Final Update from BGW 3C!
July 5, 2026
Day 9: Day 9 was the first day of white water rafting! We woke up early and drove to hammer creek to meet the rafting guides and pack up for our trip! We got on the water and had a few hours of beautiful weather before the rain came. Going through class 2 and 3 rapids during a cold rainstorm could have brought the group down. Any other group of people would let those circumstances get to them, however big wild 3C embraced the challenge and ended up having a blast in the rain. Henry and Edward got to go in the kayak and paddle down some sick rapids. We stopped at a beach and got some cover to dry off. The rain eventually stopped and we were able to enjoy a nice hamburger meal all together and wrap it up with some peach cobbler for desert! The rafting guides joined us for moonup and we were able to get to know them better before getting in our tents and getting a great nights sleep before the next day of rafting!
Day 10 was our first full day of rafting! We woke up to some pancakes and yogurt! We got clear skies the whole day which was amazing! Today we had our first class 4 rapid meaning everyone needed to paddle hard and we had to hit the waves square on to not flip! The rapid was called snow hole and everyone absolutely killed it! It was so fun to get to watch everyone celebrate getting through the rapid! We stopped a nice beach where we were able to chill and hangout! Eden and Eve played a spike ball match against Harrison and wood to 100! They are by far the best and most competitive spike ball players Aubrey and I have seen! Sinclair and Hillary got a chance to paddle in kayak during some of the calmer rapids and they had a blast! For dinner we had some grilled chicken pesto pasta which was so amazing! We got to celebrate Henry’s birthday as well which was so fun! We had Mountain Dew and cake and everyone got to sing happy birthday! It was such a special day!
Day 11 was our third day of rafting! We woke up with some eggs and coffee and got on the water! We had another huge rapid named China that was a class 4 rapid! Once again, everyone absolutely killed it and we got celebrate getting through the rapid! We stopped for lunch at a nice beach where we got to set up a water slide! Sinclair went absolutely flying off the slide and got some serious air time! It was so fun to watch everyone jump in the water! Wood and Harrison worked on their frisbee skills and Harrison jumped in the river to save the frisbee! He was a true hero! Selma also had a great slide into the water where she ended up just jumping into the water! We kept on rafting after the fun stop and got to our campsite! This was our last night rafting and we stopped at this beautiful pebble beach and got to cowboy camp under the stars! It was amazing! We had fajitas for dinner and some pineapple upside down cake for desert! It was an incredible way to end the rafting trip and the group bonded so much on the trip!
Day 12: was our last day of rafting to get off the river! We hit this massive rapid named slide and everyone got soaked with water! It was so much fun! We stopped at some cliffs and were able to go cliff jumping! It was so fun to get to watch everyone jump off the cliffs into the salmon river! Hillary killed it and was nervous at first, but ended up jumping off the cliffs multiple times! We then went to a nearby lookout spot for a quick snack! We hiked about 15 minutes up a small hill and had an incredible lookout over the salmon river! We all got to take pictures and see what felt like the whole river from the top of the canyon! We eventually made it to the confluence where the salmon river meets the snake river! It is such a cool thing to get to see! We ate lunch at the confluence and got picked up by a jet boat to bring us back up the snake river! Sinclair made friends with the dog on the jet boat! We got back to the van and started our drive back to bruneau! We stopped for dinner at chick fil an and gave the kids an opportunity to write letters to their future selves! We ended the night with some much needed showers and got a good nights rest before heading back to Jackson!
For our last full day and our 13th day on the trip we celebrated 4th of July!! We woke up super early at our campsite in Idaho so we could get on the road and celebrate America in Jackson Hole. We stopped for donuts for breakfast and headed straight for Wyoming. We listened to every American song we could think of and enjoyed the beautiful views of Idaho. Around halfway through our roadtrip we stopped at a Goodwill to pick out silly outfits for our final night banquet. Sloan definitely picked out the worst looking outfit out of the group and won for best costume!! We had so much fun picking out outfits for each other and seeing what horrible combinations we could make. After more driving we finally made it to Jackson Hole! We quickly set up camp, changed into our costumes, and went into town! We got an amazing lunch and milkshakes in town and had a few hours of roaming the town and shopping. The town was so alive with American Pride and buzzing people. After we all got our fill of shopping we got pizza to go and ate in the Jackson Hole Square Park. We were definitely getting some strange looks with our crazy outfits but we were having too much fun with each other to care! After dinner we got ice cream and walked to Snow King Mountain for the firework show! We met some other kids and played games with them while we waited for the show to start. The fireworks were so beautiful and once they were finished we hopped back in the van to go back to camp. We had paper plate awards, a silent dance party, shared our favorite stories, and had an amazing moonup under the stars. We all cowboy camped together for our last night before we parted ways.
