Elk Creek Ranch™ offers teenagers a unique summer camp experience in the western wilderness through a traditional ranch setting combined with a wilderness backpacking program. It is a summer of enjoyment, with groups sharing the camaraderie of youth and the recreational opportunities of the West. It is a summer of challenge, confronting each individual with rugged wilderness surroundings and a rustic life style. It is also a summer of involvement, with each teenager participating in a small camp community.
Trek Memories
Elk Creek started the treks in the 1970’s. The goal was to add the “new West” of backpacking and wilderness living to the traditional Elk Creek, “old west” program of horses and ranch life. This group in 1999, as many groups before and after, found one of those many wonderful peaks from which to enjoy the wilderness of northwestern Wyoming. The 2011 trekkers topped Trout Peak, the highest mountain in northwestern Wyoming.
Living in the High Country
The treks go out for the better part of a month. In the last two years we have divided the trek into two parts, one in the Beartooth Mountains and the second in the Northern Absaroka Mountains. Most of the travel is above tree line. The trekkers set up their nightly “homes” in some of our wilderness world’s most beautiful spots, witness the choice of the 2008 trekkers.
Playing on the Rocks
The trek also features a few days of technical rock climbing. We have teamed up with Jackson Mountain Guides in Cody, which is now working with the Forest Service to move our particular program to Sunlight Valley. Whatever the venue, the trekkers take on some challenging pitches! This photo comes from 2011 and the climb was just west of Cody in the Shoshone Canyon.
The Gift of Wildlife
Wildlife sightings are always a treasured part of the treks. The 2011 trekkers saw mountain sheep, elk, and grizzly bears. They had two singular sightings in our Trek history. One was of a black angus steer running with a herd of elk in Damnation Basin, not the norm for the elk or for the cattle. The second was of a pine marten, the first time any of us over the last 55 years have seen the critter.
Bathing on the Treks
As winter’s cold closes in on all of us, we can look back with some admiration, and some wonder, on the trekkers’ bathing technique! Yes, that is snow surrounding their 2011 Beartooth spa!
