Mount Carmel’s Cow Camp Experience

Like our other programs for troubled teens, the objective of Cow Camp is to engage the troubled teens in activities that result in improved behavior and attitude. In this program, the boys live in an authentic log cabin without electricity, fed by spring water. The work includes cattle drives, horsemanship, maintaining waterlines and fences, as well as doctoring cattle.

The greatest benefit of this work is the troubled teens are living in the heart of the rugged Rocky Mountains …witnessing its grandeur, beauty and wildlife. This is an experience of a lifetime. This simple and quiet existence brings a sense of peace and healing into the lives of the troubled youth. This type of cowboy-ing is a privileged program and reserved for the boys who show a desire and aptitude for this kind of work.

The length of the Cow Camp can last from 21 days to four months starting May 1st through September. In early June the cattle must be trailed from the ranch to summer range. The boys participate in pushing the cattle, learning from some of the best cattle bosses in the business and trailing up the Chief Joseph Trail to a remote camp in the heart of the Rockies. It is here on 25,000 acres of rolling, timber-covered mountains that the cattle graze and the boys tend the herd.