Anchoring a week
Helpful info about being an Anchor Family
How much work is involved?
Minimal. Anchor Families select a summer week, invite a priest (if desired), draw up a guest list, share their vision for the week with their guests, assign families to various cabins, and optionally lead / facilitate talks / reflections during the week at Hawkeye.
How many guests can come?
Each week Hawkeye can put 24 guests through its horsemanship program. Each riding guest must be at least 4’ 3”. You are welcome to invite additional tall guests beyond the 24 limit if you inform them that they cannot ride. If your invited priest wants to ride, he’d count toward the limit of 24.
Smaller guests often want to join the main horse program, especially if they have prior riding experience. Unfortunately we cannot admit them because of saddle limitations and weight considerations. We do lead smaller guests around the ranch on pony rides two days per week, so that to some extent, everyone can experience Hawkeye on horseback.
Total group sizes of 30-35 guests are ideal, including the Anchor Family. Slightly larger and smaller groups are also welcome.
Tell me about the schedule
Sunday: Arrival day, 5pm Mass, no scheduled activities
Monday: Daytime horses and archery, welcome cocktails in evening
Tuesday: Daytime horses and fishing, evening bonfire
Wednesday: Daytime hiking and shooting
Thursday: Daytime horses and shooting / fishing, evening bonfire
Friday: The Long Ride, followed by farewell cocktails in evening
Saturday: Departure day, no scheduled activities
Daily Mass is offered at 5pm.
If you and your priest would like to schedule some time for talks and reflections with your guests, those are standardly done Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 12:45p - 1:30p. Additional talks can be scheduled Wednesday from 3p - 5p (after the hike), and Friday from 4-5p (after Friday’s long ride). Guests who want still more time for talks / reflection can do a short Wednesday morning hike, and convene after lunch from 1p-5p.
Really, no internet?
Really.
What about a priest?
Many Anchor Families bring a priest they’ve known and befriended for a while. Priests may include Hawkeye guests when they celebrate Mass, and often give spiritual direction / confession, or lead group talks / reflections on some suitable topic (chosen by you or the priest). Beyond that, priests can participate in as much or as little of the scheduled activities as they’d like. We’ve found that when priests dive in and experience all the same activities as other guests, a closer kinship develops and grace abounds. We’ve also found that priests leave Hawkeye surprisingly invigorated because of time spent with Catholic families, who promote joy and hope by their daily witness of death-to-self.
What about all these kids?
Hawkeye families tell us that the place is unique because the little kids and teenagers and parents all leave vivified, whereas all other family travel results in one or more age groups being excluded, made peripheral, or stressed out. Our qualified summer staff provides child care for toddlers and small children, which features indoor activities with Western themes; and outdoor hands-on Montessori-style projects at the river, gardens, flowers, barn, and greenhouse. Parents can drop their kids off with the staff guilt-free, so that both kids and adults can immerse themselves in the ranch in ways befitting their different ages.
However, if your envisioned guest list ends up with more than 10 kids shorter than 4’3” we’d recommend postponing your week at Hawkeye a few years. Alternatively you might swap in some families whose kids skew older.
If you’d like to invite families whose kids have special needs, please talk to us so that we can try and find a way to accommodate them.
How many families?
One last consideration is our cabin configuration. Once you sketch out the group you’d want to bring, you should envision how they’d fit into our accommodations. Below is each cabin’s name and its bed arrangement. Bed abbreviations are King, Queen, Full, Twin, DoubleBunk (twin over twin), TripleBunk (twin over full). Cabins with (N) next to their name are next to each other (less than 15 second walk). A single family could easily sprawl from Drexel into Seton, or from Seton into Cabrini, or from Cabrini into Acutis, or from Hubert into Isadore. Seton and Cabrini share a building, each having a private entrance. Hubert and Isadore share an entrance hallway and a bathroom.
Drexel (N): Studio, K + TB
Seton (N): Studio, Q // TB
Cabrini (N): Studio, Q // TB
Acutis (N): 2BR, Q // DB + DB // 2 large closets for cribs / cots
Frassati: 4BR, Q // Q // DB + DB // DB + DB
Duschesne: 2BR, K // TB
Hubert (N): 1BR, K (shared bathroom with Isadore)
Isadore (N): 1BR, F + F (shared bathroom with Hubert)
Kateri: 2BR plus loft, K // DB + DB // T (loft above sitting room)
Jogues: 1BR, K (typically reserved for priest) // additional daybed
How do my guests get here?
However they want. Ranch staff will drive guests to / from the airport to connect with their flights at Cody. Sometimes it’s more affordable to fly into Billings MT, Bozeman MT, or Salt Lake City UT, even factoring in the cost of renting a car for a week and driving to Hawkeye. Other guests have road-tripped 2,000 miles with 10 kids in tow, and still others have rented an RV for the drive.
