A wilderness experience you help create

Wilderness Trails is a place for people who want more than a holiday. Our experiences are for those ready to step away from passive travel and into a real adventure with meaningful participation: caring for horses, helping with camp life, learning wilderness skills, contributing to a shared community, and discovering what they are capable of.

We work in the real conditions of the Chilcotin Ark—changing weather, remote trails, wildlife such as Grizzly Bears and Rodents, insects, horses, camp routines, and the natural rhythms of the land. You will be guided and supported throughout your experience, but you will be expected to take initiative, care for your own needs, contribute and take responsibilities.

Not a conventional guest ranch

We provide horses, simple meals, rustic accommodation, equipment, guidance, and logistics because they make a true wilderness experience possible. But these are not the purpose of your time here.

You are joining us for the learning, the lifestyle, the challenge, the relationships, the contribution, and the transformation that happen when you participate fully.

Our participants help with appropriate daily tasks such as horse care, meal preparation, camp set-up, clean-up, ranch routines, and looking after personal equipment. You will ask questions, take initiative, work respectfully with others, and take ownership of your attitude and experience.

We facilitate a true wilderness adventure with real opportunities to learn, contribute, and grow.

about our six principle Philosophy

Nature Connection

Our horses are wilderness facilitators, allowing you to tune into your environment. But it’s not just our horses. The energy of the South Chilcotin Mountains will rejuvenate your heart, mind and spirit

Conservation and Stewardship

When you love a place you want to protect it, that’s why we educate you on this environment and get you involved in hands-on conservation projects

Personal Development

Every trip with us is an opportunity to learn something new. Whether you saddle your own horse, challenge yourself to get out your comfort zone or share your skills with someone else, you’ll end your time with us feeling empowered and confident

Abenteuerurlaub in Kanada

Self-sufficiency

Our self-sufficient lifestyle means we maintain our own water system and grow some of our own food. Essential wilderness and horse skills also allow us to be self-sufficient.

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empowerment

Learning new skills and living with a positive mentality empower us to do anything and everything. Everybody becomes the leader in their own life.

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conscious and aware

When you spend more time in the wilderness, you naturally become more in tune with the world around you, yourself and other people, connecting on a deeper level.

Get your free ebook!

All our trips are based on our Six Principle Philosophy to facilitate your transformational wilderness experience Want to find out what guests, students and community members have said about life at the ranch? Download our anthology collection ebook to find out more!

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Get your Nature Connection Ebook here

Get your Nature Conservation Ebook here

Get your Personal Development Ebook here

Get your Self-Sufficiency Ebook here

Get your Empowerment Ebook here

Get your Conscious and Aware Ebook here

 What participation means

Your trip will be a hands-on learning experience from start to finish. Here are just some of the ways you can experience a transformation:

  • Learn how to saddle your own horse, making you independent and empowered
  • Take a packing lesson and help your guides secure your food and gear on your pack horse
  • Refine your fire-making skills to cook dinner over a campfire
  • Learn how to stake and hobble your horses in their grazing meadows
  • Taking part in camp set-up, cooking, dishes, water, firewood, clean-up, and shared daily routines
  • Approaching challenges with flexibility, patience, positive attitude, and a willingness to learn
  • Reflect on your journey with our Wilderness Journal to track your transformation
  • Learn about native and invasive plants to play your part in invasive species removal
  • Identify the mountains and lakes of the South Chilcotins to deepen your connection
  • Contribute your positive attitude and problem-solving skills to our community
  • Learn about the wildlife of the South Chilcotin Mountains and sustainable methods of sharing their habitat
  • Share your knowledge with others to become a mentor yourself

  • Enjoy family-style meals three times a day

  • Share your successes and what you are appreciative for each day

  • Learn new skills and share your knowledge

  • Work as a team to saddle and feed your horses

Every trip with us is an opportunity to experience each of these Six Principles. How you do it is up to you – join us for a horse pack trip,  guide school, wilderness lifestyle experience, mountain biking trip or winter adventure.

Commitment to Your Journey

When you come here, your journey will be more than a trip or a place to stay — you are joining our home, our community and our family. For everyone’s benefit, we aim for well-matched guests so you have the best possible experience and the environment we live in is respected.

The Chilcotin Ark is a limited commodity and unique wilderness. We welcome only a small number of people at a time so we do not overtax the environment we benefit from and each guest can connect deeply with nature, themselves, and the community. This is not a typical holiday — it’s a transformative wilderness experience that requires your full participation as you will get out as much as you put in. Joining us means you commit yourself to having a positive, solution-oriented mindset, to being ready to step out of your comfort zone, to being flexible and adaptable, taking initiative, and contributing to something bigger than yourself.

We do a lot to ensure your expectations match the reality of what we offer. We will give you all the tools and knowledge to self-select and decide if the opportunity aligns with your interests, goals and purpose. So before you arrive, you will go through different steps as part of the booking process:

1. Read the information on our websites and learn about our philosophy on our Trails to Empowerment website

2. Fill in the Wilderness Readiness Survey

3. Read the FAQs and Trip Itineraries

4. Complete the Trip Orientation Online Course or Training Online Course and paperwork with our partner, the Institute for Human Potential.

All of these steps are in your best interest as they prepare you for a wilderness journey that facilitates mental transformation, growth and a change from your day-to-day life. They also introduce you to the skills and awareness you’ll need, and help you arrive confident and ready to engage.

Once here, your actions will have an impact not only on yourself but on the people, animals and environment around you. Respect our home and community as you would your own. Work as a team, share your knowledge, and be willing to learn — whether it’s saddling and caring for your own horse or taking on hands-on conservation projects to protect the wilderness you’re benefiting from. Be flexible, adaptable, and willing to immerse yourself in a rustic environment that has no “off switch” from nature’s challenges or the work of daily life.

The real reward is that although you may arrive as a visitor, you will leave as part of this place with new skills learned through your own effort, a deeper connection to the wilderness, and the satisfaction of knowing you’ve contributed to something meaningful. The challenges you face, whether navigating a rugged trail, working through a tough day in unpredictable weather, or stepping into new roles you’ve never tried before, become the stepping stones to personal growth, resilience and confidence. That is what makes this experience transformational and more than a trip. It becomes part of your story, a story that will inspire others.

Want to see how your story could unfold? Explore our past guests’ experiences on our Guest Reviews and Media Page.

About Our Partners

Our online training partner, Institute for Human Potential, offers students courses in our Six Principles of Personal Development, Nature Connection, Nature Conservation, Self-Sufficiency, Empowerment and Consciousness & Awareness. Before completing a training program, volunteering or practicum with us, you will complete an online course with WTA to get ready for your experience. 

Wilderness Trails

Our community partner, Trails to Empowerment, shares our philosophy through the media of blogs, podcasts, videos, books, certificates and music. TTE is the foundation of our community, bringing all of the operating partners together.

Our conservation partner, Chilcotin Ark Institute, carries out conservation and stewardship research in the Chilcotin Ark and through participatory action research uses this data to influence wildlife management and land use strategies. CAI offers a conservation and stewardship internship.

Our book publishing partner, Fortress Books and Web, publishes personal development, local history, wilderness lifestyle and family legacy books. Fortress Books and Web was created through our entrepreneur program.

Our accommodation partner, Bridge River Valley Accommodation, offers wilderness accommodation from back country cabins and camping to ranch-based cabins, ranch house rooms and campground accommodation.