I'm giving this a 3 star review because we loved Jeff. He was very personable and kind, but there are some red flags here that should not be blown aside. We purchased the two hour trail ride for eight people. All, but one person could be considered novice/beginner and three were riding for the first time. We had children with us - 10, 11, 13 and the rest were adults.
First, he does not have helmets and seemed to think it was strange that we asked if he did. So, we did find helmets for rent at the bike shop in Missoula (near the U of M campus) for $5.00/day. We did rent the helmets.
The web site photos look very peaceful and serene - and nothing is more beautiful then Montana! The web site lists trail riding "June, July, August & some Sept." Well, I called for mid- May for an event surrounding my daughters U of Montana graduation. I think the real reason they do the trail rides during these months is that the waters are lower and the horses get ridden a lot. Perhaps both our inexperience in riding and the horses not having been ridden in a long while left them a bit spooky. The photo of the girl in the blue & pink shirt on the web site - she is on the same horse "Casper" that my daughter (age 13) was on - that took off super fast and she had to jump off as we hit open pasture. My other daughter (age 19) was a complete novice/first timer and her horse "Chip" absolutely did not want to be ridden - she ended up getting nearly bucked off and walked as we hit the open pasture. As the two escaped horses ran off the other six horses wanted to run as well - and it was scary that at any moment anything could have happened.
You forget that these they are animals. You think that a sweet relaxing trail ride doesn't present any dangers. Don't be fooled. The bulk of us had an incredible time. The views are spectacular. Should you trail ride? It was really fun, but you need to really think through what could happen. Later when tying up the horses a neighbor told Jeff that a moose was on its way up the creek and he took us all to go find it - sure enough we found the moose with its head in a pond eating. We were later told "It's a good thing we didn't run into the moose on the trail - the horses hate moose and they could have easily taken off and gone crazy." So I feel that we dodged a bullet. We had children with us and luckily the two who jumped off their horses - left with only scrapes. It was a memorable trail ride - would I do it again? Yes, but I would not bring children who were inexperienced and I might not ride horses early in the season when they weren't used to riding. But I can't even describe how beautiful Rock Creek is - a river really does run threw it! read more