A short drive south of Phoenix, a strip of desert foothills and washes opens into a landscape threaded with horse tracks, ancestral sites and low-lying scrub framed by the Sierra Estrella Mountains. At Koli Equestrian Center on Wild Horse Pass, guided trail rides move across that terrain slowly enough for riders to see more than scenery: they pass places where people have lived and left traces for centuries, and on some outings they encounter the feral horses that still roam the community.
The slow pace of a mounted ride changes the way visitors perceive the desert. Instead of speeding past on a highway, riders follow animal and human paths that have existed for generations, gaining the time and vantage to notice small topographic features, washes where pottery shards surface after storms, and the subtle markers of past and present use. Guides emphasize observational learning — pointing out the plants, landforms and sites that relate to the Gila River Indian Community’s history — so the journey becomes a layered encounter with landscape, culture and living wildlife.
Riders move along a desert trail at sunset during a guided Koli Equestrian Center tour, part of the horseback journeys that explore Arizona’s Indigenous history.
The equestrian center is one of 250 Arizona locations gathered into Passport250, a mobile-friendly, no-cost guide built to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary by pointing residents and visitors toward historic sites, cultural experiences and lesser-known local favorites. The Arizona America250 Commission and the Arizona Office of Tourism solicited suggestions from people across the state to shape the list, a process the tourism office says was designed to highlight places Arizonans value and return to.
“We actually reached out to Arizonans and asked them, ‘Tell us your favorite places. Tell us your hidden gems. Tell us where you take your family, or where you have good memories,’” Josh Coddington of the Arizona Office of Tourism said, describing the community-driven selection. Coddington added that Passport250 is intended as what he called “a love letter to Arizona, built by Arizonans for Arizonans.”
That community-driven approach is reflected in the variety of entries on the Passport250 map: alongside well-known landmarks are lesser-visited cultural experiences and neighborhood treasures. The digital pass, designed for phones, is free to download and emphasizes user exploration. It allows visitors to scroll an interactive map, identify nearby sites such as Koli, and collect digital check-ins as they move through an itinerary. For travelers and locals alike, Passport250 functions as both a planning tool and an encouragement to visit places that carry cultural depth as well as scenic value.
Koli Equestrian Center sits within the Gila River Indian Community and offers a range of guided rides, from public group outings to private excursions tailored for small parties. The horseback journeys are presented as more than recreational trail rides; guides and wranglers point out natural features, cultural touchstones and, when conditions allow, groups of wild horses. Community wranglers estimate roughly 1,500 wild horses inhabit areas near the Sierra Estrella, many concealed in washes and foothills so that longtime Valley commuters may not realize how numerous they are.
Wrangler Matthew Love, who leads rides across the area, said much of the equine population tends to stay tucked near the mountain bases and among the folds of the landscape. The center’s private rides sometimes route riders to vantage points where the wild horses can be observed at a respectful distance, an experience staff say helps connect visitors to the landscape’s contemporary life as well as its past.
A rider’s view of a guided group ride across arid terrain near Phoenix, showing participants on the Koli Equestrian Center experience that highlights Indigenous sites and stories.
At the center of the guided program is Chuck Pablo, owner and operator of Chuck’s Trail Rides and Adventures. Pablo, a member of the Gila River Indian Community, has been leading rides across this land for nearly 25 years. He said the work of guiding is as much about sharing memory and culture as it is about handling horses and teaching riders how to move safely through desert terrain.
“I like to share the stories with the people that come out here — just the culture, the tradition that we have out here,” Pablo said, explaining why he points out particular places and speaks about the community’s connection to the land. He said visitors arrive from around the state and the world to ride here and to hear those stories, and that the conversations on the trail are a key element of the experience.
Pablo’s long experience translates into particular interpretive choices on the trail. Along the routes, pieces of the past still surface. Pablo noted that pottery shards and other artifacts occasionally appear in washes and on ridgelines, remnants of Indigenous life that persist on the surface. Guides may point some items out to riders on occasion, but other locations and finds are intentionally kept private to protect fragile remains.
“There are still artifacts out there that sometimes we’ll point out — not always — because we don’t want them disappearing,” Pablo said, underscoring a cautious approach to showing antiquities while still interpreting the land for guests. That balance — between sharing and stewardship — reflects broader practices in places where cultural materials remain vulnerable to collection, natural erosion and other threats. By limiting exposure of sensitive locations, guides attempt to preserve the integrity of the sites while still helping visitors understand their significance.
The Gila River Indian Community, where Koli operates, is home to the Akimel O’odham and the Pee Posh peoples. Pablo emphasized that the rides are not a tour of a vanished past but an encounter with a living community and ongoing traditions.
“We’ve been here for quite some time, and I’ve seen so many different changes, and I’m just glad to still be here,” he said, reminding listeners that Indigenous ties to these places long predate the nation’s 250th anniversary. He added a plain, direct note about perspective: “We’ve been here a lot longer than that.”
For visitors, the practical steps to experience Koli are straightforward: reservations for guided rides and details on specific routes are managed by the equestrian operators at Wild Horse Pass. The Passport250 listing for Koli is one entry among many that the program hopes will draw attention to Arizona places that offer cultural depth as well as scenic value. Travelers can use the Passport250 map to plan multi-stop itineraries that pair a ride at Koli with nearby destinations, creating a fuller picture of the region’s layered histories and landscapes. The program’s organizers and local operators alike present these offerings as invitations to engage with living places — to witness feral horses and living traditions, and to learn about the people and histories that shaped them.