Welcome to Hawk Circle Wilderness Camp!
Celebrating 30 years of youth leadership. Established 1989.
"Children learn best in small groups, with caring, experienced staff who know how to help them connect to nature, themselves and each other."
-Ricardo Sierra, Director
Our overnight Summer Camp for ages 10-18 is located in upstate NY.
Wilderness Survival Skills
We share authentic, real earth skills that have been used for thousands of years by our ancestors to live close to the Earth. Fire-making, Natural Shelters, Tracking, Campfire Cooking, Wood Carving, Stone Tools, Knots, First Aid, Bows & Arrows and much more.
We offer skills that provide experience in being self-sufficient, using critical thinking and building resilience.
The Art of Natural Crafts
The crafts we make involve natural materials gathered from the land around us, like bark baskets using spruce roots for lacing! We make pouches from deer hide, necklaces from river stones, and use natural pigments for paint and decorative art.
Seeing the resources hidden in the world around us helps us grow in awareness, expands our
creativity and our self-expression.
These are key elements in youth development.
Community Service & Friendships
It's not always easy to make friends in new situations, or to feel connected to 'the tribe', but working side by side on projects like stacking firewood, clearing trails or making a meal by the campfire helps in a big way.
We participate in social games, storytelling and board games, which help provide opportunities for communication skills improvement and strengthen interpersonal bonding .
These are essential to the well-being of young people in today's social media driven world.
Hawk Circle Adventure Camps
For Ages 10-13, co-ed
Tuition: $1,200
Our groups of approximately 15 campers learn amazing wilderness skills at our 200 acre private campus, enjoy great meals and return with stories of adventures in the heart of nature!
Maple - June 30-July 6, 2019
Wilderness Teen Camps
For Ages 13-17, co-ed
Tuition: $1,200
Our teens love the Hands On workshop style format and real skills in these week long programs.
Every program is taught by experienced and skilled instructors. We also practice self care like yoga and meditation, as well as service and community activities too.
Scout Awareness, The Way of the Wolverine
July 21-27, 2019
Hawk's Hearth, The Wilds Food Experience
July 28-August 3, 2019
Tribe, The Art of Leadership
August 4-10, 2019
Lodging
Hawk Circle offers cozy, hand-crafted, timber frame cabins. They sleep no more than six campers and are located just at the edge of the woods. Imagine your child waking each morning to the sound of song birds as the sun rises and the morning mist begins to dissipate. Our cabins are clustered near our campfire and only a few feet from our new bath house.
Meals
Our menu is healthy and kid-friendly, with all meals prepared in our camp kitchen. We accommodate a wide variety of food sensitivities and allergies. Your child's morning will begin with our popular breakfast sundae, yogurt, peaches and granola or oatmeal with raisins and walnuts and sometimes baked oatmeal with apples, and always an endless stack of pancakes on their last day here. Lunches include fruit and vegetables, such as tomato or vegetable soup with sandwiches or salad and fresh fruit to snack on. Dinners are entrees like tacos with vegetable garnishes and salad or the campers' favorite, home-made macaroni and cheese with carrots and collard greens.
We offer a vegetarian option at all meals, and a gluten free menu when needed.
Onsite Health Director
Our Hawk Circle camp nurse is onsite and on call 24/7. If your child were to feel sick, we have an infirmary where they can stay and rest with a bed and private bathroom. You will meet our nurse on the first day of camp and will have the opportunity to discuss any medical issues or concerns involving your child. We are inspected and certified to operate through the New York State Department of Health. Upon registering your child for camp, you will receive detailed health forms to complete before the start of camp.
Our Staff
Ricardo Sierra, Hawk Circle's founder and director lives with his wife, Trista Haggerty and son Javier onsite. Their home is a short walk from the camp cabins. Most of our staff have been long-time members of our Hawk Circle community, often starting as campers themselves at age 10, enrolling in our CIT program to eventually become counselors and instructors. They are well-trained in both wilderness skills as well as creating emotionally and physically safe learning experiences. We conduct background checks for all adults in our community, and most of our staff is certified in First Aid and CPR.
Meet the Directors
Co-founder and director of the Earth Mentoring Instutute and founder of Hawk Circle Summer Camps, Ricardo has led workshops, camps, school programs and adult trainings for over 30 years. He specializes in teaching and facilitating transformative programs using the skills and philosophy of wilderness to awaken our senses and our connection to the Earth. He is also the creator of the Earth Skills Correspondence Course, The Polaris Project, an online business mentoring program and the Wolverine Way Summit.
A member of the Tracking Project's Community Mentoring Program in New Mexico, Rick is also an artist, writer, craftsperson and timber framer. He and Trista live at Hawk Circle with their son, Javier. For more information on Ricardo's work, visit his website at www.RicardojSierra.com.
"The skills of survival, awareness and community lead a person ultimately to hearing the inner voice of the heart, of our own personal truth. This knowing of self is the root of real leadership, healing and our path in today's world."
Co-founder and director of the Earth Mentoring Institute, Trista has spent the past 28 years studying initiation and ancient rites of passage. She specializes in working with groups and individuals supporting them to develop inner awareness and a whole human experience. She is the creator of the Inner Alchemy Training Program, teaching the feminine mysteries and offers both residential retreats at Hawk Circle and online programs. Trista is also the founder of Sacred Mountain Tours where she guides people to sacred sites throughout the world.
Trista is a certified aromatherapist. Her work with essential oils, shamanism and energy medicine provides her clients and students with a profound healing experience. She is also a mother of three, avid gardener, knitter and enjoys tending to her animals. For more information on Trista's healing work, visit her website at www.tristahaggerty.com.
"The path of inner alchemy leads a person to experience their whole, Divine humanness. This union of Self and aligning ourselves with abundance and inner peace is the path to creating a new experience here on Earth."
“As a parent, I feel more secure in my children's well being, after spending time at your camp.”
— Sunday Small, Educator, Philadelphia, PA
$100 Discount per Summer Camp!
Enter Discount Code: eagle19
