The Red River Pack Station has been operating longer than most of the buildings on Main Street. That alone is worth pausing on. While souvenir shops and restaurants have cycled in and out over the decades, this outfit — running horses and mules out of a corral just east of town near the river corridor — has stayed put, doing more or less the same thing it has always done.
Jim Romero has been leading trail rides out of here since the late 1980s. He grew up around Taos County horses, learned to ride before he learned to drive, and ended up in Red River because the terrain suited him. “Most people come up here for the ski area or the tubing,” he says, adjusting a cinch on a bay quarter horse named Cisco. “They don’t always think about getting up on a horse. But once they do, that’s usually what they remember.”
The rides go up into Carson National Forest, following trails that wind through aspen groves and along creek drainages. The one-hour ride is the most popular — it’s appropriate for beginners and kids old enough to sit steady in a saddle, and it gives you a real look at the country above town without demanding any experience from you. The two-hour version pushes higher, into terrain where you start to feel the altitude in your lungs, and where the views open up toward the surrounding peaks. Jim runs longer custom rides by arrangement, including full-day pack trips into the backcountry for people who want something more serious.
Pricing runs roughly $60 for the one-hour ride and $95 for two hours, though rates can shift by season and group size — call ahead rather than assuming. The station operates primarily from late May through October, weather dependent. Summer mornings are the best time to go. The light is softer, the heat hasn’t built yet, and the horses are fresher. Late afternoon rides in July and August can catch afternoon thunderstorms coming off the mountains, which Jim takes seriously — he won’t push a ride into lightning.
What makes the Pack Station feel different from a tourist-facing operation is Jim himself. He doesn’t perform enthusiasm. He answers questions directly, gives honest assessments of which rides suit which riders, and doesn’t oversell the experience. If your kid is too young or too anxious to ride safely, he’ll say so. If you haven’t ridden in twenty years and want to try the two-hour trip, he’ll ask a few questions first and make a judgment call.
The horses are well-kept. That’s not a small thing — a lot of trail-ride operations in tourist towns run horses that are underweight or visibly worn down. Cisco and the others at this corral look like they’re getting fed and cared for properly, and they move like horses that aren’t miserable in their work.
Red River draws people who want to be outside, and most of them end up on foot or on skis. But there’s something specific about moving through mountain country on horseback — the pace of it, the height of it, the sound of hooves on trail — that no hike replicates. Jim Romero figured that out a long time ago. He’s still up here proving it every morning.
