Gettysburg Battlefield Horse Camping Trip

We decided to go for a long weekend to Gettysburg National Battlefield, PA. We packed the horse trailer and the RV with everything we needed so the Friday morning we left, we just had to load the horses, the cats and dog and ourselves and go. We took 2 vehicles–one to tow the horses and the fifth wheel RV trailer. Fortunately we have 2 trucks so we could tow them both.

The trip down to Gettysburg was uneventful, mostly highways and Artillery Ridge Campground had said to follow their directions on their website and not the GPS. The GPS takes you right through town, which tends to be very crowded and with tons of traffic lights will easily double or triple your time. We stayed on the highway while the GPS kept saying ‘recalculate’ and trying to make us turn at every exit until we saw the exit mentioned on the website. It turned out to be a straight run putting us on the very road we needed to be on.

We pulled into the campground, got out our Coggins & Health certifications, our reservations and got our site. Our campsite was complete with a 20×20′ paddock for the horses, water, sewer and electric for our RV, plus space to park our horse trailer & trucks. We got the RV situated, got the slide outs out and the cats and dog into the RV. We unloaded the horses which were happy to get out and stretch their legs, pull them into the paddock with some hay to relax and enjoy. Of course it was around 2 pm and hot and humid –we were both power sweating at this point. Mike decided it was too hot to make lunch so we went down the road to a wonderful little BBQ place that does great smoked BBQ. The smell is amazing, so worth it after 4 hours of towing and setting up.

We relaxed for the rest of the day and planned our horse trail ride for the next day, Saturday. We woke up early, fed the horses and gave them hay and cooked omelets on the grill for breakfast. We got tacked up and started out around 10 am which in hind sight was a little late since the temperatures were going up into the 90’s. The equine trail on the battlefield has some shady areas, but most of it tends to be out in the open, fields and orchards of newly planted peach trees that offer no shade at all.

The trails are well marked, with a couple of places where it’s muddy–with all the rain they’ve had, they have closed off, and made go a-rounds which can be tricky to find. The campground also offers horseback rides complete with earphones so each person gets a guided tour of the battleground and what happened where. Mike and I had done this on an earlier trip so we knew the general layout of the 4 day battle and where happened where. Imagine the soldiers trying to get over those interesting fences and you can imagine how scary and chaotic the battle must have been.

The horse trail does not allow you to go up to Little Round Top, the trail goes around the back of that mountain–but they had it closed off because Hurricane Irene had made such a mess of the trail the year before and it still hadn’t yet been repaired. We spent a good 4 hours out that day, and got back and hosed the horses, and ourselves off too, since everyone was sweating up a storm. In fact we got later that evening–a wild thunder and lightning storm. We made friends with another couple who also brought their horses and we all decided to go into town and get tickets for one of the many ‘ghost tours’ they have. Of course, by the time the ghost tour was to start it was starting to rain–but everyone went anyway–the thunder and lightning just added to the ghostly presence!

Sunday morning was another sunny hot day and this time we did an early morning ride which was so much more pleasant…the cool dew breeze was so enjoyable. We did a 2 hour ride and got a lot of photos this time. (See photos). The footing is wonderful for the horses, they do not need shoes–ours are shod anyway so it didn’t really matter to us. People are friendly, lots of other horseback tours–it seems 2 other places give tours too. Generally we get off the trail to the side, since we know these people don’t horseback ride and their horses are apt to follow you if you get too close. The guides are always appreciative and if you catch up with them while they’re crossing a road, will hold the traffic up for you to get across too.

The day we were to go home our horses figured out how to pick the latch on the paddock and let themselves out–and ran off. We had several other RVers plus the people we made friends with tried to help us catch them but no luck. When I called the campground office to see if we could get more help–the head wrangler flat out refused–which was disappointing to say the least. We finally got them out in a hay field to come to our new friend Rich with a bunch of carrots. There’s nothing like a carrot from someone who doesn’t ride them. Needless to say we and the horses were exhausted after that ordeal.

Moral to this is have an extra lock on the paddocks–because you never know. We have electric fence at home and they do respect that…they saw this gate in a whole different light–and it was easy to pick with a couple of quick, clever lips.

Fortunately our trip home was fairly uneventful except for some major traffic backup on Route 80 in PA. But it kept moving and only added another 1/2 hour on to our time. We enjoyed our trip to Gettysburg Battlefield and may do it again someday.

Note: Since we went in 2012, Artillery Ridge campground has changed hands again and I've read some sad reviews of the place. Jim Kralick (the original owner) would be horrified at what his passion has become.