Day 14 was a bitter-sweet day! Everyone was beyond excited to see their family but sad to leave their new friends. We had an extra early wake up call and made it to the airport in time for everyone to make their flights with loads of time to spare. We are so grateful to have such a lively and close group! We will miss them so much and hope that they all continue to live in the moment and not take the little things for granted! Thank you for trusting us with your amazing kids!
Cooking Competitions and More!!
June 30, 2026
The 5th day of our trip was one of everyone’s favorite days of the trip so far! We all cowboy camped and got to sleep in late. We woke up, got ready, and loaded into the van to head to our activity of the day! We drove to Snow King Mountain for a ropes course, zip line, and several other fund activities. We started off with a few small zip lines and we made our way up to their biggest one, which happens to be the steepest zip line in North America! Eden told us all about her fear of heights but that she was ready to try this biplane and she did so well! We were so proud of her for stepping out of her comfort zone. After we zip lined we had some time before we started our ropes course so we got to ride the alpine slide. A lot of us had never done it and we had so much fun trying to race each other down the mountain. When we all thought we were too tired to continue on it was our time for the ropes course. Selma automatically knew she wanted to go through all of the levels and put herself near the front. She was insane going through all of the levels and trying all of the obstacles. We spent hours going through all the different obstacles and by the time we were finished we were all starving and excited to get into PJ’s. Edward helped whip up our amazing dinner and learned how to use the Coleman camping stove to make our tacos in a bag. We had fun talking, eating, and looking at the views before we went to bed!
Day 6 was our long drive day to Bruneau State park. We woke up early to hit the rode, making stops only to get some candy and snacks. We listened to a-lot of music and might have made the longest queue in Spotify history thanks to some amazing request from Harrison, who wanted mostly Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, and Hilly asking for her requests. When we got to the Sand Dunes, it was very windy which made setting up tents a challenge, but super fun. We celebrated completing the long drive with some Canes Chicken and then went up to the top of the dunes to watch the sunset. It was an amazing sunset and some we got some amazing photos of the group. Henry sprinted down the dunes twice and somehow did not fall despite running as fast as he could. We went back to camp and everyone made s’mores by the fire before calling it a night. We really made the most of a long driving day and it ended up being so much for everyone!
Day 7 we woke up to the wind howling against our tents! The wind in the sand dunes is no joke, but we got up and enjoyed the beautiful sun beaming down on us. We ate our breakfast slowly and chatted before packing up camp and driving a few minutes down the road to go boarding down the sand dunes. We got two sleds and two sandboards and we so much fun going down them! It took a couple of tries to get the hang of it and it was hard to climb up the sand hills but once we did it was so worth it. Sinclair was by far our most ambitious sand boarder, trying new ways to ride the board and new heights, going over and over again! It was so much fun to watch everyone go down or at least try to. Once we finished our sand boarding we all hopped in the car and got started on our road trip! It took a little longer than expected due to some long gas station stops and maybe a lost shoe that we had to turn back for, but we had so much fun in the car. Even though the trip took us a lot longer than expected it felt like it flew by. By the time we got to camp in McCall, Idaho it was raining and we had to set up our tents in the cold. We learned how to set up our group tent to hang out under and we started to cook our dinner. Sloan helped cook our breakfast for dinner and was in charge of flipping the pancakes! Though there might have been more sneakily eating of the pancakes than flipping them. Even though it was rainy and cold and half of our stuff was wet, it was one of our best nights yet. We were laughing the entire night, enjoying each others company, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
On day 8 we had another lightly rainy and cold day, but we didn’t let it get us down! We woke up and all rushed to get everything ready so we could hop in the car and get warm. Once we were in the car we headed over to a field where we learned how to fly fish without actual hooks on our lines. The rain finally stopped and we learned all about casting and tying knots. Once we were pros we moved onto actual hooks and water! We spread out and all started to try our best to catch a fish. We didn’t end up catching any but Wood was so close and one of our most dedicated at learning how to cast the line. We tried for a long time and we had fun even though no fish were caught. After we fished we went into town to reward our hard work with some ice cream! Even the cold can’t stop us from enjoying a sweet treat. After some walking around the town we split up into teams for our Iron Chef Competition!! We had a budget and time limit in the grocery store and then we got to work back at camp. We had two amazing meals. One being Jambalaya and the other a Strimp Alfredo Pasta with Caesar salad and bread. Both were impeccable but the Jambalaya won just barely. Eve was sadly on the losing team so her teams punishment was cleaning the dishes but she was hysterically laughing and keeping spirits high the entire time. We couldn’t be more grateful for such an amazing group and we can t believe we are already halfway!!
