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.
Sunlight Moments December 2011: Remembering Gunner, a Noble Gent
Gunner, Andrew and Kyle’s yellow lab, was an Elk Creeker for a short time but he was a large presence. We lost him to cancer recently, but we have been comforted by a number of memories.
A Human Wannabe
Gunner had very little time for his four-legged kin. He was much more comfortable with his two-legged friends, and he was known to wear a hat comfortably or even to don a bikini for some pond-side time.
Not Exactly a Water Dog
Yellow lab he was, but Gunner was not an enthusiastic swimmer. Kyle managed to wrangle him into the pond for a brief lap, but she had the scratches to show for it.
Not Exactly a Horse or Stock Dog
Gunner was highly skeptical of the “big dogs” on the ranch. He saw nothing good coming from them, even after a “get-to-know-you” session with an impartial mediator.
Not Exactly a Hunter
The buck was smaller than the horses. (We had to repeat this picture!) Gunner thought briefly about him, but the antlers were a concern.
What Gunner Really Wanted
Gunner’s first backpack… a good day on the trail through beautiful country topped off with a hug and some human time (although his idea of sharing space in a tent made for a challenging sleep)… What could be better. Travel well, Gunner.
Elk Creek Ranch™
A Western Wilderness Experience for Teenagers
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.
Elk Creek offers two different programs which can be taken separately or in combination with one another: the camp Ranch Program, which focuses on horseback riding and ranch work, and the backpacking Trek Program, which concentrates on extensive wilderness backpacking. Both programs are centered in and around Sunlight Valley in northwestern Wyoming, not far from Yellowstone National Park.
One of the unique features of Elk Creek Ranch™ is its offering of both a traditional camp program and a wilderness backpacking program. The first looks back to the western pioneering of the past and the second looks at the wilderness experience of today. Increasing numbers of teenagers are opting to take both programs, either in the same summer or successive summers, in order to have the broadest possible western experience.
Whether on the Ranch or Trek Program, the Elk Creek Ranch™ experience has been for fifty years and remains today many-faceted, appealing to a variety of interests and abilities. Our purpose is to provide a challenging summer for each teen. The challenge is partly physical in that we are very active and mobile. It is partly mental in that the individual encounters a totally different mode of life. The challenge is also environmental in that the ranch is located in one of the few truly wild areas left in the continental United States. In meeting this blend of challenges, each individual gains a widened awareness of himself or herself and a greater appreciation of our western wilderness heritage.
We hope you will join us for a truly unique summer.
Sunlight Moments September 2011: Fall Color in the Rockies
Susan and Hap Ridgway took their annual fall jaunt through Yellowstone Park. The colors, perhaps not quite the match of New England’s, were still spectacular. The aspens and cottonwoods produce brilliant yellows, but this grove of aspens, perhaps because of the minerals in the local soil, produce the golden reds reminiscent of the maples of New England.
Just east of Cooke City, Montana, the Clarks Fork River wanders down from Colter Pass. It offers just a hint of the huge river it becomes each spring as it travels east and north, merging with Sunlight River and Dead Indian Creek, to join the Yellowstone River. The water in the fall is clear, and the river is edged with the yellows of the changing seasons.
Between Yellowstone Lake and the great falls of the Yellowstone River is a land of high plateaus. The river runs its snaky course through the high grasses and sage lands of Hayden Valley. In the fall the bison enjoy the abundance of feed probably sensing the changes and hardships that winter will bring, and the geese and ducks enjoy the river knowing they have the wings to flee the changing seasons.
The yellows of the cottonwoods and aspen frame White Mountain as summer turns to fall in Sunlight. Elk Creek and Sunlight are beautiful throughout the year, but the fall vistas are a great gift to those of us fortunate enough to remain.
