NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Jesse James Townsend and Haddie Stella Tal

Madonna Inn Trail Rides

BY JEANETTE TROMPETER, KSBY NEWS

You have probably seen it hundreds of times, maybe even thousands if your commute takes you past the Madonna Inn. We’re talking about that big beautiful mountain called Cerro San Luis. Maybe you have even hiked up the hill to the peak. Well that journey got a bit easier a while ago. And it offers up a whole new perspective of how there really is No Place Like Home. It is as iconic a representation of San Luis Obispo as the Inn that sits below it. There is a reason the image of Cerro San Luis is plastered on most postcards, pamphlets and pictures aimed at luring tourists to SLO Town. It is spectacular, even from the ground. It is even more so if you hoof it up the hill toward the top, and that is exactly what you can now do seven days a week without much effort. The Madonna Inn started offering horseback trail rides to guests by special arrangement last summer. This summer it is a full-time operation and you don’t have to be a guest to take advantage of the opportunity. “We have about 20 trail horses and we can easily accommodate a group of about 15 riders at a time,” says head wrangler, Haddie Stella Tal. Tal has led rides all over the country, but says there is no doubt that there is not a prettier place to do so than right here. “There’s just so much to see. You get the ocean, you have the beautiful Laguna Lake and this mountain to ride on,” she says. “It’s like horse heaven.” And while you may be familiar with the trails that wind their way up and around the mountain that hikers, cyclists and athletes of all kinds use daily, the route you take up on these journeys doesn’t intersect with those. And the journey happens at a lazy, leisurely pace. “We do a two-hour ride that actually goes to the very top of the mountain,” Tal says. “Even people who’ve been here locally who have actually hiked to the top say it’s completely different when you’re on a horse.”

You really do feel like you are out on the range, with familiar vistas providing the only proof that you are, in fact, right in your own backyard. “We have a resident family of about 15 deer that kind of meander around and we can ride through them, and lots of roadrunners and some bobcats,” says Tal. “Sometimes we might see a coyote.”

I know what you are thinking. Heading up a mountain on a horse can be a bit intimidating for novices, but Tal’s got you covered even if you’ve never saddled-up before. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve ridden a thousand times or never. We’ll get a horse to fit you.”

Most people opt for the hour-long ride, but if you are having fun, and you’re feeling a little adventurous, go ahead and book the two-hour tour. Either way, you will likely feel mighty grateful by the time you loop down over Lopez Lake and head for home. Because there’s no place like it, and it’s more proof, there’s No Place Like Home.

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