We have a number of day trail rides through the unpaved backcountry
of northeast Oregon that are very convenient to access by saddleing up at
our ranch's hitching rail and riding away. Off-loading /parking fee is $5
per day-per horse.
Upon your return your horse will find a trough of fresh well water, and
a cool water rinse-off station next to our barn.
We do not provide a guide service to ride our neighborhood backcountry, but if you wish to have Kittee and/ or Dale show you around, let us know, we enjoy riding around our neighborhood again.
Now, if you are boarding your horse at McKuster Ranch, LLC all of these rides are available to you without ever having to tow horse and trailer, that makes a day of riding much easier - just saddle up and gittyup.
 |
The picture to the right is one of our no name off road trails, that we call Elk Meadows. These trails runs for miles through our neighborhood in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. We access this trail with a 20 minute ride from our ranch's front gate. When the breeze blows through this tall meadow grass the scene is quite pastorial. A nice trip when seen from behind the ears of your horse. Derby and Nugget love this trail ride! |  |
One of the sweetest rides we have is the Lincton
Mountain ride (picture below). This ride is about 11 miles long and
has about a 1700 foot elevation change. The ride along Kennear Road put
you above Crouse Creek Canyon for miles of beautiful scenery, with hawks
flying below you. Most of this road is closed to motor vehicles from December
1 through March 31. Picture below is at Big Saddle corral on Lincton Mountain
Road. Walla Walla is the town just a few miles away in the background.
Another nice day ride is the ride that takes our
guest to Couse Creek. This trail uses part of
the Lincton Mountain trail but viers to the right and is about 14.5 miles
in length. Elevation change on the trail is about 1000 feet over rolling
hills. Part of this road is closed to vehicles from December 1 through March
31.
A third good day ride from McKuster Ranch is the circle around Bowlus Hill to our north. This ride is about 11 miles long and has gentle elevation changes of 400 to 500 feet. This trail ride does not take you to the summit of Bowlus Hill.
The fourth and prehaps most beautiful trip from our pastures is to
ride to the top of Tollgate Mountain and have
lunch at the Tollgate Mtn.Chalet. The ride to the Chalet is 12.5 miles from
our pastures. It is mostly a single track well maintained backcountry mountain
road (a bit rocky in places), closed from December 1 through March 31.
There is the Old Combine trail that takes us from Kennear Road, across Elk Meadows and back to the ranch. This is a fun ride with lots of elevation and terrain changes. This ride is about 1/2 gravel road - 1/2 hillsides & meadow crossing. No vehicles in sight. We generally canter the roads.
We also have the Bowlus Hill summit ride. This is a ride that skirt the north boundary of our property, and spirals to the top of Bowlus Hill. A beautiful view of everything from the Cascades into The Blues, our part of the world.
Due to some rough rocky areas your horse should be shod or booted to make these trails rides.
Pull out your USGS maps, you will see more.
 |
Here business calls will work from horseback. Once you are above the Walla Walla River canyon, the world is at your fingertips. |
 |
This is the reason we offer a parking place at McKuster Ranch, LLC
available to folks that enjoy riding horses through the foothills of the
Blues 
,just outside Milton-Freewater and Walla
Walla. The vehicle -on the right- was not here when we came by a few hours
ago. This is not a staged vehicle... it was found in this condition on our
return trip from Tollgate.
A reason to consider parking inside the McKuster Ranch gates where your rig is safe and secure awaiting your return.
There have been friends of ours that have found their vehicle with
smashed windows upon their return from fishing in OR and WA. A disgusted
feeling.
This is the reason we make McKuster Ranch available for secure - no worry
- parking while enjoying this country.
We have many more trail/ backcountry road rides to offer with the option to put you on a trailhead, and park your rig at McKuster Ranch, for the day, weekend, or a week or more. See the links below for wilderness area rides and shuttle rates. If you are using our shuttle service overnight horse B&B with horse trailer parking is - $10-US per night per horse. Here is a listing of other local trails in the Umatilla National Forest you might be interested in riding. We hope you will consider bookmarking our website and returning here often to look at other northeast Oregon rides to enjoy.
*Note: If you wish to camp at Harris Park (which allows no horses) and horseback ride the South Fork country, drop your horse off here on your way out to the park. For a $20 shuttle fee (up to 3 horses-using OUR horse rig and fuel -one way) we will bring your horse to you to offload at the BLM park. This allows you to enjoy camping at Harris Park and your horse enjoys a B&B at the ranch.
Last update: August 2006
Webmaster: D. McKain
Web design: mckaincomputergraphics