Had a quick but wonderful ride with Judy, who was so accommodating in setting our time up on short notice. Would love to come back for an overnight trip and just really enjoyed the ride, her friendliness, her grandkids who were helping around the barn and overall experience. Highly recommend for anyone to book here. read more

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Early Winters Outfitting is a joke.......Don't waste your time and money! I booked a fully guided hunting trip for my son, who drew a once-in-a-lifetime mountain goat tag. We were promised a horseback style backcountry hunt with wall tents. Two days before our hunt was supposed to start, Early Winters postponed our hunt, and one week later they completely canceled our hunt with zero explanation what so ever. Save yourself bunch of time and headache, and spend your hard earned money elsewhere. These people are a complete joke and their customer service is the worst I have ever dealt with. read more

I would NEVER use these guys. The owner is combative, argumentative and seems to forget what he said and committed to. After a miserable and frustrating hunting pack trip with them they charged me an additional $900 on my Visa three months after the trip. I had paid them with a check months earlier but they didn't seem to keep track of that. When called about this they never return a call. I have been working with outfitters for over 10 years and these guys are hands-down the worst in the Northwest. UPDATE: After 2 months I finally got a refund of the $900 overcharge but I had to send a copy of the cancelled check proving I had already paid. read more

This place was recommended to me by my farrier, who knows his riding and horses and has ridden at several places near Winthrop. My husband and I took a 4 hour ride up to the top of Flag Mountain with our guide, Quinn. Yes, he's a mighty good guide! Talk about stories - it's worth going during the week when you can ride close behind him and hear what he's saying. Ask him about his pet crow. Aaron and Judy were honest and straightforward people and from hearing the locals talk, they are well respected. No, they don't spoon feed you. If that's what you want, go ride the ponies at the fair. If you are up for a real backcountry ride, Early Winters is a great place. Their prices were reasonable, too. Aaron home breeds many of his horses (1/4 draft, 1/2 walker, 1/4 QH or Appy) and his stock is well trained, in shape, and reliable. Normally I'll be a tad sore after 4 hours riding western but not this time as my horse, Montana, was a good ride (walked out!) and my saddle wasn't beat to sh.. like many rental saddles. The scenery was gorgeous (the weather helped!) and the ride interesting and moderately challenging in spots for my husband, an infrequent rider. We will definitely ride with these folks on our next trip that way. On another note, on this same trip we chatted with owner/wrangler Debra at Sun Mountain and they look like a good potential choice for Methow riding as well. read more

My wife and had a great 2-hour ride with Early Winters Outfitters this past weekend. We drove in on a Friday afternoon, so it ended up just being the two of us and our guides, Trevor and Mari. Both were great, and we had enjoyable conversations throughout the ride. They were also very helpful, advising us on how best to handle the up-hill and down-hill portions of the ride. Overall a great experience, and I highly recommend for those visiting the area. read more

I have used these guys for the past two years, and have already planned a third trip for this coming October. The owner is a no BS kind of guy. He will give it to you straight and is very "to the point". His wife is the kindest, most gentle-hearted woman you can ever meet. If you use these guys, don't expect to be pampered and swaddled. They are tough cowboys who actually work for a living. If you are a city boy who still has the Cabelas tags on your gear, I would suggest staying home. read more

Just got back from Winthrop after a 3 days Memorial Day weekend. Horseback riding in Early Winters was the highlight of our trip. Judy called us back one week before our arrival to confirm our reservation. When we arrived on the day of the reservation, everything was ready to go. We had great time and will definitely visit Judy and Early Winters again when we are in Winthrop again. Thank you! read more

Our family of four had a wonderful experience with the owner, Judy, and our guide, Molly. This outfit's horses are clearly loved and cared for. We counted about 40 in the corrals and were told there were another 40 at pasture that they rotate. The horses were highly responsive animals, and each known for their personalities. Judy helped us get out gear stowed, our stirrups right, and mounted! We had some beginners in our group, and she conveyed useful instruction with kindness and enthusiasm. We took a half-day ride up Flag Mountain and enjoyed it throughly. Our guide Molly was low-key, not camp-counselor hyper, and we were grateful for that. She was easy to talk to; she pointed out choke-cherries, the entrance to a mine, horse behavior--and other fun info. The view of the valley from the mountain top cannot be beat. Molly was generous with her time, and we had a leisurely lunch. Judy took pictures of us crossing the river and sent them to my camera--a fun and thoughtful perk. These folks clearly love what they do. We'll definitely be back. read more

We had a wonderful trail ride with Early Winters. They were easy to schedule with and had everything ready when we arrived. We did a beautiful 2 hour ride through the forest and along Goat Creek. Our guide, Quinn, was excellent. Responsible, kind, and full of information. He even took it in good humor when our two eight year olds peppered him with questions about where mules come from. "But no, Quinn, where do they accctuually come from?" Wonderful horses - a fantastic time! See you all next time. read more

We book three trips with Aaron and each went down hill. The first trip was a hunting trip that went well. We worked with Quinn and Judy, things went as planned. We then booked a turkey hunt with Aaron where he communicated nothing to us, including that a hotel was part of the package. The same year we booked a hunting trip with him and were promised the camp we had used the year before. When we arrived we were placed in a different and far less desirable camp. We won't use his service again. On the bright side he did have good stock, if you deal with Quinn or Judy you may be ok read more

