Glow Sticks & Goodbyes: The Final Days of COT 2A
July 8, 2025
Welcome back! Our Day 11 Sand Dunes experience started promptly at 3AM with music and glow sticks that woke the desert up. Emma, Rodes and Logan led the way with their red and blue lights while the rest followed into the sand. After pushing themselves more than they were used to, the group was triumphant and reached the top as the sun was rising with accomplished smiles on their faces. Jack mastered sand dune surfing almost immediately while Gracie and Marian drew pictures in the sand. Our last sand activity was a 1v4 of Will against Franklin, Peter, William and Rodes, with the kids coming up on top. Everyone ran down the dunes to a long awaited eggs, bacon and pancakes for breakfast. After eating, we drove to Salida and enjoyed live music, ice cream and the river.
After a much needed rest, the group woke up excited to embark on their next adventure: zip lining and rock climbing! Tytus, Marian and Gracie excelled and accomplished the double black course, while Hazel was an encouraging member as she led William through the course. After a quick lunch break, the group was back on the ropes zip lining and had fun with Gray making new handshakes on the side. After zip lining, we hung out by the river and colored and swam.
Our last full day consisted of a pizza party in the morning before our departure out of the woods with brownies and soda! Once we arrived to Cherry Creek in Denver, we quickly showered and organized before going to the thrift shop to change our wardrobes and personas for the night. About $20 later, each one of us was looking fabulous and ready for our night out on the town! We went to the rock and ordered an abundance of food before going back to our campsite, where we shared memories from our favorite parts of the trip. Laughing collectively about our experiences was the perfect way to end the trip.
The kids flew out today and we couldn’t be happier with how these last two weeks have been with them. The bonds and memories formed is what is so special about moondance, and we loved fostering an environment of acceptance and community for everyone on the trip. COT 2A out!
Fourth of July Fun!
July 6, 2025
Good morning San Juan’s! The group woke up and started prepping for backpacking before heading into the woods. We taught Leave No Trace principles, the duffle shuffle, bear protocols, and more essential skills. We loaded up the van and started our four-day adventure at the foot of the San Juans at the Kilpacker trail. Maya, Hazel, and Gracie led the way and, after a few hours, we arrived at base camp. After a dance contest where Marian was crowd surfed and Peter, Jack, and William won, hot dogs were devoured. We ended the night by sharing scary stories over golden brown marshmallows and looking at the stars.
The next morning the group slept in while Will and Maya made eggs and hash browns. Tytus facilitated group games like silent football, which led Hazel and Jack to have to act like cats and dogs. After relaxing at the campsite, we hiked 3 miles with two river crossings with Franklin, Hazel, and Will in the lead. Nina, Rodes, Marian, Logan, Gracie, and Maya did riddles while William, Peter, and Tytus got to know each other in the back. After the hike, Will and Maya made over 30 pita pizzas and ended the night by sharing stories from their lives back home.
Day seven we were stuck in a rain storm all huddled under a tarp for a few hours. Despite the weather, William, Franklin, Gracie, Hazel, Nina, and Marian brought positive energy with their dance moves from Tytus’ music. Once the weather was safe, we packed up camp, hiked to the trailhead, and set up our home for the night. With a beautiful backdrop, the kids all played Jackpot with the frisbee, where Rods and Jack excelled. Logan, Maya, and Marian passed the Frisbee around after. Later, the stormy clouds created a beautiful sunset that was celebrated with laughter by the fire.
Day eight began bright and early for our town day in Telluride! The group was excited to return to civilization and enjoyed some shopping and mocha (shoutout Gracie). We then settled in for lunch at Brown Dog Pizza and put DOWN some pizzas and salads before driving over to Elk Creek. For dinner, we grubbed down on some chicken nuggies and hurried to bed for rock climbing the next day!
Day nine had a little more time for sleep as we awoke with oatmeal and a smooth drive to Schoolhouse Rock. The students flew up the walls like tremendous machines. Rodes must’ve climbed each route three times before stepping off to belay Tytus up the wall. Nina and Logan also shared similar successes working to belay others in a great show of Expedition Behavior. After climbing, the crew sat down under a tree for some of Will’s world-famous grilled cheese sandwiches! The group being well-fed, we then headed into Crested Butte for a Fourth of July celebration (yes we know it was the third)! We stopped at Tin Cup to grab some ice cream before heading to an overlook for hamburger dinners. Shoutout Nina for the cooking assist! Finally, we headed to the local ski resort for live music and fireworks, where the group danced the night away to celebrate the fourth a few hours early.
