45th Parallel Youth Adventure Program

Target demographics: Our mission is to allow all youth regardless of sex, gender, race, income, ability, age, or education to experience our life-changing experience. We are excited to partner with the Coiner Ranch, LLC. to offer access to over 1000 acres of green meadows, vigorous aspen groves, fragrant sagebrush, raw timberlands, and babbling brooks in the Salmon River Mountains. This once-in-a-lifetime experience will shape youth for years to come. We are working closely with other partners like Unbridled Grace Therapeutic Horsemanship, US Forest Service, local ranchers, Back Country Horsemen, and more.

Geographic areas served: Salmon Idaho, Lemhi County

Programs: We are the 45th Parallel Youth Adventure Program. Our goal as a non-profit is to empower youth to explore and experience the mountains of Lemhi County Idaho, while they are immersed in learning invaluable skills that will cultivate well-rounded and confident young-adults. Research studies have shown that the connection between children and their natural world promotes confidence, creativity, and independence yet opportunities for this development are surprisingly rare both in urban and rural environments. Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods coined the phrase "nature deficit disorder" describing the decreased exposure of youth to their natural world and the disservice to them both emotionally and physically. He offered parents and educators a list of simple things to do in order to encourage reconnection. However, we at 45th Parallel Youth Adventure Program wants to take it further. We want to offer an immersive backcountry educational experience that encourages unplugging from our hard-wired ways enabling a reconnect with all the things nature and the outdoors have to offer. Youth adventure programs are virtually non-existent in our area yet we, at 45th Parallel, are surrounded by some of the most remote acres in the lower 48. This puts us in an unique position to be able to offer this experience. We firmly believe in reconnecting youth to the outdoors and fostering their learning of all things backcountry.