“Lower Chi-pe-ta”
Lower Chipeta
No matter how much or how little outdoor experience you’ve had, our Lower units are a time for our youngest campers to enjoy camp life and learn the fundamentals of a wide range of activities. For many, it’s their first time at summer camp so we provide our Lower campers with the special attention they need. It’s a chance for campers to set goals, develop a Code of Living, live in a caring community, and become more self-reliant.
For Girls 9 to 11 Years Old
If this is your first summer at Cheley, Lower Chipeta is the perfect beginner overnight summer camp experience! You’ll ride horses, explore beautiful, wooded trails and stand on top of a mountain, looking out over the majestic Rockies. You’ll go camping, learn to cook outdoors, and count billions of stars in the night sky. Through it all, you’ll be laughing and having fun with new friends and very cool and caring counselors. Be sure to bring a favorite stuffed animal to snuggle with at night and a photo from home to set on your dresser in the cabin you’ll share with other Lower Chipeta campers and counselors.
In addition to having a great time, you’ll learn some very useful things at Cheley, like how to get comfortable with being away from home and living in a big, extended family. You’ll meet people and make friends from all over the United States and some foreign countries. Best of all, you’ll discover what it’s like to wake up each day knowing a new and wonderful adventure awaits you.
At the start of the term, Lower Chipeta campers and counselors will design a Code of Living that each of you agrees to honor during your weeks together. Besides learning respect and cooperation, you’ll discover what you most love to do, whether it’s caring for a newborn colt, hiking a mountain trail, scaling the Cheley climbing wall, or making a picture frame in the crafts shop.
Camp is about trying new things and having fun with wonderful people. It’s about special nights in the Chipeta Dining Hall, singing songs in the Lower Chipeta Lodge, and camping out in a teepee on an overnight trip, or playing games on the Chapel Court. Regardless of the activity, you’ll enjoy the friendship of other campers and have the support and guidance of enthusiastic Cheley counselors along the way.
Take a look around
Welcome to Lower Chipeta
This short unit tour offers a glimpse into daily life in Lower Chipeta, from cabins and gathering spaces to the places campers spend time together, helping families get a feel for the rhythm of the day.
Lower Chipeta is home to up to 63 campers, supported by approximately 13 staff members and a small team of leadership staff. Campers spend their days in smaller activity groups with close support and individualized attention. The unit has five cabins: Rocking Horse, Stew Pan, Swinging W, Twin Sisters, and Quarter B-4.
Explore Our Activities
Lower Chipeta campers get to choose from a wide range of activities designed for this age and stage. Each day, campers typically choose from five to seven activity options, selecting either one full-day activity or two half-day activities. This approach creates variety from day to day while giving campers meaningful choice and flexibility throughout the session. Want a deeper look at how choice and scheduling work? Read more about how activity sign-ups work.
- Archery
- Ceramics
- Challenge Course
- Climbing Wall
- Colts
- Crafts
- Fishing
- High Ropes
- Hiking
- Horseback Riding Trips
- Horseback Ring Rides
- Horseback Trail Rides
- Lil’ Ranchers
- One Wheel
- Outcamping
- Riflery
- Sewing
- Sports
- Stand Up Paddleboarding
- Technical Climbing
- Woodworking
- And miscellaneous activities, like Imagination Station, Finer Things, Dam Building, Water Wars, and more!
Activities rotate throughout the session, and not every activity is offered every day or every week. While both terms offer a similar range of activities, the specific schedule and rotation may vary from session to session.