Happy Fourth of July! The kids were woken up by red, white, and blue balloons, whipped cream as their alarm, and themed pancakes and donuts for America’s birthday. After breakfast, we went to another rock wall where Jack, Rodes, Peter, Franklin, Marian, and Logan excelled despite the rain. Hazel, Gracie, Nina, and Marian painted while others climbed, and Emma, Gray, William, and Jack painted patriotic symbols on their bodies. A picnic below the rocks followed before the group saddled up to drive to the sand dunes. After the drive, we stopped by the Zapata Falls and made dinner with a view of the dunes and sunset. Getting up early calls for an early night, and we are so excited for the dunes tomorrow!
-Tytus, Maya, + Will
Thank you so much for signing me up for Moondance! I am having so much fun and tomorrow we are going zip lining. -Nina
Thanks for sending me here I am having a blast. The sand dunes were awesome. Love you! – Jack
Thank you so much mom and dad for giving me so many good opportunities like Moondance! I have had so much fun the last week. Today we did the sand dunes and it was amazing! Love you guys – Hazel
Thank you mom and dad for bringing me to Moondance! I’m having so much fun, and every activity has been great. Can’t wait to see you! -Marian
Thank you so much for sending me to Moondance mom and dad! I am having the best time and have made so many new connections and friends! Today we hiked up the sand dunes it was such a great experience! Love you guys see you soon! -Gracie
Thank you so much for sending me to Moondance Mom and Dad! I am having a great time and we just got back from the sand dunes! Tomorrow we are going zip lining and doing a ropes course. Love you guys, can’t wait to see you soon! -Gray
Thank you so much for sending me to Moondance, Mom and Dad. We just got back from the sand dunes and I am having so much fun! I love you guys! -Emma
Thank you so much for bringing me to Moondance, I am having a lot of fun doing the different activities and I’m about to zip-line and we just finished climbing the sand dunes. Love you so much! -Peter
Thank you so much for bringing me to Moondance, I am having so much fun doing all the different activities. I am going to zip-line and we did so much more it is a blast. Love you guys so much tell Victoria I miss her so much love u guys to the moon and back love u so much. Love Franklin
Thank you for allowing me to come to camp Moondance, I have had lots of fun in different activities. Our last activity of the trip and going on the zip-line/ropes course. Love you and miss you guys tell Emeline I love her and can’t wait to see her. Love William
Thank you so much for letting me come here and giving me the chance to have the best time of my life here in Colorado. We just did sand dunes they were so much fun. I miss y’all so much I love y’all. Love Rodes
OMG the last few days here have been a blast!! The sand dunes were my favorite so far. I literally so the entire Milky Way! I miss you guys so much, can’t wait to go home and take a shower and get into clean clothes! Give Cooper and Carly a hug for me!! See you guys soon! ❤️ Logan
Checking In From The Colorado Trail!
June 29, 2025
Hello from the ROWDY ROCKIN STATE OF COLORADO!!! Session two has finally arrived and we could not be more excited! After a quick departure from DEN, we ascended back into the woods and back to one of our favorite campsites, Helca Junction. Rodes, Jack, Peter and Will went down to the river to fly fish while the others tried to climb as high as they could to see the sunset. We ate pizza and shared our excitement and goals for the next two weeks, before choosing our first LODs, Jack and Hazel! Jack impressed the group with his helpfulness and confidence and Hazel with her selflessness and humor which united our group to start!
Day two started with a breakfast burrito buffet and fruit to fuel them for our big day of whitewater rafting ahead. Our guides Kai and Connor brought the energy for our raft down the Arkansas! Will and Maya headed one boat crew with Connor, while Tytus and Kai led our second boat crew for our first section. The water was white and white and challenged the group mentally and physically. During our early section, Gracie began calling paddling commands, prompting Kai to bring her to the back of the raft to guide our final half of the day herself! She learned steering from the back and commands like a pro. Then Kai taught the group his patented beaver tail slap on the water to which Marian replicated with scary accuracy. Back on boat crew one, Emma and Gray led the group into some rocky water, navigating with precision. Right behind them was Logan and Jack matching paddles perfectly. By the time we ended at our campsite dinner was fast approaching and our guides cheffed up some stir fry which filled our tummies leading into day three.
