Kids Day Camp: Wilderness Survival Craft

Give your child the gift of our Wilderness Survival day camps which are excellent for hands-on learners ages 8-14, and seven year olds okay if they attended a prior camp, if attending with older sibling, or if really good in group teaching environments. Campers are grouped with others closest to their age within our hallmark 6-1 average student-teacher ratio that’s so critical for safe and profound outdoor experiences this year.

July 21-25, 2025 Wilderness Survival Craft day camp celebrates its 28th summer this year as we continue our mission to teach campers practical life skills in the outdoors. Now more than ever, young people need real outdoor connections, and we have found that wilderness survival training is the best way for all ages to achieve the skills of resiliency needed to face anything and everything society throws at us. The wilderness is the best of teachers, and with seasoned guidance, can be the fastest and safest place to learn and grow.

There’s nothing more real, more fun, and more thrilling than working together to master fire techniques that our ancestors once knew, build emergency shelters to figure out how our nomadic ancestors could sleep comfortably even when forced to travel, forage for wild edible foods and bring them home to cook together, process plants for herbal first aid remedies, find potable water and purify it further to ensure full hydration in any climate, and honor all the other gifts of wood, stone, air, fire and water. Specific skills introduced include:

• Learning the critical order of survival
• Practicing emergency response scenarios addressing the top hazards in nature
• Building the warmest emergency survival shelters
• Purifing drinking water
• Making fire
• Finding the most important plants and insects for survival
• Learning aidless navigation for lostproofing
• Crafting tools of stone, including a course knife. Campers will also make honorable hunting implements including rabbit sticks, learning that all life – plant, animal and mineral – is sacred to be respected.

Aug 4-8, 2025 Advanced Wilderness Survival day camp requires successful attendance at Wilderness Survival Craft or two other Wolf Camp programs earlier this summer or in past years. Participants move from the concept of mere survival to one of “thrival,” learning to shed the 10 Essentials one by one, learning natural navigation in addition to map/compass, foraging for food in addition to bringing their own lunches, purifying water rather than relying on spigots, making fire by friction rather than with manufactured matches and ferro rods, creating herbal first aid kits rather than buying items at the store, building crafting stone knives, building and more.

• Traditional Survival Shelters, such as the Wickiup and Thatch Hut;
• Practice Bow Drill method of fire-by-friction;
• Natural Water Purification [seeps, filters, rock boiling, and locating natural springs];
• Harvesting, cooking, and eating the Top 10 Most Important Survival Plants;
• Making Herbal First Aid Kits;
• Cooking over an open fire and practice Wild Edible Foraging & Preparation (Herbs, Nuts, Roots, Flowers, Fruits, Insects);
• Spinning natural rope for your shelter, bow-drill kit, shoelaces, and fishing line;
• Breaking rocks for stone tools;
• Stealthy movement in emergency situations;
• Community planning and population dynamics;

##### Sample Itinerary

All itineraries are subject to some amount of change based upon location, season, instructor preference, and natural resource availability.
Monday: Awareness, Navigation & Community Building
Morning Session: Introductions; Awareness Training, Order of Survival
Lunchtime: Bring & Eat Lunch from home, then our After Lunch Activities (ALA) include choice of Archery, Chill Time, Sprinkler Games
Afternoon Session: Natural Navigation & Survival Shelters
Tuesday: Water, Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants
Morning Session: Water Purification Practice, Digging Seeps & Rock Boiling Demo
Lunchtime & ALA: (see monday description)
Afternoon Session: Top 10 Plants, Wild Teas & Edible Insects
Wednesday: Emergency Shelter & Fire
Morning Session: Fire Pits & Safety, Bed-Pillow-Blanket for Baby Fire, Tinder & Firesteel Trainings;
Lunchtime & ALA: (see monday description)
Afternoon Session: Matches Training, Bow Drill Demo & Challenge
Thursday: Animal Craft
Morning Session: Rope Making, Stone Knife Making; Intro to Animal Trailing;
Lunchtime & ALA: (see monday description)
Afternoon Session: Rabbitstick Training, Honorable Hunter Training, Animal Trailing;
Friday: Survival Scenarios
Morning Session: Survival Review & Scenario Challenges;
Lunchtime & ALA: (see monday description)
Afternoon Session: Survival Craft Trading Market & Closing Ceremonies

