Episode Details
Back to Episodes
Corporations vs. Yellowstone's Family Outfitters with Heidi Saile of Rockin' HK
Description
Yellowstone Family Outfitter
Since 2002, Heidi Saile has been packing clients into Yellowstone's backcountry on horseback. Now her family's park permit is up for renewal, big corporations are applying for permits too, and Heidi is wondering whether family outfitters like hers will still have a place in the park.
Heidi came to Montana as a ski bum, got into horses, married Kipp, and together they built Rockin' HK Outfitters, an authorized Yellowstone outfitter based at Chico Hot Springs Resort in Paradise Valley. They run about 65 head of horses, keep plenty of "old geezers" they can't part with, and raised their three kids, Scarlett, Wyatt, and Wilson, on the trail.
On this episode of Country Outdoors Podcast, Mary O'Neill sits down with Heidi in the pasture at her place to talk about the 10-year permit renewal, why she doesn't believe corporations should hold park permits, and the rules that ding small outfitters while bigger problems go ignored.
They also get into the morning Caleb the mule got gored by a bison, wolves howling outside their tents at 2 a.m., a mule that stood guard for three hours before running off a bear, ice for cocktails on day nine of a pack trip, why it takes about three days for people to truly unplug, and Heidi's worries about AI data centers and Montana's water.
Family run. Hands-on. Still fighting for their place in the park.