Twenty-four horses' hooves pounded the ground, kicking spurts of dust toward Stranger, the sorrel quarter horse I was riding, as we loped across an open meadow in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains. A few rocks jutted from the cured grasses, and as we neared the tree line, Clay Miller held his hat in his hand, signaling that we were slowing to a trot and eventually to a walk as the horses entered the pine forest.

We got few fast rides like that on our 12-mile journey from Paradise Ranch, west of Buffalo, to our camp at Frying Pan Lake at the edge of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area. The trail was too steep and rocky for fast riding; instead, our horses carefully picked their way quickly proving they were mountain-savvy.