Arrive To: Registration and hotel check in from 4:00-5:00 pm

Dinner: Welcome dinner at college cafeteria

Evening: Orientation on the college campus in one of the conference rooms

Lodging: Guest House Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Dinner

Encounter life on a family ranch through experiential activities: learn about the phases of sheep ranching and the wool industry.

Breakfast: Hot breakfast buffet at the hotel

Morning: Ranching is a way of life in Beaverhead County which is the center of Montana's largest cattle and hay producing area and is home to over 137,000 head of cows and calves, 14,000+ sheep, and 2,200+ horses, which is over 17 times the human population. Discover the responsibilities of ranchers and the women who have worked hard along side them through the years while visiting a ranch and experiencing ranch duties first hand. Three generations of a ranch family will guide an experiential learning tour of day-to-day life on a sheep ranch. Guests will have the opportunity to feed a "bum" or orphan lamb and see a sheep being sheared. All guides have been involved with 4-H, agricultural and community groups and activities, have raised families on the ranch, and have been active in the National Wool Growers Association at the state and national level.

Lunch: Sack Lunches on the ranch.

Afternoon: After morning activities at the ranch, participants will now have the opportunity to watch as wool that has been sheared off the sheep is spun into yarn. The hands on experience will continue as students weave the hand spun yarn into a cup mat to take home.

Dinner: Dinner at local restaurant

Evening: A rancher, wife and active member of the National Wool Growers Association will present the history and present status of the wool industry.

Lodging: Guest House Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Enjoy a morning on the water fly fishing, learning the ecology of streams and lakes and about the fish they carry. Lunch in an historic one room school house turned restaurant then free afternoon and evening.

Breakfast: Hot buffet breakfast at the hotel

Morning: Local fishing guides will lead an excursion to small mountain lakes where participants will learn and practice basic fly fishing techniques then utilize their newly learned skills by casting their lines into some prime watering holes. Guides will help the group understand the ecology of local streams and lakes and find out about native fishes that anglers long to lure out of the beautiful mountain waters.

Lunch: Enjoy a unique opportunity to step back in time and enjoy a home cooked lunch at Yesterdays Café. This historical venue once housed a one-room brick school house built in 1903, complete with bell tower and bell, filled with school children and the busy sounds of learning and playing until 1963.

Afternoon: Free afternoon: Visit Beaverhead County Museum includes area and Lewis & Clark history or nearby Clark's Lookout State Park (Lewis & Clark historic trail site) Walk half a mile along trails into downtown along a nature trail. Downtown includes small town shops--ice cream, coffee shop, bookstore, galleries and gift shops. Or simply enjoy the small indoor pool at the hotel

Dinner: Dinner on your own

Evening: Free evening

Lodging: Guest House Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Consider the life of a range rider and encounter the high country while exploring Montana's frontier on horseback. Visit Lemhi Pass and the Sacajawea Historic Area.

Breakfast: Hot buffet breakfast at the hotel

Morning: The group will be divided and half wild take a naturalist led wildflower hike while an experienced guide will lead the others on a horseback ride along a trail through open hillsides among a fragment of the county’s 2 million acres of national forest lands that showcase a critical wildlife corridor linking Central Idaho’s wilderness lands to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Riding reveals a landscape with ranch buildings nestled among wild hay meadows and fence lines stringing out across sagebrush plains where cattle out number people. The groups will then switch.

Lunch: Sack lunches in the field

Afternoon: Generations will travel through the Horse Prairie Valley, tracing a portion of the Lewis and Clark Trail to Lemhi Pass and the Sacajawea Historic Area. A knowledgeable historian explains Sacajawea’s key role with the early exploration of Lewis and Clark, revealing some of the most meaningful events of the expedition. The group will savor time on Lemhi Pass at the Sacajawea Historic Area which honors the courageous young Native American woman. Reflect on her contribution to the great journey of discovery and on the hardship, discoveries and accomplishments shared by all members of the Corps.

Dinner: Outfitter hosts a Dutch oven dinner at the ranch.

Evening: Participants will enjoy a relaxing evening around the campfire, sharing stories under the clear Montana sky.

Lodging: Guest House Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Visit two historic ghost towns, Montana's first and second territorial capitols and gold rush sites, and enjoy docent-lead tours, a retro lesson in historic school room and 9th century melodrama at historic Opera House.

Breakfast: Hot buffet breakfast at hotel

Morning: Generations will enjoy a morning at Bannack State Park, a renowned ghost town named as Montana's first Territorial Capital in 1864 when the news of a gold discovery brought many to Bannack hoping to strike it rich. Even though the gold trail soon moved to Virginia City, some people stayed in Bannack, exploring the use of other mining techniques. From the late 1860's to the 1930's, Bannack continued as a mining town with a fluctuating population. Docent-led tour provides a glimpse into the historic wild west through exploration of many buildings that were built nearly 150 years ago in this once booming, gold rush town that was named an historic landmark in 1961. The tour includes entry into Bannack's original school building where children will sit in historic desks and experience a school lesson taught in much the same way as children were taught in the late 1800's.

Lunch: Sack lunch at Bannack State Park

Afternoon: Just as the gold strike trail moved on, so will Road Scholar adventurers as they travel on to Virginia and Nevada Cities. Rich placer diggings were discovered here at Alder Gulch in the spring of 1863 and the stampede of gold seekers soon lined the gulch in search of riches. Virginia City blossomed forth as trading and amusement center for free handed miners and later became the second territorial Capitol of Montana. The group will pan for gold and enjoy a docent-led tour here among beautiful wood and stone buildings to experience how remarkably well preserved this old west, Victorian gold mining town is as it comes to life in the brief golden months of a Montana summer. Free time will be part of the afternoon schedule so guests have time for individual exploration on their own.

Dinner: Dinner Virginia City

Evening: The day will culminate with the unique opportunity to view an evening production of an authentic 19th century melodrama by Montana's oldest professional theater troupe in an historic Opera House.

Lodging: Guest House Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Pioneering the Wild West wraps up in a newly renovated, historic classroom on the campus of University of Montana Western, site of Montana's Normal School established in 1896.

Breakfast: Hot complimentary breakfast at the hotel

Morning: Final presentation offers experiential learning as it encompasses the history of education as it tamed the wild west beginning with Montana's Normal School and the one room school house. The presentation will be held in a newly renovated, historic classroom located on the campus of University of Montana Western, site of the state's Normal School, established in 1896.

Brunch: 11 a.m. grab and go brunch. Airport shuttle departs at 11:30 am.

Lodging: Guest House Inn & Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Brunch