Trail Rides

"My favorite thing at camp is the horses. I love animals, and it's really fun bouncing up and down when they walk. I also really like how they look."

Thaia, 12

10 kids at a time can enjoy a beautiful meandering trail ride through the tree filled and green filled forest at YMCA Camp Orkila. The horses are trained by our horse riding instructors to be safe for beginner riders to enjoy a relaxing and super fun adventure!

THE GOLDEN HOG LOG BLOG!

Meal times at camp can be chaotic, delicious, confusing, exciting, and inspirational. During Fall and Spring Outdoor Environmental Education (OEE) there is also a historic and prestigious honour that can be earned by any school group who dares to take on the challenge...

ORT is a small morsel of uneaten food left on a plate. During OEE we collect and weigh all of the ORT and announce the total at the end of each meal in the "ORT report." We encourage every school group to minimize food waste as their visit progresses. The energy required to grow, process, package, ship and cook food all the way out on Orcas Island is substantial and we want to be as responsible for our choices as we can be.

Most schools improve as the week goes on, but there are a few who make no improvement. How is this possible you wonder? Well, some schools are ORT free at their very first meal and have thus begun their quest toward OEE immortality. Any school who goes ORT free during their entire stay will have their name etched (with Sharpie) into the...

"GOLDEN HOG LOG"

Since the 2006 season an average of only 4 school groups have made it onto the Golden Hog Log per season. Camp Orkila is proud to announce the first inductees onto the Golden Hog Log of the 2011 Fall Season. Mt. Vernon Christian School was ORT FREE during their 3-day visit last week. Mt. Vernon Christian had been ORT free 5 consecutive years before a slip up last year, but now they are back into the Hall of Fame ranks.

Congrats to Mt. Vernon Christian school as well as all the other schools for their incredible efforts to make conscious and healthy choices in the dining hall.

The NITRO Crossing

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." Henry Ford

This is a fabulous teamwork activity where participants start on one side as an entire team, and initially start off the activity with working together to get the rope swinging in the middle.

Then, the team cooperates, and works together by getting everyone safely across the evil SWAMP, and remaining safely on the magic platform. Only here, is life's little adventure, a way to make better friends!

Marine Biology Center

YMCA Camp Orkila has the luxury of their very own Touch Tank, filled with sea stars, urchins, anemene, snails, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers and you get the opportunity to touch things, like you would touch your eyeball, and feel like you experiencing a real life Finding Nemo Experience!

There are also baby coho salmon, and adult coho salmon to provide visual entertainment, and giant sea stars playing hide and seek in the big tank!

Get Wet; Get DIRTY

Let's get wet! Let's get dirty! No more showers till we're thirty!

LET'S GET WET! LET'S GET DIRTY! NO MORE SHOWERS TILL WE'RE THIRTY!

LET'S GET WET! LET'S GET DIRTY! NO MORE SHOWERS TILL WE'RE THIRTY!

MIKE AND KELLY ARE HERE!

MIKE and KELLY have just made their TRIUMPHANT return to YMCA Camp Orkila!  They paddled along the Inside Passage allllllllllllllllllllllll the way from Alaska, and arrived this morning to a crew of friends and family on the shores of Orkila.  Here is some further photographic evidence: 

WELCOME BACK!

Outdoor Environmental Education at Camp Orkila is Back!!!

The fall season is fully underway at Camp Orkila! The days are growing shorter, the temperature is dropping and the trees, well our predominantly evergreen trees are still green, but you see where I'm going. Many people are familiar with the popular summer camp program at Camp Orkila, but not everyone knows that Orkila provides valuable camp experiences for thousands of students every fall and spring by way of outdoor education.

Outdoor and Environmental Education (OEE) at Camp Orkila provides an experienced based educational program for a wide range of school groups from around Washington. Our talented and experienced instructors, provide a great mix of environmental science, team building, and exciting camp traditions like games and campfires. In this dynamic setting, students have the opportunity to step into new roles, activly engage with their learning in a hands on manor, and enjoy quality time with friends. For many school groups, Camp Orkila is a major highlight of the year.