I've used Early Winters on three different hunts, and things were worse with each hunt. The first hunt was a pack-in hunt and we ended up booking the second half of the mule deer season (first half was already booked). This was my first pack-in hunting trip and there was not a lot of communication from the outfitter, but we ended up having a great trip. Our guide packing in was both the Owner and Quinn. Was a fun ride and things went well. The pack out was just with Quinn. Quinn is very nice and an excellent guide. We scheduled a turkey hunt the next Spring and the communication was terrible. Their website didn't give much information about what was included with a turkey hunt and we couldn't get any return calls answering our questions. So I booked a hotel in Winthrop and we showed up the night before the start of our hunt. Finally some communication. Come to find out that the turkey hunt came with room and board, little did we know. I had already paid for the first nights hotel room and we'd already paid for our dinners. The owner didn't even offer to refund the money I paid out for the room, let alone the dinner we paid for. We all shot a turkey that first morning and had two days left in our hunt. The owner didn't know what to do with us at that point. He suggested we do a little fishing, so we all purchased a fishing license. The fishing gear he provided was awful and didn't really work right (reels all gunked up and/or rusty). We ended up leaving the next morning, skipping our third day. The owner seemed a little upset, not sure why, he had nothing planned. Would have been nice to get a second turkey, cheaper than buying a fishing license. Now comes our third hunt, a pack-in mule deer hunt. We should have know better, but that first mule deer hunt was a good one. We caught the owner at the February sportsman show in Puyallup and booked that same mule deer camp for the first week of the hunting season. The owner told us his hunts were wide open and first come first served. Good news. Again no communication for months, not until we arrived in Winthrop the night before our pack in. He told us he moved our camp because another party had booked the camp we wanted. We were pissed. He didn't offer any refund, we'd only paid a $200 deposit at this point, so a refund should have been offered. He knew for months that he'd screwed us and didn't tell us until we arrived, with our cash to pay for the rest of hunt. We decided since we'd already taken vacation from work and were already in Winthrop, might as well make the best of it. That night we went to dinner in Winthrop and came across some angry hunters who had just packed out with Early Winters Outfitting. They had nothing nice to say about their hunting experience and said they'd never use Early Winters again. Not a good omen. The next morning we drove to the outfitters. The owner, who had been very nice in our two past experiences, was an a-hole. I finally had to walk away from him before I exploded. There is something to be said about treating a customer with some respect. Doesn't matter if you're a so called cowboy (see other reviews) or a sales person at a clothing store, kind of a good motto, "treat your customers right." We got on our horses with the owner as our guide and rode to our 'new' camp location. The new location was about 1.5 miles from the camp we booked, way too close to other hunters on a pack-in trip. Packers usually put you at least 5 miles from other camps. The area around the 'new' camp sucked, super bushy and a lot of blow-down timber, making it hard to hike/hunt. Long story shorter, the hunt stunk. My only thought about why we were screwed out of our booked camp site was that he placed a group of four in that camp. A group of four pays twice as much to hunt as our group of two. Or, the owner is just lousy at keeping track of his bookings. I'd hope the second, but suspect the first. Quinn came in to pack us out. A much more pleasant ride out, but Quinn had to listen to us bitch about our experience, not so much of a nice ride for him. When we got back to the outfitter base, we didn't even talk to anyone there, just unloaded our gear packed up and left. With all this said, we would not use Early Winters Outfitting again. For the kind of cash a person lays out for these kind of hunting trips, you'd expect much better communication and much better customer interaction, and the offer of a refund or a discount if there is a major F-up in the scheduled trip. read more

We were thinking we'd be playing in the snow but El Nino had other ideas so we were scrambling to find things to do. Luckily Early Winters was offering rides already this spring. My husband and I went with our 7 yr old daughter. Did a 90 minute ride with another couple. We loved it. Judy rode right in front of our daughter and kept an eye on her. You can't beat the prices!! Sun Mountain charges 3 times as much when they open for the season.(even though we really enjoyed those rides too). We'll definitely be calling them again next time we're there! read more

There must have been a misunderstanding. I called and canceled my portion of a five cowgirl trail ride reservation. When the other four riders showed up, they were told that they had canceled, no, horses, no ride. The wrangler was quite huffy and rude. Mistakes and miscommunications can happen but it is common curtisy for all to be polite and give the other the benefit of the doubt. My friends found a good trail ride experience at Chewak River Guest ranch down the road. read more

Wish I had read Jon R's review. The owner is Clint Eastwood without the charm. I was told that these outfitters don't do things like the coasters do i.e. identify costs, verify payment, guarantee dates and send a bill. but that their word is a good as...and so on. We hired to go to Gardner Meadows to do a climb--"did you forget anything?" he said sourly and then added "well sometimes we can't get through if a tree goes down on the trail." (But of course we won't forget to bill you) He hired out to someone we know wouldn't have lifted his saddle saw out of a pack and the first tree across the trail this guy dumped everything on the trail. "Only 10 min from your destination" (but actually 3 miles). So we paid a whopping amount, had our equipment far from water or a camping site. It added 6 miles to the Mt. Gardner, Mt. North Gardner climb the second day. Do yourself a favor and Never use this guy, he doesn't respect his customer. read more