Colvig
Silver Camps is a residential summer camp located in southwestern Colorado.
Our philosophy is environmentally oriented and non-competitive, and our
choice-based format is designed to develop self-esteem, leadership skills,
responsibility, and teamwork. We believe that the challenges of outdoor
education, fun, and adventure provide some of the best opportunities to
achieve this goal. Our unique location allows us to offer our campers
a diverse program of traditional summer camp activities along with extensive
and varied wilderness trips. This region boasts not only some of the highest
mountain peaks in the lower 48, but also expansive and austerely beautiful
desert canyons. Our campers experience a wide variety of in-camp activities
on our 600-acre site, which is surrounded on three sides by the San Juan
National Forest. These activities include (but are never limited to) day
hikes, field games, arts & crafts, western horseback riding, target sports,
swimming, rock climbing, ropes/challenge course, environmental activities,
campfires, songs, skits, cookouts, all-camp special days and more! Since
our counseling staff plans and leads all of the activities, the strength
of our program lies in their creativity, enthusiasm, initiative, and caring.
These qualities allow the flexibility within our program to adjust to
the specific needs of each individual at camp, camper or staff. They are
qualities that also extend to the wilderness expedition program.
Wilderness trips include desert and alpine backpacking, mountain climbing, mountain biking, ghost town and Anasazi ruin exploration, canoeing, rafting and windsurfing. Trips range in length from day trips to 5-day outings. We do not hire a separate wilderness staff, but rather we hire counselors with a broad range of experience who are capable of leading trips after pre-camp staff training. As you will see from the above descriptions, we ask much more of our counseling staff than many other camps. We don’t ask that all of our staff be experts in all of the program activities offered. Instead we ask that all staff have experience in some or many of the areas described, and also a healthy interest in learning new skills. We believe that our in-depth staff training, coupled with capable and experienced returning staff, fill in the gaps and provide us with a knowledgeable and dependable summer staff. Therefore, the most important skills you can bring to camp with you are creativity, flexibility, enthusiasm, and a genuine willingness to learn anything.
