Specialty Camps
Family Camp
Nestled in the heart of Colorado’s Mountain Wonderland, Cheley is a special place to experience the unique opportunities that the great outdoors has to offer. At the overwhelming requests of adults and families to experience Cheley Colorado Camps, in 1985 we started Family Camp so families can capture the magic of summer camp together.
Families with children age 6 and older can experience our Family Camp for five days of quality family time. At our Boys' Trail's End Ranch, located a few miles from Estes Park near Glen Haven, Family Camp occurs in August after our regular summer season concludes. The setting – and experience – is both rustic and beautiful. Sleeping accommodations are covered wagons, which will sleep a family of four, but arrangements for larger families can easily be made. Each wagon has drawers and hanging space. Bathhouse facilities, which families share, are located within close proximity to the wagons. Boys' Trail's End Ranch also has its own lodge with a huge fireplace, dining room, riflery and archery ranges, craft shop, a string of 30 horses, and a beautiful stream.
Families can choose to spend the day together riding horses or might head to Rocky Mountain National Park for a day hike while the children stay in camp and participate in crafts or riflery. A special childcare program is available for campers eight and younger. At night, everyone will meet in the dining room for a wonderful family-style meal. After dinner, the counselors will promote the next day's activities and campers will sign up for what they want to do the next day. Each day concludes with an evening campfire: a highlight of which is watching each group perform a skit demonstrating what they did that day. The laughter each night during campfire is contagious and prepares you for a good night’s sleep full of wonderful dreams. You wake up the next day ready to do it all over again. Family Camp is very popular and always fills, so we recommend enrolling early! To enroll online, visit CampBrain.
Cheley/Children’s Hospital Burn Camp
The Cheley Experience expanded in 1984 to include the Cheley/Children’s Hospital Burn Camp Program for children healing from a burn injury. The 8-day camp welcomes burn survivors from all over the world. Together, they experience the magic of Cheley with a group of peers. Burn Camp includes day hikes, backpacking, technical climbing, horseback riding, crafts, fishing, evening campfires, songs and games, and sports. Staff members from Cheley provide the programming and counseling expertise while the Children’s Hospital team provides expertise in burn injuries and emotional/social issues. In addition, firefighters from Denver and Estes Park and burn nurses from multiple countries join the staff to help provide a spectacular experience for everyone. Thanks to the fundraising efforts of many compassionate groups and individuals, including The Burn Foundation, Rotary Club, Firefighters, Cheley parents and alumni, and Tahara Mountain Lodge, all campers at Cheley/Children's Hospital Burn Camp attend on scholarship. Burn Camp is held in August, following the completion of our summer programs. For more details, visit https://noordinarycamps.org/.
Teen Summit:
Air Force Reserve/Air National Guard
This special leadership camp, hosted at Cheley since 2010, is an opportunity for high schoolers who have a parent involved in the Air Force Reserve or the Air National Guard to spend five days in the Colorado Rockies. The Teen Summit aims to empower students with leadership skills to impact their community at home and school. The participants of the program are often called upon to be the man or the woman of the house when one of their parents is called away to active duty. Cheley Colorado Camps is honored to host this program.
The Discovery Program
Each spring and each fall, Cheley hosts Discovery, an outdoor education program, serving both public and private schools. Discovery is designed to take students out of the city so that they can further connect with the great outdoors. Amazing things not possible in a traditional classroom happen on a daily basis, including a special bonding among camp participants. Educational programming is a major component of Discovery. Students take day hikes and study beaver pond life, biology, mountain safety, geology, and flora and fauna, and more. In fact, some of our Discovery groups go on 5-day backpacking trips in Rocky Mountain National Park. Evening times include s'mores, songs and games, visits from the Mountain Man, slide shows from Rocky Mountain National Park, history, and nature walks. For more information about Discovery, please contact our office or send Alyse, our Discovery Program Director, an email.
