4 Reasons Your Summer Must Include This Horseback Vacation Near Whistler, BC
Picture this: warm afternoon sun on your face, the smell of fresh wildflowers in the air, and the gentle breeze from a glacial river. A freshly made lunch of local produce, the soft leather rein in one hand and the freedom to roam through historic land.
Horseback riding in the Coast Mountains isn't just about the horse. It's the solitude of place, the traditional access to wilderness, and the companionship that you just don't get with any other activity.
We surveyed a few of our guests and asked what their favourite things were about our Canadian Signature Experience the Historic Li-lik-hel Mine Horseback Expedition, this is what they said.
3 Day Horseback Vacation: Historic Gold Mine Expedition
1. "This horseback tour is not just plodding around. You actually ride, for real!"
We think this is one of the best things that our guests can say after one of our trips. Safety is paramount on our rides, but also so is having a great time and we want our guests to come away feeling accomplished and filled with excitement.
Some horseback tours are known for their "follow the leader" cookie-cutter-style trips. Not here. Our horses have personality and each horseback tour is tweaked wi fit the group. Whether you're on a half-day horseback ride or an overnight horseback trip with us, at Copper Cayuse Outfitters our professional cowboys and cowgirls have the experience to tailor the route, terrain, and horse your riding level and what you want to achieve from the ride.
2. "The food is soooo good. They exceeded our expectations by miles"
After making sure that everyone is safe and has had an amazing day's riding, cooking is next on our list of things we love to do for our guests. We created Copper Cayuse Outfitters because we want to welcome people into our home. Our home in these mountains and at our base camp, and our home at the ranch in Pemberton. We're natural-born hosts and what says "you're part of family" more than a good feast!
Don is the master of cooking under a sunset sky. At our backcountry base camp near Birkenhead Lake breakfast and dinner are cooked over an open flame on our purpose-built cooking campfire.
Have you ever tried cowboy coffee? That will get you going for the day!
3. "The horses are clearly having a great time, too! You can see it and feel it. They all have such funny little personalities"
Our horses are part of our family. We know each one by name and personality. Many of our horses were born in the wild. They have the spirit of the mountains in them and were wrangled by the local First Nations.
Wild horses make excellent tour horses out here in the Pemberton Valley and because they were born and raised close by they are well-equipped for wild weather we get here. Their fur, metabolism, and instincts are designed to live in the cycle of wet, cold, warm and dry with temps ranging from as low as -20ºC to +40ºC.
4. "Our group loved staying in a real-life cowboy camp. A totally off the grid horseback trip. When do you ever get to do that?!"
For our overnight trips we we build a traditional ranch-style base camp where home-cooked meals, a roaring campfire and a bed under the stars await. The structures were built on-site, by hand, using materials and timbers from the site. Next we added a few homely comforts like a toilet, washroom, and warm shower.
And did we mention base camp also happens to be built in a patch of wild blueberries! Is there anything more scrumptious than picking your own breakfast blueberries as they grow right next to the kitchen?
Join us on a 3 day horseback adventure
Search for gold on the historic Li-lik-hel Mine Expedition. Ride on trails that were originally cut by the miners and have been pounded in by years of horses transporting the gold ore to the rail-head in the early 1900’s.