Thank You’s!
Henry- Hello Mom and Dad, I’m having so much fun. We are rafting today. Thank you for sending me.
Sinclair- Hey Mom and Papa! We did fly fishing and are now going to do rafting!! Love y’all thanks for sending me it’s awesome here!
Sloan- Hey Mom and Dad! We are going white water rafting today and we also went to a mountain and did zip lining and it was also fun, we also drive up to Idaho and did fly fishing there.Thank you for sending me and I’m having so much fun and I miss all you guys.
Selma – hi mom and dad I am having so much fun it rained and we are all wet and cold. After climbing we did north americas steepest zip line and ropes course and now we are in Idaho and we went fly fishing and we are going rafting now. yesterday we did iron chef and my team won. love you thank you for sending me and i dont miss you.
Hillary- hey momma and dad. Im having the absolute time of my life right now. I miss y’all so much. We drove up to Idaho and it rained a lot. Our tent got soaking wet and but it’s okay. We went fly fishing and are now going to white water raft. Jackson Hole was so much fun. Thank you so much for letting me go on this trip. Love y’all so so much!!!
Wood: Hi Mom and Dad, camp is amazing it’s just been really wet and cold the past couple of days win Idaho. Sorry for asking but I do need some money for town day where we go shopping and I believe it’s either the last or 2nd to last day. We are currently off to white water raftinig and it is 48 degrees outside but I’m having so much fun. Thank you so much for sending me on this trip it. Couldn’t have been much better.
Eve – Hey! Today we are starting white water rafting in Idaho. Im a little bit sick from camping outside, and my sleeping mat has a hole in it. I miss you so much! Im having so much fun with eden and I’m super happy to be here, but also excited to get back into a real bed. Idaho is so cold! It’s been pretty warm in Jackson Hole, but raining and 40s here. Thanks for sending me, I miss you!
Eden- Hi mama and dada! I miss y’all so much, but it’s hard to focus on anything but how amazing this trip has been! Were in McCall, Idaho right now and I can’t feel my hands its so cold and wet but were still having the best time. I think I laughed for 30 minutes straight getting ready for bed last night. I have the best group ever and my leaders are amazing. I do miss the whole family and especially Knox and obviously y’all! We saw a frenchie yesterday and I talked to the family for like 30 minutes, after we did iron chef. They were guests in trying the food we made. I made homemade jambalaya, and I did it using all the smells and memories from yours mama (we even listened to John mayer while cooking) and it was really freaking good. I think I’ve become even more outgoing; we’ve made so many friends outside of moondance! i think the best part has been the late night talks while cowboy camping. Thank you guy for sending me here with Eve its been a true gift. Were off to go white water rafting! sending love and miss y’all! -B
Edward – Hey! I am having so much fun! Thank you so much for sending me on this trip! We are about to go white water rafting! Miss everyone!
Harrison – Hey mom and day, I am having so much fun on the trip! We got to go fly fishing yesterday and today we are going on our white water rafting trip! Thank you for sending me on this trip! Love you guys!
Rodeos + Repelling!
June 27, 2026
Day one of Big Wild and we couldn’t be more excited to have everyone together! Most of our day was spent at the airport waiting for everyone to arrive! Hilly came first and was eager to jump into conversation with all of the other groups’ kids! We felt lucky to have such an energetic and outgoing person as our first kid to arrive. We played lots of card games and hacky sack as more and more people arrived. Eventually we got our entire group together and we drove to our campsite. Our campsite has the most beautiful view of the Grand Tetons and we admired it as we set up our tents. We had pizza for dinner as we watched the sunset. We learned all about our area, Leave no trace, and we finished with Moonup before we went to bed!
Our second day was rock climbing! We had a 2 mile hike around a lake to our rock climbing spot. Selma was immediately a pro with her own harness and an encouraging explanation for everyone who was wary about climbing. We started off on an uphill slope as our first climb and Eden was absolutely amazing! She told us how afraid she was of heights beforehand but she absolutely nailed it once we started it. We were so proud she faced her fears. Wood was also by far the fastest climber we had, zooming up each obstacle. When we finished we walked the two mile hike back and by the end we were all so hot and sweaty! Edward got some amazing photos of the animals and nature around us! We decided to jump into the lake – it was FREEZING but we all got in anyway and had fun playing around. We went back to camp and Sinclair learned how to take apart a rotisserie chicken. She helped cut up all our vegetables and we all had Mediterranean chicken bowls for dinner. We watched the stars all together, had an amazing moon up, and went to bed excited for our next day of climbing!
