Camp Housing and Food
UC Elkus Youth Ranch
Our home base for the week is UC Elkus Ranch Environmental Education Center, just south of Half Moon Bay, and maybe 5 miles from the ocean. The location provides us with rangelands all around us to use as our classrooms. We want each camper to learn by doing, we give you a brief overview and then send you out to try it on your own. The "it" will be navigation with a compass, plant id, digging a soil pit, and conducting monitoring on rangelands among other things.
Their website has some information about what they offer, outside of Range Camp. If you are ever in the Half Moon Bay area, be sure to check them out!
Camp Housing
Our accommodations are not fancy, but they provide us with the best of both worlds, a camping feel to camp while having running water, showers, and a full kitchen. UC Elkus Ranch has charming (aka rustic) canvas tents and a brand new yurt. We supplement with large tents to make sure everyone has a "roof" over their head. Elkus has fairly thick camp mats that we use to give some extra padding to your sleeping bag. Most of the staff camp on-site as well, so you might see a combination of small tents scattered around the Conference Center. Because Elkus Ranch is built on a hill, there are only two locations where campers can sleep. The canvas tents are up by the office, while the yurt and tents are around the conference center and we have traditionally had the "boys' camp" and "girls' camp" separated with a hill between them.
Camp Food
If you checked out our Staff Page, you already met Chef Marty. He loves to cook and it shows. We eat very well at camp, this is not typical "camp food." Chef Marty takes very seriously his job of providing nutritious meals for us since we are outside and active all day while also ensuring all of our dietary concerns are met. If you have an allergy to a food, or a special diet, Chef Marty will do all he can to accommodate you. Since his main catering is in the Bay Area, he has become quite creative with vegetarian and vegan meals, some even us carnivores enjoy. Please be sure to fill out any food allergies on the registration so Chef Marty (and our Health Supervisor - we had a severe nut allergy recently - who had no issues for the week) can plan accordingly.
