Butte Creek Ranch

Butte Creek Scout Ranch is a 650 acre ranch with 75 horses owned by the Boy Scouts of America. It is located 35 miles south of Portland and 35 miles north of Salem in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Youth from Oregon & Washington come here for camping & trail rides with their troop. They reserve ½-day or full-day packages. A nine-day pack trip across the scenic Cascades is the ultimate adventure which occurs at the beginning and end of each summer.

The only prerequisite for membership in the Crew is to have completed one of the 9-day Horse Treks. It is truly a life changing adventure of 180 miles where you care for yourself and your horse day and night. You are up early, in the saddle for up to 8 hours, then to bed late after a dutch oven dinner of meat and beans.
Sleeping under the stars as you travel the trail, taking a few turns on night watch duty with new friends after singing around the campfire and hearing stories of yesterday's cowboys bring a new dimension to each rider's view of good living and hard work. There is time to begin learning horsemanship skills and peaceful times for thinking about life as you absorb the beauty which surrounds you.

Wranglers are responsible for leading trail rides, horse care and day-to-day ranch needs. We are volunteers who spend weekends at the ranch as cowboys and cowgirls from September to May. We put in long, rewarding hours with each other and the horses. The friends that are made at Butte Creek are life-long and we become part of a family.

Our horse facility consists of a small barn that is used for a tack shed, hay storage and also a saddling area. We have an outdoor round pen, a riding arena and some small corrals. The bunkhouse has a kitchen and dining room for the winter volunteer staff who make up Wrangler Crew 492.