Adventure Trips Take Youths to Places of Discovery

In recent years, out-of-state trips have become more complicated for us, both as to funding, availability of national park group campsites, and the sheer size of the Youth Ranch family, now at 110 children and growing.  But they're not impossible, and each year, staff meets to consider new challenges and opportunities.  Sometimes, these adventures have led us to nearby SeaWorld or to more distant Disneyland or Disneyworld to "experience the magic".  Such trips always involve the exploration of nature's own magical wonders along the way.

Fortunately, the gift of the Big Springs Ranch for Children has opened up adventure programming to us again, literally in our own back yard.  The 7,000 acre ranch, which includes the headwaters of the Frio River, majestic canyons, and plenty of room for wilderness camping, keeps this important form of discovery on our agenda.  

For 30 years, our favorite out-of-state adventure was to go camping and climbing in the Rocky Mountains, northwest of Denver.  Few adults have dared to climb a 13,000 foot mountain peak, yet scores of children living at Hill Country Youth Ranch have done just that over the past 30 years. Trained by expert mountaineering guides at the Kent Mountain School in Estes Park, Colorado, these youths have learned to "rope up" and climb the cliffs and glaciers of some of the most challenging mountains in the country (the peak of Elks Tooth Mountain is shown at right, with Youth Ranchers headed for the summit in 1986).

Even more have taken part in the Ranch's wilderness adventure programs right here in Texas, which take youths to the state's most awesome parks for camping and exploring.  A complex of trails and campgrounds is now under construction in the "back country" of the Big Springs Ranch on the Frio.