Rocky Mountain Frontier

Rocky Mountain Frontier, near Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, is a boys ranch with wilderness treks that take the boys into some of the most beautiful mountains in America. It serves boys ages 10-17 who are struggling socially, academically, or behaviorally. The rustic and back-to-basics program takes troubled boys out of their comfort zone to teach them deep-standing life lessons that will help them flourish for a lifetime. The environment plays a pivotal part in the program for at-risk boys.

Founded by a Catholic family, RMF intentionally uses wilderness opportunities, with rugged mountains and a 55,000 acre ranch as a backdrop, to heal troubled youth. Your son will experience pristine nature on his journey toward restoration and recovery. The boys ranch will build dignity, self-respect, and responsibility in your boy as he experiences living off the grid in the Rocky Mountains.

Your Boy Will Gain a Whole New Perspective on Life at Rocky Mountain Frontier

Rocky Mountain Frontier boys ranch and wilderness program will help strengthen your struggling boy through ranch responsibilities coupled with amazing back-country wilderness expeditions. Your son will experience pristine nature on his journey toward restoration and recovery. We will build dignity, self-respect, and responsibility in your boy as he experiences living off the grid in the Rocky Mountains. The wild frontier is a school that will help push the boundaries of your boy’s knowledge and skills. Character-building situations will abound, teaching your boy to overcome obstacles within himself and his environment. He’ll also learn things about life management and what matters in life, absent the typical distractions youth have today.

Ranch and Outdoor Expeditions Your Boy Will Love

RMF helps young boys step outside of time, unplug from negative distractions, and wholly live each new day connected to God and His glorious Creation with their distinctive outdoor experiential expeditions and education program.

Young boys ride horses to a lake or creek to fish, accompanied by experienced staff who teach them important survival skills. With safety as the #1 factor in outdoor learning, we train boys to leave no trace behind at campsites or trails, and we always avoid camping trips in bad weather or other dangerous conditions.

Working together to survive while camping, troubled boys begin to build trusting relationships with staff and each other. Back at base camp, routine tasks like gathering eggs, working with horses, and chopping wood for indoor cabin fireplaces let boys consider their place and purpose in the world. And as the healing power of the great outdoors unlocks memories of trauma, and brokenness, mentors encourage each troubled boy to see who he can become the man God created him to be!

We work with boys struggling with:

• Gambling or Gaming
• Anger
• ADD/ADHD
• Educational Failure
• Lacking Confidence
• Rebellion and Defiance
• Disrespect
• Impulsivity
• Feeling of Abandonment
• Lacking Social Skills
• Asperger’s
• Anxiety
• Pornography
• Poor Peer Choices
• Social Media and Internet Addiction

Back-to-Basics Ranch Living and Amazing Wilderness Treks Change Everything

Give your son the immersive ranch and wilderness experience of a lifetime. More than a ranch program, Frontier’s wilderness expedition aspect is an amazing and effective way to help preteen and teen boys reset life values, purpose, and priorities. The boys ranch serves young men 10-17 who are struggling socially, academically, or behaviorally. It takes them out of their comfort zone to teach them deep-standing life lessons that will help them flourish for a lifetime.

Experiential expeditions have long been acknowledged as an amazing and effective way to help preteen and teen boys reset their values of life. Because wilderness learning takes boys out of their familiar home and comfort zone, each young boy experiences challenges that push the boundaries of his personal skills, and what he knows about himself. In these opportune moments, RMF staff will provide him with the knowledge and tools he needs to overcome obstacles in the wilderness, and within himself.

The interventions performed by the RMF staff promote growth in the areas of self-worth, and dignity that will allow struggling boys to do the painstaking task of looking inward. We understand that wounded youth are at times too vulnerable to do this type of radical interiorization, however, with the character growth that occurs through the program/ranch activities, he will naturally develop the skills to confront and challenge his idealized perception of self.

Struggling teens are constantly battling for a sense of identity, purpose, and of “belonging to something”. The deviant culture that teens who have low self-esteem gravitate towards are drugs, porn, opioids, vaping, Jules, gangs, cliques, and social media cults. The cost of conforming to groups that exhibit high-risk behavior is changing our client’s values and moral beliefs. Boys desperately need something or someone to believe in and, conversely, someone to believe in them. We will gently guide our clients into a relationship with God/Higher Power and help them open their hearts to kindness, mercy, and serenity. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous have demonstrated, and proven, that the only approach for long-term success in overcoming behavioral issues starts with surrendering to a Higher Power.

Each boy will learn how to identify his shortcomings and weaknesses, their behavioral effects, and how to grow the opposing virtue which will help him eliminate his destructive behaviors. They will learn to listen to their moral conscience and to be more attuned towards ethical promptings that require the courage to say “no,” thus resulting in strength and integrity that results in impulse control.

Wilderness expeditions helps a young boy leave negative worlds behind, and take root in a positive, healthy environment, where he can learn and develop new ways to think and behave.

His wilderness experience disrupts dysfunctions, changes perceptions, and provides valuable opportunities to work with and rely on one another. Wilderness expeditions allows time for young boys to think and explore who they are, and who they can become.

As boys share this challenging adventure together, new friendships build a sense of community and improve their self-esteem. Ultimately, our wilderness learning program helps each boy reflect on how he thinks, feels, and behaves in difficult situations. And with experiential learning and support from mentors, young boys can heal and improve their emotional, mental, and physical health at RMF.

A Needed Change of Culture:

The at-risk teens who come to RMF are immediately immersed in a culture that is based on honesty, work ethic, faith, dignity, and respect. In an attempt to simplify the lives of young men used to so many technological distractions (cell phones, tablets, TV, etc.), the rural location of our program is an ideal place for clients to redirect with self through nature and to develop alternative, outdoor recreations that urban environments do not have. Our boys are given a chance to hike, fish, camp, and hone their horsemanship skills, not only in the manner of an “equine therapy” which has gained recent popularity in many youth programs but also in “Cowboy Horsemanship” that is learned in authentic, real-life, working situations.

RMF is a privately owned, Christian-based group home for at-risk teenage boys, whose employees are dedicated to an “Apostolic Paternal Teaching” designed to strengthen the body, educate the mind, and elevate the spirit of its clients. Employees recognize diversity in our society and embrace a cross-cultural approach in support of the worth, dignity, potential, and uniqueness of each individual.