Our church's young women group just wrapped up a super fun four-day trip at Camp Santa Maria, and wow, what a great time we had! The location was perfect – beautiful, cool history about Mary Dower and the land, plenty of indoor and outdoor meeting spots, lots of bathrooms, activities I did not have to plan myself (a win!), and not too far from home (about an hour and half from Aurora but still in the mountains and nature).
The pool wasn't open yet for the season, and some crazy thunderstorms totally squashed our plans for rock climbing... But, Johnny, the camp director, whom we dubbed the "camp king" had some great alternative games and activities. Some things we did do were team building games, a challenge course, archery, nature walk/hike to the statue, various sports, fishing, exploring the grounds and many fountains on site, and campfire roasting. We also loved being able to bring our own food and use the kitchen and dining room (which has a commercial dishwasher that made clean up actually fun!)
There were tons of great hang-out spots all over the camp, which was ideal for when it rained and our other activities, like painting mini gnomes and putting on an "untalent show" at St. John's Hall, which had a stage.
All in all, it was a fantastic experience for our girls and we appreciated the support and help from Johnny! We definitely recommend and would love to come again!
P.S. you've gotta see the beautiful Jesus statue up on the hill. It looked really pretty lit up at night!
This camp absolutely sucks- particularly the people and staff. The land and area is amazing, really cool and all but the staff is disrespectful towards the campers. When I stayed for a week, I got pink eye and went to the nurses. I was stressed out because I knew nobody, and started crying. The nurse had called my mom so she could let her know of my eye and when I asked to speak to my mom I was told that I couldn’t then was sent back to my cabin. Not only that, they treated me like I was crazy- talking to me slowly and in a high pitched baby voice, (I was 14). At the camp, when a kid is sick they lock them in a room by themselves with nothing to do instead of just sending them home. Do not send your child here, if you want them to disconnect from phones and social media just take them camping yourself.
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