“Heaven on earth”—that's how many young people describe Camp Wojtyla, the Catholic wilderness camp Annie and Scott Powell have poured their lives into for the past 20 years.
Camp Wojtyla in Jamestown, Colorado, is something radically different than most people's idea of a summer camp. This one-of-a-kind Catholic camp takes middle and high school students on the adventure of a lifetime—not just up mountains, but into the depths of their faith and identity in Christ.
Through epic adventures in the Colorado mountains, a tremendously joyful community, and huge fun, Camp Wojtyla’s mission is to help kids become saints.
What is Camp Wojtyla?
Camp Wojtyla is not your typical summer camp experience—and that's exactly the point.
There are no cabins. No phones or screens. No distractions. Campers sleep in teepees on a 1,200-acre wilderness property surrounded by national forest.
Annie and Scott Powell, former FOCUS missionaries, are the force behind Camp Wojtyla (affectionately called “Camp W”). And it’s with FOCUS—and in its spirit of missionary discipleship—that this remarkable camp came to be.
The Powells loved their summer camp experiences growing up. Outdoor adventure helped them fall in love with Jesus. They knew young people crave real adventure: rock climbing, mountain climbing, whitewater rafting.
But they couldn’t find a camp that shared their vision. Outdoor adventures aren’t just for fun, the Powells believe. They are a way to grow in virtue, grow closer to God, and understand God’s plan for you.
“When we talk about faith, there are a lot of abstract realities,” Annie said in an interview with Aleteia.
But when you’re whitewater rafting, if everybody’s not paddling together, you’re not going the way you want to. And we talk about that: What is the Body of Christ? Why does every person matter? What is my part in that? Outdoor adventures offer these really amazing opportunities to talk about our Catholic faith and integrate that knowledge with what we’re doing everyday.
Scott described how Camp W uses the tools and practices of Adventure Education, a field Annie studied in graduate school and combined with her Catholic faith. They created the program so that each experience can teach campers about their relationship with God, how they engage with others, how they can grow as a person and relate to creation.
We take the Catholic faith incredibly seriously, but we take outdoor experiences seriously too—we are on the cutting edge of industry standards for safety, and best practices.
Experiences like summiting a mountain, scaling a rock face, or braving white water help us teach about the Catholic faith.
Add to this the experience of being unplugged from phones, video games, TV, and social media, and sharing that experience with other young people, as well as going to Mass, adoration, or confession in the mountains, and you have an experience that can be life-changing.
In the silence of Camp Wojtyla, young people are able to hear God‘s voice away from all of the world’s distractions and noise.
“It’s a place where God can speak to the hearts of each of the young people who participate,” Scott said.
Like St. John Paul II
The camp is named after St. John Paul II, whose name before he became pope was Karol Wojtyla. His early priesthood was spent in Nazi-occupied 1940s Poland. Scott explained:
Young Fr. Karol Wojtyla saw this culture that was dehumanizing people around him. A lot of young people were being stripped of their identity and lied to about what it meant to be a man or a woman or a human being.
And so Karol Wojtyla would take young people into the wilderness, into the mountains, to be surrounded by beauty, to go on these incredible expeditions. He saw it as a way of letting God remind them of who they are, what their real identity is, away from the lies of the world.
The beauty of God's wilderness is one of the greatest places to be reminded of what our true dignity and what our true identity is.
Nikki Shasserre is the mother of two campers, and she described what she’s seen happen at Camp W:
Being surrounded by the beauty of creation allows middle and high schoolers to receive a glimpse of their own beauty and dignity and the love the Father has for each of them.
Camp Wojtyla isn't simply an adventure camp. Campers are able to take on the challenges of mountain adventures and push themselves to new limits. Having these experiences allows them to recall what they can accomplish after they leave the mountain and go back to their daily lives of school, family and friends.
At the center of Camp is Jesus. Free from all distractions, campers are given the gift of encountering our Lord, some for the first time. Each of our children spoke about how being in the beauty of God's creation allowed them to see His power and majesty in a new way.
When so much of teen life is spent looking down at screens, the ability to look up to the sky, the mountaintops, and stars brings questions, wonder and awe.
Enroll now for summer 2026
Camp W will celebrate its 20th anniversary this summer! With just 48 kids in their first summer, Camp Wojtyla has grown steadily and intentionally. They now serve over 600 young people each summer—but they've never sacrificed intimacy for scale.
The camper-to-staff ratio is remarkably small: roughly one staff member for every two campers. Groups consist of 10 campers with 2-3 college-aged counselors who serve as mentors throughout the week.
On its beautiful wilderness property, Camp W offers fourteen single-sex summer sessions for middle and high school students:
- Wilderness Adventure, a 6-day Basecamp program for middle school
- Alpine Expedition, a 9-day Basecamp program for high school
- Backcountry Expedition, a 9-day program in the backcountry of the Rocky Mountains
- Outpost Adventure, a 6-day program for high school that blends base camp with backcountry
The lottery is open until October 26 for Summer 2026, so don’t hesitate to enter here. You can see more information, including dates and pricing, here.
And the best news? Camp W is not just for kids. Join Camp Wojtyla staff for a 3 day adventure for adults in Colorado with the Wander with Wojtyla program. 2026 dates aren’t announced yet, but please sign us up!
At Camp W, you can feel “the thin veil between us and creation,” Annie said. That closeness to God deeply roots young people in their identity as beloved children of God.
If you believe in their mission, donate here. And hopefully you’ll find yourself around the campfire one day, soaking in the beauty of Camp Wojtyla and the wonder of God’s gifts.
