high line up and ride game trails.

And, if you need more info, the Capital Chapter of the BCH has put together a nice list and links for horse camp / horse camping stuff......  http://capitolriders.org/gps.htm


Don't forget about the certified weed free eats for the horses on NF land.  Not a worry on DNR or WDFW lands.

[6x6in6]

Shoot me a PM and I'll put together a bunch of Google Earth coordinates of places you can go to that are not at horse camps, not necessarily technical type riding and are on DNR or WDFW lands so you don't have to pay thru the nose for the certified weed free hay.

[stevemiller]

Up north fork Tampico at the snow cabin is a couple year new horse camp with tie ups and the works.,Plenty of riding up there. 

[Redneck Russell]