Scouts Journal About Their Wyoming Adventure

By Michael Freeman
Photographs by Kyle Spradley

Scout at Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone

Wyatt Harris checks out the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in Yellowstone National Park.

Every three years, boys Troop 746 of Baltimore, Maryland, travels far from home for an awesome adventure. It has been a troop tradition since the 1980s. This past year, they and girls Troop 647, also of Baltimore, visited Wyoming before heading to summer camp at Island Park Scout Camp in Idaho.

Follow these troops as they journal about their epic trip before summer camp.

DAY 1

Flew to Salt Lake City. All the meals were planned out, so we just walked into Walmart, filled up the carts and bought it.

“When we first got there, that was the most beautiful Walmart I’d ever seen. It had the mountains behind it. You don’t see stuff like that in Maryland.”

— Jonah Sorna, 15, Life Scout

DAY 3

Visited Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, Wyo. Hot springs are made when magma heats groundwater. The water in the park’s bathhouse was 104 degrees. It was a little too hot for some of us. But for about 20 minutes, it was pretty relaxing.

“We sat back and relaxed in the hot spring — it was nice.”

— Jonah

Arabella Holmes of Troop 647 leads the group on a hike around Jenny Lake. Behind her are Jonah Sorna, Mitch Schauer, Ben Fugate, Wyatt Harris, Zach Francis and Mutaba Pembamoto.

DAY 4

In Cody, Wyo., we ate a chuckwagon dinner and went to a night rodeo. Not all of us had been to a rodeo before. It was a lot of fun. We saw rodeo clowns, barrel racers and two pro cowboys at a time chase calves on their horses, jump off, tackle the calf and tie it up in 10 seconds.

“I don’t think I could ever do that. It really showed they had to be on the same wavelength to take down and tie up a calf and to see how much trust they had to have in each other.”

— Mitch Schauer, 15, Life Scout

Scouts on boardwalk next to hot springs.

Scouts visit Mammoth Hot Springs in Wyoming.

DAY 6

Camped at Yellowstone National Park. Saw waterfalls, hot springs and geysers. A huge bison was in the road. It was only a few feet from our van. We took a lot of pictures.

“It’s like being on a different planet. You look to your left, and it would just be a bright green or orange puddle that’s bubbling. It’s like something you’d never see anywhere other than at Yellowstone.”

— Arabella Holmes, 15, Star Scout

Scouts on boardwalk watching a geyser erupt

Mutaba Pembamoto, Landon Moulton, Jonah Sorna, Mitch Schauer, Arabella Holmes and Chloe Dimemmo watch Sawmill Geyser erupt.

DAY 7

Went whitewater rafting down the Snake River. It took like an hour. We went through Class II and III rapids. The water felt like it was zero degrees. It was absolutely freezing.

“We were pirates of the Snake River!”

— Mason Kokosinski, 17, Life Scout

Evan Straub pokes his head out of a tent.

DAY 10

Made it to summer camp. The staff was so welcoming. Earned a lot of extra merit badges and special awards, like Stand-Up Paddleboarding.

“The paddleboarding was a fun patch to do. I got to do freestyle yoga on a paddleboard.”

— Holden Kokosinski, 17, Life Scout

DAY 16

Heading back to Salt Lake City and then flying home. What a trip! We bought so many souvenirs, some of us needed to throw stuff in our friends’ bags.

“The trip was really fun. You only get to experience something like this once in your life. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

— Mitch

How to Fund Fun

A cross-country trip can get costly. That’s why troops 746 and 647 devoted two years to prepare for it. During that time, the Scouts did several fundraisers. They sold popcorn, Easter candy, camp cards and citrus fruit from Florida. By March, they were able to purchase plane tickets for the summer trip.