##### Daily Camp Schedule, Pick-Up & Drop-Off Directions

Meet at the Clark’s Creek Park – South Shelter, 1710 12th Ave SW, Puyallup WA 98371 located one mile west of the Puyallup Fairgrounds. The best arrival time is 8:45-9:00 am, and the best departure time is 3:45-4:00 pm.

8:30-9:00 Check-Ins & Morning Care (no early check-ins available)
9:00**–**9:15 Songs, Stories, Stretches & Late Check-Ins
9:15-11:45 Morning Lessons with snack break at 10:30
11:45-1:15 Lunch, Games & Archery
1:15-3:45 Afternoon Lessons with snack break at 2:30
3:45-4:00 Best Pick-Up Time
4:00-4:30 Aftercare & Late Pick-Ups

##### Camp Leaders

Camp Director Kim Chisholm directs this week with staff instructors at our hallmark 6-1 average student-teacher ratio that’s critical for safe and profound outdoor experiences. Read our FAQ’s for more details and check out camp testimonials dating all the way back to 1997.

##### Day Camp Tuition in Puyallup/Tacoma

$495 is our full tuition rate in Puyallup, but we operate on a sliding scale and we don’t turn anyone away from being able to attend at least one week of camp due to financial reasons. Just email us and let us know how much you can contribute to the cost of camp, or to apply for financial aid from the Conservation College via the Max Davis Scholarship fund, click here and submit answers to their 8 simple questions. If your camper has physical disabilities that make other camps inaccessible, please call to discuss the accommodations we have available and register over the phone at literally any contribution level. To contribution to the Conservation College – Max Davis Scholarship fund, click here.

You will need to pack a healthy lunch, water and substantial snacks every day. Tuition includes t-shirt at your first camp with us, then in subsequent camps a choice of orienteering compass, recommended field guide, firesteel and other outdoor essentials depending on number of camps attended, age and availability.

##### Registration Options

STEP 1 – Reserve your spots in camp by making $100 deposit per camper per week (or $50 if requesting scholarship or reduced tuition) via one of the following methods:

• Zelle is preferred using our email address with that extra “e” on skye plus try to add a note including camper name/age, camp start date/theme, plus your CONTACT INFORMATION (phone number is fine if system doesn’t allow sharing email) if we don’t already have your info since Zelle doesn’t automatically share that with us;
• Or use Venmo to @Chris-Chisholm-13 or • CashApp to $wolfschool but again, try to add your contact information, camper name, program theme and dates, or follow up right away with that via email;
• Or use Credit Card or Apple Pay by clicking here;
• Or call us between 9am-9pm at 425-248-0253 ex 1 with a credit card to register over the phone;
• Or use PayPal appearing on our website;

STEP 2 – If this is your camper’s first year with us, complete our once-in-a-lifetime Registration Form within one week of making your deposit, otherwise we will have to refund you and give your spot(s) to others. We’ll also email you Word/PDF versions of the registration form in case you’re having trouble downloading or making a copy of our Google Doc form which you can send or share back to our email address for review within one week to maintain your reservation. If your camper has attended Wolf Camp in the past, a new registration form is not needed, but we will may email a questionnaire for your camper to submit as application for this year.

STEP 3 – Pay balance before or during your summer camp weeks. We’ll email you an invoice this spring with camp prep info and balance payment options that can be done in advance or during your first camp week. All payments are non-refundable unless we refuse your registration. However, if you cancel (at any time for any reason is fine) we will save your payments as credit for you to use in future years, or you can choose to have us move the funds into our scholarship account if you prefer. The best practice is to make the minimum deposits to register, and then wait to pay the remaining balances during summer.