Horse riding vacation in the Chilean Andes, from Bano Morales, cajon del Maipo near Santiago 
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Mix and match your own ride from this page OR use one of our packages
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Riding out on horseback from Bano Morales, a spa in the Chilean Andes, there is a choice of incomparably beautiful rides. There are five complete days' riding to choose from, including, if you enjoy camping in the high mountains alongside sparkling streams, accompanied by flowers and birds, two days' extra riding, up to the camp site and down again. The individual rides are listed below, and you can choose any mix and match of the first four rides, plus camping. The fifth day's riding goes in a different direction and we recommend spending the night before the trail in the local hotel.
It is impossible to say which day's ride is more beautiful than another. All are magical, and very different from each other. One involves, at certain times of year, such as January, some riding over snow, which is exciting but may not appeal to everyone. Another is breath-takingly steep, although not difficult riding. Another is more pastoral, a valley full of flowers and cattle and horses grazing, with rivers to cross and high mountain scenery. The individual rides are described below with accompanying photographs to help you choose.
Also, if any member of the group does not wish to go on all the rides, the campsite is a lovely place to spend the day and so visitors have complete freedom to do what they like with their holiday- ride every day, or only on some days if they prefer.
Riding Season: Longer rides with camping are usually only possible in the 3 months from January to March. After a winter with little snow it might be possible in the second half of December. Shorter rides, or hotel based riding tours, are possible from November to April.
It is important
to read the terms and conditions before booking a trip.
Ride 1: trekking up to the glacier on horseback
The Morado Natonal Park of Chile, accessed from Bano Morales, is famous for its red river and its glacier. Many tourists visit it, but we take a different approach, where you will see almost nobody except possibly a mountaineer. This approach is from the other side of the mountain, where the glacier is equally spectacular and where the red river begins its flow towards Bano Morales. The approach after a heavy winter is a ride over snow, while after a dry winter, or later in the season, there will be less snow. It is exciting and surprisingly easy to ride across the firm snow - the horses are used to the snow and have no problem - to the foot of the glacier where there is a lake, blue in late summer and frozen white in early summer. We picnic among dry rocks at the base and enjoy incredible views, both of the glacier and further up into the snow-clad mountains. Riding back gets us into camp in time to relax, read, bathe, play cards, photograph flowers or whatever, before a pisco sour and a hot evening meal in the delightful campsite where the horses are let loose to eat their fill of the rich grass. Or, if it is a one day riding expedition, back to the car to take you down the mountain to the comforts of civilisation.
Riding across snow to reach the glacier
The glacier and frozen lake
Where the clear and the red rivers meet
picnic at foot of glacier
Ride 2: to the foot of Marmolejo
This ride involves negotiating rivers which adds a touch of drama even though they are not difficult to cross and the horses, once again, are familiar with the terrain. Then a ride up, first through a flowerfilled valley and then up over patches of snow (depending on the season) to a rocky picnic spot with a view up the great Marmolejo mountain, which is a target for serious mountaineers and one of the footsteps to Everest. Once again, we ride down in time to relax and enjoy the late afternoon in camp.
Riding up the valley towards Marmolejo
River crossing
The horses are led along a difficult bit
Riding up the valley towards Marmolejo
a snow patch on the ride to Marmolejo
we stop to picnic, looking back from the base of Marmolejo
Ride 3: Valle Engorda
This is a more gentle
day's riding, with nothing very steep or difficult, although the river
is crossed twice on horseback. The valley is full of flowers and there
are horses and cattle grazing. As you ride further up the valley the flowers
get more interesting and a final picnic near the water and below the steep
mountain at the end of the valley makes a pleasant end before riding back
down.
riding across a river. The guide is leading the horse and watching that all is well for the client
Valle Engorda
Wild flowers in the valley (jaborosa negra)
Tropolaeum
Ride 4: To the fossil lake
This is the most challenging ride as although it is not difficult or dangerous, it is an immensely steep climb. The horses do not find it hard but they need to rest from time to time as we climb the altitude very rapidly. The ride up is past an incredible slab of cleancut stone, casting a dark shadow where it goes in front of the bright sun. When the horses reach the first ridge the view is almost unbelievable. You can actually see, as if reading a map, or a view from an aeroplane, all the routes of the other rides, including the campsite with its little river Clarillo meeting the red Morado river and the tents hard to pick out as they are so small. It is enough for some people to have arrived here, to picnic and look at the view, but the more energetic will want to carry on a short way further, over into the next valley.
The last bit of the
ride up from this ridge and over into an almost unknown mountain high
valley is a little bit more difficult and for inexperienced riders it
may be pleasanter to make the short climb on foot. But the view, the lake
and the fossils are sufficient reward for the hardy adventurers who press
on this far.
Riding up
View down to Rio Morado and a dirt road
Sharing a beer with the guides after the ride up
The trail zigzags down again
The lake below
Fossils at the hidden lake
The lake below
View from the ridge
Ride 5: To Refugio Plantal
Some of our visitors have voted this the best ride of all. It starts from the Valle Engorda and goes up steeply through what is known as the funnel (embudado)- a narrow steep gorge- and emerges at a plateau with a 'vega' or meadow with cattle and goats and often baby animals of various kinds. Once we actually saw a kid being born. Then more climbing to a second vega with mares and foals and amazing views of all the high cordillera roundabout. The refugio itself is also fascinating. It is a stage for the climbers attempting Volcan San Jose. It was built by a family called Plantal and is always open, because once a climber was descending in a snowstorm, could not get into the refugio and died of exposure. The custom is always to leave a little food or something for future users.
The refugio
The glacier view from the Refugio
Riding to the refugio
Horses living on the 'vega'
Ride 6: El Avion
This ride is so named because an aeroplane crashed into the side of the mountain in 1963, leaving no survivors. The passengers were local taxi-drivers and bus owners going for an expedition. There are fragments of aeroplane on the mountainside still, glinting glass on the rocks and a moving metal cross placed by the families of the dead.
Apart from this historical interest it is a ride full of beauty, to a high point where there is a vega, or meadow. It would be possible to ride on up and the mountain known as the Diablo is accessed from here by mountaineers.
The horse ride goes up quite steeply past banks of incredible flowers. These vary with the time of year but in January and February you should see wild alstromerias as well as ananucas (lily of the mountain) and myriad other flowers.
Looking back we see
the secret lake valley across the other side of the gorge and going down
there is a bird's eye view of Bano Morales and the Refugio Lo Valdes where
you may have passed the night if this day is included as part of a longer
riding holiday.
Riding up to the cross at El Avion
Picnic at the vega with the fossil valley high in the background
Riding down to Bano Morales below
Flowers en route - a type of clavel de campo
Alstromeria alongside the ride
calandrinia seen on the horseride to El Avion
Rides 7 and 8: Riding up to and down from the camp
This is a 2 to 3 hour ride, easy but still beautiful and with a small river to cross. The idea is to have an easy day to set up camp, relax, get to know the guides, the horses and the place on day 1 and to have plenty of time to pack up on the day we depart.