Our final day of rafting began early with some hot cocoa! Then we had a hearty breakfast of eggs and bacon before jumping back in the cold water. Boat crew two (Kai, Tytus, Franklin, Peter, Gracie, Nina, Marian, and Hazel) led the way early but encountered a hurtle when we came across two other boat crews stuck on a rock in a difficult rapid. Both our crews pulled off the river before Kai led boat crew two into a rescue mission! We paddled from one side to the other through the rapids to the stuck boats. Hazel and Nina led at the front of the boat and provided the right timing and power for the maneuvers. Once we reached the group, Kai jumped out of the raft and facilitated the rescue for the other crew and ensured everyone was back on the raft, movin and groovin. Soon after the rescue, our group reaching our lunch spot, Hecla Junction! We pounded down some sandwiches before our final push down the river. During some calm sections, many got to swim while holding on the boat and some (Franklin) couldn’t get enough and were in and out of the water like a dolphin for most of the afternoon. When we got off the river we earned some celebratory hamburgers (and some bison) before a thoughtful Moonup, culminating in our new LODs for day four, Peter and Logan.
Day four also begun early, with a quick oatmeal breakfast before fly fishing on Franz Lake near Salida. Peter and Franklin led the way, working hard to reel in a fish, but it would be Will who grabbed the first bite. After some fishing, we cheffed up some nice sandwiches while Emma and Gray taught the group a new game and learned another for themselves. We then took off to our next campsite at Elk Ridge! While on the way, William impressed the group with his singing and the energy was at a high, heading into our next few days in the San Juan’s backpacking!
Shoutouts!
Logan- Hi mom, hi dad! Miss you guys! Loving Moondance, tell Cooper and Carly I said hi ❤️
Hazel- Hey mom & dad! Moondance has been so far one of the best experiments ever! We are about to go backpacking in the San Juan’s today! Love you guys!
Gracie- hi mom and dad and Ainsley and Devon! Moondance has been so fun and everyone is so nice! We are about to go backpacking today, love you guys!
Emma- Hey mom and dad. I miss y’all. Camp is so fun, tell Owen and Lily I said hi! Hope they had fun at camp. Tell Maddie I miss her, love y’all!
Gray- Hi mom, hi dad! Camp has been so fun! Also tell Nash and Rhodes I say hi! We are about to go backpacking for four days! I’m so excited!!! Love y’all!
Nina- hi family! I am having so much fun and everyone is so nice. Tell everyone I say hi! I love you guys so much! We are going backpacking today!
Marian- hi mom and dad!!! I miss you so much. I’m excited to see y’all in a few weeks. Love you so much!
Jack- hey mom and dad I miss y’all. Tell Ave and Millis I said hi and gunner. We are about to go backpacking. Love y’all!
Peter- hi guys. I miss you a lot! But I’m having a great time. I Whitewater rafted for the first time and it was fun, I’m about to go backpacking. Tell Maple I love her!
William- hi mom and dad I miss you a lot! I love you so much. We went Whitewater rafting and fly fishing, we are about to go backpacking. Tell Emeline I love her!
Franklin- hi mom and dad I miss you guys so much, I love you guys. Tell Viv and Victoria and Alice hi!
Rodes- Hi mom and dad take care of Mymy and Ozzy, I miss you guys so much. I’ve been having fun fly fishing and whitewater rafting. I also caught a rainbow trout! Love y’all so much.
Safe Arrival in CO!
June 25, 2025
Hello Colorado Trail Families!
We heard from our leaders that the group has landed safely in Denver! The trip is off to a great start, and we cannot wait to hear more stories from their adventure! Please remember our leaders and students will be unplugged during their trips, but we will be posting trip updates throughout the next week! This will allow you to follow along with the trip. You can also follow us on Instagram, @moondanceadventures, to see more of what we are up to!
-Moondance HQ