On day 3 we did a second day of rock climbing. We went to a different location in Teton Village. We took the gondola up the mountain and started our hike there. It was so much fun and we did some challenging climbs! Harrison was an absolute beast on the rock climbing and was the first one to try out the repelling. We got to eat lunch up on the mountain with a beautiful view. After climbing we came back to camp where everyone sat around the table and played games. We then got dressed up for the rodeo! We decided it would be a great night to cook burgers and and caesar salad before we went to the rodeo. Harrison was on the grill and he made some delicious burgers. It was so cool to get to see the rodeo and we got to watch bull riding, bronco riding, and a lassoing competition. Henry tried to get us to let him sign up to ride the broncos, but we of course said no. To end the night we played a little game of hot seat to get to know everyone better and Eve was filled with funny and amazing questions to ask everyone.
On day 4 we went for another beautiful lake hike! We woke up and cooked some chocolate chip pancakes. Right as we finished cooking we were met with a little bit of rain which forced us to eat our pancakes in the van. It ended up being pretty fun! We then went into the national park and started our hike. It was around a 7 mile hike and we stopped at a big rock to jump in the lake! It was so fun to watch Eve and Sloan jump off the rock into the water! Sloan also had some great riddles for us to do during our long hike! We then came back to camp and started cooking some bbq chicken quesadillas. Eden was on the grill and cooked some of the best quesadillas we have ever eaten! We played music and laughed all of dinner! We then went to an overlook which has one of the best views of the Tetons. We made hot chocolate and brought our crazy creeks! We were surprised by 3 musicians who were playing guitar and ended up sitting with them and singing songs till the sun set over the mountains. It was such an unreal experience we danced under the stars!
Student Shoutouts:
Sinclair- Hey mom and papa! It’s awesome here and I love my group and counselors! 🔥🔥🤙🏼🤙🏼😎😎 love yall! Thanks for send me
Eden – Hey mama & dad! I miss yall so much! I’m having the best time! It’s definitely different and we’ve been hiking a lot and not showering at all. I got the best group possible and me and Eve love this! Love and miss yall! 🥹 (we broke so many laws!) 🔥
Eve – Hey!! I miss you so much!!!! We’ve been waking up real early. I’ve been warm in my sleep and it’s less cold than I thought it would be!. I love you!!
Edward- Hey guys, I miss you 😢 but not to much 🤣. I am having so much fun! We went to a rodeo yesterday, so fun!!! I love the climbing we have been doing and it’s so fun, the counselors are amazing. I love y’all. Tysm!!!!!!!!!!!!🙂
Harrison- Hey Mom, Dad and hi Molly! Hi Cotton!!! I am having a great time and eating some good food. We went climbing the past two day and also went to a rodeo which was great. Today went on a hike and jumped off of a big rock which was awesome. I love and miss yall. ♥️
Hillary- hey momma, dad, and everyone else!! Please tell this to the whole family. I miss yall so so much and I think I haven’t this most home sick in my life. I really appreciate that yall let me go on this trip and meet all these amazing people. Momma, please cook lasagna when I get back. I love all of yall so so much and just wait for the stories when I get back!!💕💕
Henry- Hello Mom and Dad, I love and miss y’all. I am having so much fun; thank you for sending me!
Wood- hi mom and dad,
I have made plenty of new friends and camp is a lot funner than expected. I miss both of you and I hope you have fun with no kids and I’m having a blast. I have taken plenty of photos too with my GoPro and many other peoples cameras and we are going to exchange the photos once camp ends. Love you hope to see you soon 👣🫥😶🌫️🧐🆘
Sloan- Hi mom and dad!! I am having a lot of fun and I have made friends with everyone! We went climbing 2 days and then hiking all 3 days. Tell saylor, Bowie and banks I say hi! Love all you guys and I’ll see yall in a week and a half♥️
Selma – hi mom and dad i love you i am having so much fun we went climbing. say hi to my sisters 😛😛😛😛😛💗💗
Safe Arrival in Jackson Hole!
June 23, 2026
Hello Big Wild Families!
We just heard from our leaders that the group has landed safely in Jackson Hole, WY! The group is headed to their first campsite, and we can’t wait to hear 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
