Camping Trips for Young People

Every BOLD & GOLD camping trip is a chance to experience the incredible beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Spend days exploring the outdoors and return each night to drive-up, front-country campsites. Along the way, you'll learn essential skills like cooking, navigation, and teamwork while surrounded by alpine meadows, glacier-fed rivers, and mountain views. Daily challenges, leadership opportunities, and campfire reflections help grow confidence, build lasting friendships, and discover the outdoors is more than a place to visit — it’s a place to grow.

To help participants and families choose the right BOLD & GOLD experience, we rate trips on a scale of 1–5 for Physicality and Leadership. Together, they offer a sense of the effort a trip asks of campers and the opportunity to build leadership skills it provides. See Trip Ratings >

Camping & Day Hiking

Experience the beauty of the Pacific Northwest while trying a range of activities based at front-country campsites.

Tahoma: Camping & Hiking in Mt. Rainier National Park

Tahoma is the ancestral name of the majestic Mt. Rainier. Come explore the beauty and wonder of this ancient place while spending each night in a front-country campsite in the shadow of the mountain. Explore some of the most beautiful trails that Washington has to offer while taking in views of massive glaciers and meadows full of wildflowers. During your journey, you will learn wilderness hiking skills, outdoor cooking techniques, practice trail navigation with maps, and other skills you will take with you on future trips and in life. Best of all, you will go home with amazing new friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.

Physicality: ●○○○○ | Leadership: ●○○○○

Entering Grades: 6–8 or 9–12

Beyond City Limits

Email Us to Inquire About Trip

This summer, experience the outdoors right in your backyard. On this five-day adventure, you will learn new outdoor skills, experience the beauty of the Pacific Northwest mountains, and sharpen your leadership skills. With a group of motivated peers ready to take on the challenge, you will travel to unique places where you will rock climb, kayak, or camp. Monday and Tuesday take you on day trip adventures, followed by two nights of overnight camping from Wednesday to Friday. Along the way, you will make new friends, practice leadership skills, and explore the beauty of the natural world.

Physicality: ●○○○○ | Leadership: ●○○○○

Entering Grades: 6–8

Trip Ratings

Trip ratings range from one to five based on physicality and leadership, and are intended to help participants and families choose the BOLD & GOLD experience that's right for them.

Physicality is the level of physical difficulty or effort required to complete the distance, hike the elevation, navigate the terrain, and manage the conditions.

Leadership is the number of opportunities participants have to help lead the group through planning and problem-solving, managing camp tasks, and more.

Level One: ●○○○○

Physicality: Day hiking up to 5 miles, front-country climbing with short approach hikes, or flat-water kayaking up to 4 miles. Includes at least one rest day.

Leadership: Focus on exploration, social-emotional learning, and skill building. Participants take on small tasks like cooking, camp setup, journaling, and photography.

Level Two: ●●○○○

Physicality: Backpacking 3–4 miles per day, moderate terrain with under 1,000 ft elevation gain. Front-country climbing with longer routes. One to two rest days.

Leadership: Each participant serves as “Leader of the Day,” exploring responsibility through rotating, slightly more complex tasks.

Level Three: ●●●○○

Physicality: Backpacking 3–7 miles/day with some elevation gain. Coastal trips include tideland navigation; Cascade trips may have steeper climbs. One to two rest days for some trips.

Leadership: Greater responsibility for day-to-day tasks. Instructors step back, allowing the group to work together and practice basic group and risk management.

Level Four: ●●●●○

Physicality: Multi-week itineraries, backpacking 7–10 miles/day, challenging terrain, multiple consecutive travel days. Coastal and mountain routes may include overland crossings and steep gains.

Leadership: Multi-week trips with structured leadership and group management opportunities. Leaders of the Day get peer feedback and guide camp tasks and trail navigation.

Level Five: ●●●●●

Physicality: Advanced climbing/mountaineering trips. Early “Alpine Starts,” technical routes, glacier or snow travel, heavier packs, and extended consecutive travel days.

Leadership: High technical rigor and leadership challenges across physically demanding days. Teens develop advanced wilderness leadership and instructional skills.

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