Rich Ranch Welcomes Metropolitan Students

SEELEY LAKE - Students and teachers from a Washington, D.C. suburb spent the first week of their summer vacation in Montana at the Rich Ranch.

The middle school classes at the Bullis School, an independent, private K-12 school in Potomac, Md. takes an annual trip every summer. Last year they visited the Florida Keys.

This year 11 students and two teachers spent six days, June 11-16 at the Rich's Montana Guest Ranch to experience small-town America and the Wild West.

"For them to choose Montana and a rural landscape like this, it's pretty cool," said Jack Rich, the ranch owner. "Culture, countryside, landscape and environment come together to make a pretty unique thing."

The itinerary for the week was crammed with activities. Students got a full outdoor experience – they spent two days on horseback, went fly fishing, hiked to Morrell Falls and visited Gus, the world's largest larch.

"The views here are spectacular and can never be captured on film," wrote students Kyra Andreadis and Hannah Hoverman on the school's blog for the trip.

The group immersed themselves in the cultural side of the Blackfoot-Clearwater valley with a visit to the sculpture garden in Lincoln, time spent wandering around Garnet Ghost town and a pit stop to order shakes at the Ice Cream Place. The students also spent some time at the Lincoln Ranger Station to learn about the local bear populations.

"I'm super passionate about experiential education in general," said Emily Simpson, a math teacher at Bullis who chaperoned the trip. "I think kids learn a lot about themselves when they travel themselves and they're not with their technology."

That's one of the aspects that made the trip unique- no technology.

Even though getting reception would have been tricky to begin with, students weren't even allowed to pack their phones for the trip.

"It doesn't even phase them," said the other chaperone Chelsea Henry. "They're having so much fun."

Favorite activities for the group were horseback riding and fishing but an evening spent line dancing also stuck with them. At breakfast the last morning several girls got up to prove they remembered all the steps.

For many of the students, this was their first trip to this part of the country.

"A lot of my friends were coming and I thought it would be something different," said Will Bonham who will be a freshman next fall. "It's very exciting."

As upperclassmen at the Bullis School, the travel opportunities will become nearly endless. Henry says there are around 10 international trips a year for older students. This year there was a photography trip to Iceland, service trips in Cambodia and Bulgaria and five other European excursions.

Simpson said one of the reasons the middle school trip ended up at Rich Ranch is that many other students had come to the ranch before-a portion of their website is dedicated to educational field trips. This is the fourth school group to visit the Ranch this year, and the last of the season. Earlier this spring the Seeley Lake Elementary school kindergarten class visited to study primitive forms of transportation.

"Whether you are here to hunt, fish, ride, hike, we want education and interpretation of our landscape to be part of everything we do," Ranch owner Belinda Rich told the Pathfinder earlier this year. "That's a cornerstone of our whole business."

Simpson hopes that the week in Montana will stick with her students. If all goes well, it won't be the first time they journey outside of their comfort zone.

"I hope they find their passion for traveling and continue it," she said.