Boojum | About Boojum | Course Areas | Santa Barbara: Residential

Santa Barbara: Mountain and Coastal Residential Programs

Standard length of trip: 2-8+ days
Recommended group size: 10 to 150+
Standard size of trail group: 12-15 participants

Course Overview

The Boojum Institute's Santa Barbara Mountain and Coastal Residential Programs offers a premium-quality outdoor education experience set amidst the beautiful rolling hills, pristine oak woodlands, lush canyon bottoms, and Pacific Ocean environment of California's south-central coast or Santa Ynez Mountains.

These areas are rich in both natural and human history, and are excellent locations for outdoor studies.

The camps Boojum has selected for our Santa Barbara courses offer the comfort of a residential camp in a spectacular outdoor setting. Our facilities offer heated, comfortable cabins or dormitories for participants. Full bathrooms with flush toilets, running water and showers are available. Students eat hearty meals in a comfortable setting, and break-out rooms are available for a variety of indoor activities. Hiking trails, low and high ropes Challenge Course events, and campfire areas may be made available for participants. Coastal courses may additionally include tide pooling, bicycling, and sea kayaking. A variety of ecosystems and habitats--riparian, chaparral, deciduous forest, intertidal and marine--are ready for exploration by eager students.

The structured camp environment helps participants focus on the learning activities at hand. A myriad of activities ensure that students will experience a diversity of compelling and interesting curriculum options and that the course can be tailored precisely to the client's needs. Exclusive facility use is available for larger groups. The structured, established camp setting offers the perfect atmosphere in which to focus on group and personal development, and to meet client goals.

Sample Activities

Activities offered vary by specific location and may include the following:

Guided natural history and ecology hikes
Lessons in biology, geology, weather, aquatic, and marine science
Team-building initiatives and group development challenges
Environmental awareness games & lessons
Classes in outdoor survival skills, native plant use, and many more

Journal writing & creative assignments
Early morning sunrise hikes, stretch circles or yoga
Small group presentations
Free time, recreation and fun games

Evening programs occur in large groups or smaller "trail groups" and may include:

Campfires with skits, songs, stories, and s'mores
Town Hall environmental resource use discussion
Astronomy observation and lessons

Native American myths and stories
Council meeting & group topical discussions
Night-hikes focusing on nocturnal animal adaptations

Sample Goals for the course:

To build character, confidence, and life skills through outdoor adventure activities.
To foster responsible environmental citizenship and ecological sustainability in the lives of program participants.
To facilitate group cohesion, teamwork skills, and positive group development.
To learn outdoor science, including natural history and ecology, tied to state science standards.
To develop communication and problem-solving skills, independence and leadership skills.
To teach specific outdoor skills, field science topics or other areas requested by the client.
To have fun!

Sample Itinerary (five-day program):

Day One
Boojum staff welcome participants upon arrival at the camp. The group receives an orientation that includes a safety briefing, introduction to the environment, expectations of conduct, a schedule overview, staff introductions, and brief ice-breaker games. Participants settle into their accommodations. Students are then divided into learning teams, begin to bond as a small group through games and initiatives, and establish learning goals for the course. Guided explorations of the local landscape and ecosystems, complemented by additional teamwork exercises and outdoor lessons, fill the daylight hours. The day ends with an evening program.

Days Two through Four
Groups go on structured day-hikes from the basecamp to local destinations, experience a low or high ropes Challenge Course experience, or go tide pooling, sea kayaking or bicycling. Groups may have all-day outdoor excursions, or return to the central camp area at lunchtime. A certain amount of free time is offered. An evening program rounds out each day.

Day Five
Day five brings camp cleanup, final short hikes or team games, and a review of the program's significant learning moments. A favorite activity is the "Boojum relay," a fun review game where participants go over the course's environmental and social lessons while completing an obstacle course. The last moments of the program are spent in small groups bringing closure to the experience.