Rockin U Ranch
Women's Weekend 2023!
Who's ready to hit the trails?!? Our 10th annual Women's Weekend Spring ride will be held at ......
Upper Sioux State Park/ Upper Sioux Agency Horse Riders Campground
South of Skalbekken Horse Trails.
When:
June 2nd-4th 2023!
Women's Weekend Rules Apply! See previous years for more info.
Whoop Whoop! Laddies, Let's Ride!
Park Information
Upper Sioux Agency State Park contains the site of the Upper Sioux or Yellow Medicine Agency. The park was established in 1963 to preserve and interpret the remains of the old Agency site. The park covers 1,280 acres and offers diversity: open prairie knolls, bluffs, and cool, wooded slopes. From the vistas, visitors enjoy the trails which are ideal for horseback riding, hiking, skiing, and snowmobiling. The park also offers a huge sliding hill for winter fun.
Landscape
The landscape in the park is diverse with grasslands, wetlands, woods, rivers, open prairie knolls, old fields and meadows. Scattered bur oaks are the oldest trees in the park. The Minnesota River flows along the park's northern boundary. The rugged scenic beauty of the river valley can be viewed along the trails and the prairie knolls.
Reservations are Required! Click the link to Reserve now! (We are in spots 10-12)
https://reservemn.usedirect.com/MinnesotaWeb/
* you have to search for Upper Sioux Agency Horse Park*
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Sites are $24 each and only one rig per site.
NOTICE!!!!!
The highway that used to run through the park has been permanently closed. There is now an unavoidable 16 to 20 mile drive to get from Yellow Medicine Campground on the east side to the park office, main entrance or horse campground on the west side. Be aware that Google Maps and most other map and GPS apps are still routing people down the closed highway to get between the park office and the campgrounds. This will not work! Use these map links in your GPS instead:
The map shows there is water on site as well as tie lines, manure pits and vaulted toilet.
Horse pass and vehicle pass required!
Check into that athttps://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/permit.html
We will be at the yellow highlighted area. Site 10-12
Trails have a good mix of narrow and wide, sand with very little rock and plenty of water crossings!
Scenes from our weekend.........
First day at Upper Sioux Agency Horse Camp~
We arrived early to check out the camp and map out some neat trails in the days to come. We were met with staggering heat and high humidity resulting in a nasty storm the first night in camp. We rode out around 9 am the following morning and were kinda shocked at how slippery the trails still were from the nights previous rain.
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Trails ranged from sandy/clay woods trails to mowed field trails. We rode up and over to the other side of the road where most of the trails were located. Going down was tricky at times as it was quiet slick. We let our horses pick their footing and ventured off trail when needing extra traction. When we finally got to the bottom, we had a pleasant ride along the Minnesota River. We made our way back up the steep hillside again picking our way off the path due to the mud.
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It was a short ride only going a total of 7 miles but with the heat and humidity and mud that was more than enough! We stayed in camp that night and enjoyed ourselves some pool time before a fantastic meal over the fire!
Second Day ~ Upper Sioux to Skalbekken Horse Camp
For our second ride out we took off a little earlier to beat the heat and made sure to pack plenty of snacks and refreshments! We rode straight out of camp up the same hill we took the first day, then continued on the topside by the road until we finally had no other option but to take the tar until we could reach the Skalbekken Horse Camp. We kept the dogs on a leash next to our horses, as once we got past the road construction there was a fair amount of traffic.
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We tied up at the Skalbekken Horse camp for lunch before hitting the trails. This camp has 10 sites and hitching post/rails for the horses. This is a county run camp so the only way to reserve a site is to call the Renville County. I will post the website below for any interested.
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The trails over at this camp were so much Fun! These trails are more narrow, almost knocking your knee if you're not careful. We found ourselves weaving around the woods, going down one hill and going right back up another. At the bottom we were able to walk through the creek and give our horses and dogs a much needed cool drink of water. We only rode a few miles of the mapped trails but plan to come back to ride the rest another time.
We had to cancel the rest of the weekend as the temps and humidity were just too high. We sure missed the group ride this year so be watching for our Fall ride! Overall I would not drive all the way down to simply ride at Upper Sioux again but we would love to organize a ride at Skalbekken.
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Here is the link if you're interested:
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Happy Trails till we can ride with you all again!
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