Already this season we have welcomed several new staff members into the OEE staff community and have hosted a range of schools including a group of University of Washington freshman. More typically our visiting student groups range from 5th-8th grade. St. Joseph's School 8th graders (See above) were our first guests of the season and enjoyed the one of the most beautifully sunny and warm weeks all year on Orcas Island.

Be sure to continue checking in this fall for the latest happenings at Camp Orkila!!

Husky Expedition!

A dad launches his kids off to sea.  welp, see ya later!

a portrait of today's youth in America

looks like a clown dropped in to entertain the masses

Here is a re-cap of the weekend from a Staff person's perspective.

"BOOM this is the biggest weekend of the year"

"POW the dads are really nice this weekend"

"KAZAAM i gave out so many band-aids this weekend"

"HAZZAH i ate so many cookies at lunch.  I love buffet lunch"

"KERPLUNKITY lots of really happy smiling children this weekend"

"GOLLY GEE i love my job"

"WOAH, I can't believe someone made a counterfeit snazzler."

Human Knot

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."
Andrew Carnegie


One of the things to gain friendship, and garner teamwork is the ability to undo a HUMAN KNOT. There really is no better accomplishment then untangling real live humans!

Garden Goodies

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

The YMCA Camp Orkila garden is a beautiful place to not only explore the possibilities of a completely organic environment, but also is a place to relax and soak in the beauty of nature.

Not to mention a place to get to try various garden goodies, when allowed by the gardener of course!

Westerners Weekend of AWESOME!

OH MY GOSH!

The WESTERNERS just spent the weekend at camp and it was incredible! 

ZIPLINE!

CRAFTS!
POTTERY!

Thanks Westerners for joining us for a weekend of fun and sun at camp! 

See you soon!

 

YMCA Camp Orkila Staff Slideshow

It was not we who changed the children,
but the children who changed us.

Life and Death; IN the FOREST

"Life and death is my favorite because it is so fun while everyone is running around, and there are so many places to hide. This summer for the first time. I was a carnivore, so I was really happy about that." Ben, 15

There is no better thing in the world then running around, and there is no better thing in the world than running around in a beautiful place! With YMCA Camp Orkila having trees upon trees, and logs upon logs, playing a combination of hide and go seek as well as tag amongst such beauty is hard to be replicated!

Potatoes, Garlic and Squash!

OH MY!

The first crop of the potatoes were harvested about 3 weeks ago by the CITs!

The second crop was harvested this morning by Fall OEE Staff!

It's a slightly smaller crop than the first but it's safe to say we'll be eating potatoes till we turn blue!

We'll also be eating a lot of garlic, zucchini and squash. The garlic got hung to dry part way through the summer and now it's ready to be enjoyed in everything we make!

That's a little less than half of yesterday's zucchini and squash harvest. Every day a few more tomatoes ripen up and the corn is going to be harvested really soon. Fall OEE will be getting all of our daily servings of fruits and veggies!

YMCA Camp Orkila; ARRIVAL

“Arrival: the act of arriving, or coming; the act of reaching a place from distance whether by water, or land, or ferry!.”

The first day of camp can be one of the best days ever! New friends are scattered as far as the eye can see, and new experiences are even more common. This could be your first ferry ride, or

maybe your 1000^th, this could be your first campfire, or maybe your 10^th, but no matter the number, every one of them is full of new things to see and new things to explore!

Camp Magic

“Don’t cry because you are leaving, smile because you were there.”

Summer Camp of 2011 has now officially come to an end, but even with that said, the magic of camp still lives on in each of our hearts and minds! Maybe it’s that feeling of accomplishment from getting our rag tied, maybe its that feeling of friendship still fresh on our arms from each bracelet we acquired or made, or maybe its just the knowledge that in 9 months we might be back.

Whatever it is, just because we are not at camp, does not mean that it has to be far from our mind, or far from our hearts. Remember, memories are a way of holding onto the things we love, and memories are aplenty after a summer at camp!