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Castle Rock Ranch Camp is a summer camp for girls 9 – 14, on a working ranch in the mountains of northern Idaho where we raise grass finished beef and grow all of our own food.

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Take a Tour!

Let our super counselors show you the ropes in this video tour of the ranch.

Summer 2024 - Email or call us about possible camp dates! Sessions

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You know when it’s a serene, misty fall evening

You know when it’s a serene, misty fall evening and everyone is peacefully eating grass and settling in for the evening when suddenly you’re disrupted by primal cow noises (the low, guttural throat-moo they make when a perceived predator is nearby)? Is it a wolf? (One was recently spotted in the neighborhood 200 yards from the herd, so not a stretch). A cougar? A bear? A moose ? Our cows hate them when they get in their pasture…
Nope, just our domestic boar who escaped and thought he’d try multi species grazing and see what all this premium fall grass is about. The human observers in this situation very briefly thought about herding him home but decided that herding pigs is about as useful as herding cats or kids and decided to just watch the drama unfold. The boar stood his ground even when the milk cow got a wild hair and tried to charge him. Ultimately, he found his bovine neighbors very inhospitable and eventually waddled back to his lady-pig friends.

Side note: the horses, who are deathly afraid of pigs when they have a rider on their backs, even when these pigs are enclosed in a corral or fence, couldn’t care less about a pig at ankle-biting height on the loose in their pasture. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Fall is just showing off this year …! ✨✨✨

Fall is just showing off this year …! ✨✨✨

#grassfinishedbeef #cdariverbeef #cdariverranch #cdariverranchtrailrides #castlerockranchbeef #castlerockranch

Watch out - it’s palomino camo season! They snea

Watch out - it’s palomino camo season! They sneak up on you when they’re disguised in the golden grass of fall and then pursue at a brisk trot to beg for apples and scratches.

All the fall gold…

All the fall gold…

When you’re too far away to get a cute portrait,

When you’re too far away to get a cute portrait, so you get closer and realize that there’s no ‘cute’ to be had here as these rascals are young and majorly covered in cow manure, or just middle aged and grumpy.

Theses two get to have the best grass (and they need it because they’re either young and growing or older and high maintenance 😊)but they’re grazing with the cows we’re still putting weight on, which has some messy downsides.

#redheadedmare

September is the golden hour of the year✨ Mild

September is the golden hour of the year✨

Mild weather, gorgeous skies, the bounty of the grass-growing season showing up as fat on the back of the cattle that we’ve been working hard to get there 😅

#grassfinished #cdariverbeef

Garden tour, September 2nd, 2024: So many weeds,

Garden tour, September 2nd, 2024:

So many weeds, but also so much food! Flowers in the carrots and beets and cucumbers and corn! Sometimes we grow legos, and let’s turn some of those weird volunteer squmpkins into bacon shall we?

Happy almost-Fall y’all 😊

#castlerockranch #growyourown #wemakeeverything

One of the ways we grow great grass (and great bee

One of the ways we grow great grass (and great beef) all the way through late summer in a climate with almost zero precipitation during the growing season, is our irrigation. You only have to be part engineer, part electrician, part plumber, and 💯 % resourceful to be able to run it well!
Also please consult us for all your farmer/rancher fashion tips: this very special Canyon Elementary sweatshirt was tie dyed and weathered when it got dropped in a cow pasture and we spent three months unable to locate it. When we found it in the shorter September grass, it had been bleached by solar exposure and elk pee and had a few strategic mouse holes chewed it.

#Managementintensivegrazing #grassfinishedbeef #castlerockranch #cdariverranch #cdariverranchbeef

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