Horseback Riding in Patagonia: What a Ride from the Cholila Valley Is Like

Riding is the other way to see this country. Most of what gets written about Patagonia is about walking it or fishing it, and people who search for horseback riding here often arrive with no clear picture of what a ride actually involves: how long the days are, what the horses are like, what the ground is like underfoot, when in the year it is worth doing. This post sets that out, using our own three-day ride at the north entrance of Los Alerces National Park as the worked example.

What riding in Patagonia actually is

Horseback riding in southern South America sits on top of a working tradition rather than a recreational one. The gaucho is defined as a skilled horseman, a folk symbol mainly of Argentina and Uruguay, who in the 18th and 19th centuries worked as a migratory horseman adept in cattle work. Riding was transport and it was the job. That history is still visible in how the country is laid out, in the trails that exist and the ones that do not, and in the fact that the useful routes here are the ones stock were moved along, not the ones built for views.

Our horses are a mix of breeds, which is what most people ride in this part of Patagonia, because they handle the climate and the terrain well.

As for the country itself, the eastern side of the Andes gives you three surfaces within a short distance of each other: native forest, open steppe, and the shores of large glacial lakes, with mountain passes between them. A riding day here usually moves through more than one of those.

Where people ride

Bariloche and the lakes district. Nahuel Huapi National Park surrounds Nahuel Huapi Lake in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes, spanning the southwest of Neuquén and the northwest of Río Negro. It is the most visited part of Andean Patagonia, and the riding there shares the country with a great deal of other traffic.

The Chubut cordillera, around Esquel and Cholila. Two hours and more south of Bariloche the country turns to ranch land against the mountains. Los Alerces National Park protects more than 259,000 hectares (about 640,000 acres) of Patagonian forest and has been a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site since 2017. This is where we are.

El Calafate and the southern steppe. Further south again, in Santa Cruz, the forest gives out. Los Glaciares National Park holds the Viedma and Argentino lakes, both of glacial origin. This is big open country, and riding there is a steppe experience rather than a forest one.

Riding at the north entrance of Los Alerces

The park and the country around it were worked on horseback long before they were photographed from cars, and a horse is still a good way to move through it: it crosses rivers, climbs through forest no road touches, and travels at the speed the landscape was meant to be seen at. We sit at the north entrance, which means the trails start from the lodge rather than from a car park two hours away.

What that ground gives you is native forest, river crossings and Andean lake shore, on trails within the park with lake and mountain views. Our guides have more than twenty years in this terrain. Groups are capped at ten. There is no camping. The riding is rated moderate: suitable for beginners and experienced riders alike, with no prior experience required, though riders should be in reasonable physical condition. We adapt the itinerary to experience level and to what people want out of the days.

Our three-day ride

The program is three days in the saddle and four nights at the lodge.

You arrive to a welcome drink and a full briefing with the guides, then a three-course dinner with Argentine wine.

Day one you meet your horse and ride out through native forest with the Andes on the horizon. Lunch is a picnic in the open, and you come back to the lodge for dinner.

Day two goes further into the park, crossing rivers and following the lake shore, with time to swim if the day is warm. Lunch is on the trail and dinner is back at the lodge.

Day three is an early ride toward a panoramic lookout, where condors and native deer are a possible sight. The trip closes with a farewell barbecue.

What that includes: lodge accommodation, all meals and drinks, and the guided riding. You are back at the lodge each night.

Riding and fishing also mix. If one of you fishes and the other does not, the non-angler can ride while the other is on the water, and it works the other way round too. There is more on that in the Something for Everyone section of our fly fishing page.

When to ride

We ride from October to April, and each season changes the trail.

Spring, October and November. Snowmelt fills the rivers and the valleys turn green. Days run 15 to 25C (59 to 77F) and nights are closer to freezing. Long daylight hours and quieter trails before summer.

Summer, December to February. Full mountain sun and the longest days of the year, 20 to 30C (68 to 86F) by day. We start early, break for a riverside picnic, and ride back as the evening cools.

Autumn, March and April. The forest turns gold and red and the air sharpens, 15 to 25C (59 to 77F) by day and colder at night. Quiet trails, and some of the best light of the year.

For a second reference point, here are the long-term averages for Esquel, the nearest airport town, from the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional normals for 1991 to 2020. Average daily high and low: October 16C and 3C (61F and 37F), November 18C and 6C (65F and 42F), December 20C and 8C (69F and 47F), January 21C and 9C (69F and 49F), February 20C and 9C (67F and 48F), March 18C and 8C (65F and 46F), April 15C and 5C (59F and 40F). Two things follow from those numbers. The shoulder months are colder at night than people expect, and even in midsummer the mornings are cool enough that a warm layer is not optional.

What to bring

This is remote backcountry riding and the nearest town is a real drive away, so come prepared. Riding pants that are comfortable and do not have thick seams. Boots or sturdy shoes with a heel that will sit properly in a stirrup. A hat and sunglasses, because the mountain sun and the glare off water and snow are strong. Sunscreen, including on cloudy days. A warm layer for mornings and nights, even in summer. A rain layer or a poncho, because the weather changes quickly. A swimsuit if you want to swim at a lake stop. Any personal medication, since we are a long way from a pharmacy.

The layering advice in our packing guide for anglers applies here as well: it was written for the same valley and the same weather.

Riding and fishing in one trip

We run both programs from the same lodge, and they are separate. The three-day ride is its own trip, three days in the saddle with four nights at the lodge. On the fishing side, a horseback riding add-on is listed among the extras that can be priced with your dates, and shorter rides are run for fishing weeks. If you are weighing one against the other, our guide to fishing this valley and our region-by-region guide to Patagonia's rivers both cover the fishing side in detail.

Getting here

Flights run from Buenos Aires to Esquel (EQS), the closest airport, and from there it is about 1 hour 30 to 1 hour 40 on Route 40 to the lodge. We arrange the transfer. Bariloche (BRC) also works, about two and a half hours by road, which suits people connecting through a bigger hub.

If you have a spare half day in the valley, Butch Cassidy's cabin still stands nearby. There is no formal visitor operation there: no ticket office, no staff and no signage to speak of, so treat any visit as a courtesy, leave everything as you found it, and ask in town in Cholila if anything looks uncertain.

A riding trip here is not a trail ride with a view attached. It is three days of moving through forest, rivers and lake shore on horses bred for the work, in a park most visitors see from the road, sleeping at the same lodge each night. If that is the trip you are after, the practical questions are your dates, how many of you there are, and what time of year suits the kind of days you want.