Outdoor Adventure
We Build Custom adventures for your team
At Elk Hill, we pride ourselves in adapting to meet our clients where they are on the journey of life. Let us craft an experience that helps your party reconnect with nature and a spirit of adventure. The following options are elements we can incorporate into adventures that range in time commitment from a half day all the way up to multi day retreats. Let us work with you to create a transformative experience that your group will NEVER forget!
Explore our Outdoor Services
We employ a continuous belay system, and all aerial adventures are led by our trained guides who are all about making sure you stay safe while having a great time.
Physical fitness is not a prerequisite to your successes in adventure therapy.
At the course, you are provided with close instruction, oversight, and coaching to overcome your personal challenges.
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Challenge Course
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Elk Hill enables children and families to transform overwhelming challenges into successful futures. Through specialized education, community-based services and residential treatment programs, children can discover the academic, vocational, behavioral, & relationship skills they need to be successful.
For more than 50 years Elk Hill has sustained a culture of commitment, compassion, and flexibility, Elk Hill is dedicated to child-centered solutions that create lasting positive outcomes.
Featuring 2 kid-friendly zip lines, 7 low elements, and 10 aerial elements.
Eddy Catchers Paddle Sports Program
There is nothing quite like being on the river in a canoe! The name Eddy Catchers refers to the act of catching an eddy, which is a way of finding a safe spot of calm water in the swift moving current. Let us guide you to an eddy in the river of life, allowing your party the opportunity to catch a breath and plan for what comes next.
Our Swiftwater Rescue and American Canoe Association certified instructors will guide and teach your party on the many incredible waterways we are so lucky to have right here in Central Virginia!
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All participants will receive a brief paddling instruction lesson that matches experience levels and goals of the party.
Participants will set out on a true canoe adventure on the James or additional local waterways. Distances and challenge level can adapt to meet any goal or level desired by the group.
Fishing can be a part of the experience if desired! Excellent fishing is possible all along the James and surrounding waterways.
Guided Eco Therapy Experiences
Our certified Eco Therapists and experts in birding, wilderness survival, natural movement, foraging and more are ready to reconnect clients with the natural world. Through activities like guided hikes, forest bathing and nature journalling, clients can process challenges and find solutions that last long past their time at Elk Hill.
By accessing a free resource in natural spaces, we allow clients to realize just how accessible the mental health benefits of time spent outside can be!
Guided Forest Bathing, which involves slowing down to appreciate the living ecosystem of the forest and it’s many interconnected parts using all the body’s senses.
Bird identification and observation, where participants will learn about the hundreds of species of birds that call Virginia home and learn about how their lives can be inspirational for our own.
Natural Movement clinics, where participants rediscover the joy of unincumbered movement in natural spaces. Some say it’s like Parkour, but in nature!
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The Cabin at Elk Hill Farm
The Cabin at Elk Hill Farm is a historic cabin located on the banks of the Little James River, right off the main campus at Elk Hill in Goochland Virginia. Renovated in late 2024, this cabin can accommodate up to 8 guests* (*camping gear is available to accommodate larger parties) and serves as an excellent home base for your group’s retreat in nature.
Onsite staff will be present to help facilitate home cooked meals so that you can focus on connecting with each other and the surrounding environment. A stay at the cabin helps facilitate multifaceted, multi day adventures and ecotherapy experiences!
Guests will receive healthy homecooked Breakfast and Dinner meals, along with packed lunches for adventures on the go.
Listen to bird song in the morning from multiple porches or take a stroll in the evening to the bridge over the “Little” James River.
Stay in the same cabin where movies like “Harriet” (starring Cynthia Erivo) and “Raymond and Ray” (starring Ethan Hawke and Ewan Mcgregor) were filmed!
