Discovering Belonging and Self at Elk Creek Ranch

WRITTEN BY MELISSA STANLEY

My grandparents, Emily and Doc Ridgway, founded Elk Creek Ranch in 1957 to create a haven for teenagers seeking adventure and personal growth. Emily, or Aunt Em, saw how teenagers immediately connected to the Western landscape and then flourished in an environment that challenged them, leading her to turn an old homestead into a camp for teenagers. Three generations later, my sisters and I direct the camp, and our family continues to believe in her vision and watch teens discover both themselves and a place of belonging each summer.

Elk Creek Ranch campers, or “ranchers” in our case, are immediately welcomed into the small, close-knit community at Elk Creek. Everyone has a place, and each person is essential to our program. Ranchers work and play hard together. They spend their mornings on projects around the ranch, such as building and maintaining cabins and training horses, and then most afternoons are spent on horseback. Each rancher is assigned their own horse for their time at camp. Every evening means a different activity, ranging from volleyball and capture the flag to Saturday night campfire sings that are a long-standing favorite ranch tradition.

Ranchers also seek adventure backpacking through the Northern Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains. Day hikes to the local peaks surrounding the ranch are weekly favorites, and each group ventures farther on the trail for one overnight trip in the middle of the session. During the second half of the summer, a Trek program gives a small group the opportunity to spend three weeks in the mountains. This experience is a cumulation of what Elk Creek Ranch believes — that the Western landscape can be a haven of self-discovery.

Discovering oneself and a place where one truly belongs means also disconnecting from the hustle and bustle of the virtual world. To support these goals, Elk Creek creates an environment that is free of cell phones. The hope is that by disconnecting from the virtual world, the ranchers will connect to one another. Trading screen time for opportunities to foster and nourish relationships is part of what helps continue the tradition of creating lifelong friendships at Elk Creek.

Part of the Elk Creek experience is also challenging ranchers to step outside their safety bubbles. At the end of each session, each rancher is able to choose between a four-day backpack or pack trip into the higher mountain country. Often, they are lucky enough to be the only people on the trails and sometimes are the ones building and maintaining those trails. Each trip is filled with opportunities of selfdiscovery, and many ranchers experience initial self-doubt followed by a profound sense of awe when they accomplish what initially seemed unimaginable.

This was something my grandparents believed in — the power of teenagers to succeed both independently and together. Time and time again, confidence and self-reliance are built by accomplishing something that did not appear possible. This is true when a group of ranchers are able to participate as a team in the building of a cabin, the training of a young horse or the tremendous accomplishment of reaching a high alpine destination. My grandparents believed and we, the third generation, continue to believe that the most remarkable thing about Elk Creek is the way teenagers learn to believe in themselves and one another.

For more information visit www.elkcreekranch.com.