Backpacking at Elk Creek Ranch is an extensive and challenging adventure into one of the few remaining wilderness areas in the continental United States: the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountain Ranges in northwestern Wyoming and southwestern Montana. This country is as scenic as it is primitive. The backpackers ascend several mountains in the 12,000 feet range and spend most of their trip in areas above 8,000 feet!

Much of the country lies within designated wilderness areas and all of it within Shoshone, Gallatin, and Custer National Forests. The backpackers travel through the summer ranges of elk, deer, mountain sheep, and mountain goats. (In fact, goats in recent years have even invaded several of our Beartooth camps.) They travel as far from "modern life" as the mind's eye can conceive.

Because of the rugged and primitive nature of the country, the keynote of the backpacking program is the group experience. As is true back at the Ranch, we place great emphasis on the smallness of each group, which requires and enables the full participation of each teen.

Such trips cannot be safely and successfully undertaken without the full and responsible involvement of all the teens and staff. On the trail, the backpackers receive instruction in packing, low-impact camping, cooking and high altitude dietary requirements, map reading, physical health, and group dynamics. With that background the group faces each new challenge, making decisions and shouldering responsibilities as a unit. This blend of wilderness challenge and cooperative endeavor provides each individual with a memorable western experience.

Annie Tucker was ready for a something different; she just didn’t know what that “something” was. Upon hearing about friends heading to an official “cowboy” camp out west—far from the drama and craziness of the city—Annie convinced her mother that this is what she should do for the summer. After an initial phone call to Elk Creek Ranch, Annie anxiously waited to hear if there were any remaining openings at the ranch and vividly remembers receiving the letter that let her know she would be making the journey to Wyoming in July 1972.

Filled with an equal mix of sheer excitement and apprehension, Annie left Boston aboard a plane heading to Wyoming. Not sure what to expect, she was greeted by a member of the family that owned the ranch, Chip Ridgway. The ride from the airport in Cody, WY to the ranch is seared into Annie’s mind, as is her first sight of the ranch. It was beautiful and in the middle of nowhere—far away from any insecurities or teen issues she was facing back in Boston

Upon stepping out of the car, she was taken aback by the vast sky filled with stars and as she and the other new campers unloaded their gear, it began to lightly snow. It was a physical manifestation of what the 15-year-old Annie was feeling: She was letting go of Boston, her concerns about this new experience and starting fresh... much like the new fallen snow. It was pure exhilaration.

Annie spent two summers at Elk Creek Ranch as a camper and later returned as a counselor for nearly 10 years. What Annie learned from her time at the ranch was far more applicable to her life and the real world than she would have imagined when she first decided playing cowboy for the summer might be fun.

Like many that have had the opportunity to visit the ranch, she names the work projects as a real eye opening experience. It’s not the physical skills she learned that had an impact, but the idea of truly being self-sufficient and that each person has something important to contribute, a reoccurring theme echoed by many past ranchers.

Regardless of how much teens may think they are self-sufficient, they really always have their parents to fall back on for support. At Elk Creek Ranch, teens are encouraged to find themselves though their experiences. There is an excellent support staff of counselors, but it is likely the first time most campers have really been asked to truly participate in a meaningful way. On the work projects each job is a building block for the next. So, if Annie didn’t complete her portion, the rest of the group was left having to pick up the slack. Each job or project was just as important as the next. As a counselor, Annie recalls that moment of recognition when campers realized that they needed to “pony up” and how much they appreciated being a meaningful participant.

Annie remembers her time at Elk Creek Ranch fondly. In fact, her daughter will attend the camp for the first time in Summer 2012. In her free time, Annie spends time with close friends she met at the ranch 30 years ago.