Camping

We go camping at least once a month, every month.

In the spring and early summer, we always do some form of Camporee, where we invite over Webelos and other people who might want to join or troop to participate in activities like archery and other great stuff.

In the summer, we go to a week long summer camp, like Peaceful Valley, Camp Alexander, and Ben Delatour. We encourage high schoolers to go to High Adventure bases like Northern Tier, up in the boundary waters; Philmont, A horseback riding/trekking camp near Cimmaron, New Mexico; and Sea Base, in southern Florida.

In the fall, we camp essentially wherever we decide to go-pretty much all over Colorado.

 In the winter, we do a council-wide troop competition, called Klonderee where we compete in events like Lumberjack, Sled Race, and Broomball.  During such winter campouts, we bring a gigantic canvas tent-complete with a wood burning stove and occasionally a few propane heaters-and keep warm in the tent.  When it gets below twenty outside, in the tent, with all heaters going, it stays about 60 degrees inside, with flames shooting out the top of the pipe chimney.

Our monthly campouts are usually over a weekend, and are all across the state.  We try to stay to the rule of “never go to the same place twice”, but there are a few exceptions: the Sand Dunes, where we head down to The Great Sand Dunes national monument to hike around or sled down the dunes; and Chatfield, where we do a first true campout for the New Scouts. We try to do a mountaineering campout, where we go and climb one or two of the many 14,000 foot peaks around.  We also try to do an ice climbing campout for those who are 13 or older where we go out to Camp Alexander and climb a frozen waterfall (perfectly safe!). We have gone to many other places as well, with some of the more recognizable places being Rocky Mountain National Park and State Forest State Park.