A Call to Action

A Call to Action is designed to empower our middle-schoolers to become change makers in their communities. Explorers will meet with activists, scientists, nature enthusiasts, and officials in various fields to learn first-hand about environmental issues, what positive change can look like, and how to get started. There will be time for swimming, playing, and building projects throughout the week to gain a better understanding of the issues discussed. The week will culminate in a student-led presentation/fundraiser to contribute toward a community cause. Together, we’ll be the change!

Entering grades: 6th - 8th

Advanced Geocaching

Puzzles, clues, and mysteries abound as campers explore some of the best and hardest caches around Seattle! Going beyond the basics, Advanced Geocaching is for Explorers who want to enhance their caching skills. Campers will draw from and incorporate inspiration from the week’s caches to develop, design, and build their own clever caches for other Explorers to solve. Explorers will enjoy a full-day field trip, including drop-off and pick-up in Fremont where Geocaching HQ is located (Pinnacle will help coordinate carpools.). Let’s go caching!

Entering grades: 5th - 8th or have completed Pinnacle’s Geocaching Camp previously

Advanced Survival

Are you an outdoor enthusiast? This one's for you! Regardless of experience levels, all back-country hikers and campers risk getting lost or stranded for a short time in the outdoors. The Advance Survival class will teach Explorers how to survive and even thrive as a team. Instructors will lead campers in engaging survival and primitive skills exercises, showing how to utilize surrounding resources.

Skills covered may include animal traps, sewing, water purification, advanced shelters, basket weaving, rescue signaling, wilderness first aid, knife safety, fire-craft and more. Living in the PNW, this camp is a must!

Entering grades: 5th - 8th or have completed Pinnacle’s Rule of 3 Survival Camp previously

CIT (Counselors In Training) Camp

The Counselor in Training camp is designed for Explorers who want to boost the skills needed to become successful babysitters or Pinnacle Interns. Campers will be offered certification in First Aid and Child/Infant CPR training, while also covering topics on basic child development, safety, and injury prevention. We’ll simulate common emergencies for them to practice how to respond, while also providing ample opportunities to practice new skills and summer-time play.

Entering grades: 6th – 8th

Garden-to-Table Cooking

When kids learn the skills needed to garden & cook, food becomes more than just what they find in the fridge. At Garden-to-Table, Explorers will care for plants at different stages, from seed to harvest, while also discovering what a healthy ecosystem entails. They’ll also take the day’s produce to make a healthy snack or meal. Younger Explorers will focus on food challenges involving bread, fruits, and pasta, while Older campers will hone their knife skills and explore some of the challenges our society faces with our food system. Pull up a chair to our Pinnacle table!

Entering grades: 1st - 3rd

Entering grades: 4th - 6th

Geocache Seattle!

Does your explorer love treasure hunts? Join us at Geocache Seattle! for an introduction into the world of caching. Campers will find hidden clues all around them, as they hone their powers of observation and deduction while using compasses and GPS devices to search for caches.

Explorers will enjoy a full-day field trip, including drop-off and pick-up in Fremont where Geocaching HQ is located. At the end of the week, they’ll try their hand at making team caches with recycled items and clues to challenge their fellow campers.

(Full-day field Trip on Thursday, Pinnacle will help arrange carpools). Let’s go caching!

Entering grades: 4th - 6th

Ice & Fire: Energy Matters

Solids, liquids, gases and plasma, oh my! Explorers will learn and play with various states of matter. They will experiment with liquid nitrogen, dry ice, non-Newtonian fluids as well as a variety of other compounds to gain a deeper understanding of matter and how that affects the world around us. During Ice & Fire, Explorers will try their gloved hands (and taste buds) at making some sweet treats, including sub-zero fruits, dipping dots & phase change ice-cream--always a hit!

Entering grades: 4th - 6th

Lights & Lasers

From UV rays to lasers, Explorers will discover a broad spectrum of opportunities to play and experiment with light. Together, we will examine how plants and animals use light beyond what we can see, while also learning how we utilize light in surprising ways, such as laser tag and fiber optics. Explorers will even engrave a personal memento using a laser! Light & Lasers will spark our Explorers’ imaginations!

Entering grades: 4th - 6th

Pokémon Safari

With the World of Pokémon as inspiration, trainers will explore and learn about different habitats as they search for animals. They’ll learn about adaptations and evolution when designing their own Pokémon. During visits to Woodland Park Zoo, they’ll analyze Pokémon types, habitats, and names to gain clues about where to find them. Trainers will also have to work together on challenges like making their own Pokéballs to “catch” Pokémon. With special visitors joining us throughout the week, Trainers will have hands-on time with a variety of animals. Join us on a Pokémon Safari as we try to catch ‘em all!

Potions & Dragons

An adventure awaits at Potions & Dragons! An excellent intro to chemistry, Explorers will squirt, pour, and mix “potions” all the while learning how scientists use the scientific method and lab tools. Drawing inspiration from myths & legends, Explorers will encounter color changing fairies, exothermic dragons, and elusive mermaids.

Favorite Explorer activities include lava lamps, fairy dust parties, garden potions, “spell” books, nature wands, color changing potions, and battles with dragons!

Entering grades: 1st - 3rd

Rocks & Dinos

The ground is littered with clues about Earth’s distant past. Following these clues, campers will uncover layers of rocks and fossils to learn more about what came before in Rocks & Dinos.

Using cookies and candy, our young geologists will gain a better understanding of rock and crystal formations. Hunting down and breaking geodes will give them insight on how fossils are formed. As they conduct experiments to simulate the same plate tectonics and  glacial movements that carved out Seattle, they’ll learn to deduce what conditions would’ve been necessary to leave behind the story we see now.

Sealab 2023

Sealab 2024 is summer in a camp! With kayaking, fishing, and tide-pooling, this camp is packed with summer fun! Budding marine biologists will learn how sea life anatomy relates to the human body via specimen dissections, test water quality, and discuss human connection with oceans and waterways.

Explorers will enjoy a full-day field trip, including drop-off and pick-up at Golden Gardens, one of Seattle’s best beaches. No swimming experience is required but a love for the water is highly recommended. Grab your swimsuit and join us for Sealab 2024!

(Full-day field Trip on Thursday, Pinnacle will help arrange carpools)

Entering grades: 4th - 6th

Small Worlds

Explorers will get a peak into the Small Worlds all around us as they uncover unseen micro-ecosystems. We’ll investigate beehives, nurse logs, and ant hills to compare them to our own communities. Through games and more, Explorers will learn what a healthy ecosystem needs before designing their own terrariums and up-cycling materials to create small worlds for toy dinosaurs, aliens, and rollie pollies. Small Worlds is certain to be some big fun!

Entering grades: 1st - 3rd

Space & Rockets

Suit up for a mission to space during our ever-popular Space & Rockets camp! Explorers will work together on mission scenarios, while practicing teamwork, communication, and critical thinking. They’ll construct team space stations, launch rockets, explore the day & night cycle on Earth, create new constellations, imagine life on other planets, and design and create flying objects. Get ready to blast off into the final frontier!

Entering grades: 1st - 3rd

Survival Skills: The Rule of 3

All creatures have similar basic needs: air, shelter, water, and food. With thematic games and activities, Explorers will discover what these needs are by learning the "Rule of 3" as a general guideline. Engaging lessons on knife skills, collecting water, building debris shelters, and making a fire make for a memorable week. Our intensive, hands-on Survival Skills: The Rule of 3 camp will culminate with a much-deserved s’more celebration, a quintessential summertime treat. Explorers of all experience welcome!

Entering grades: 4th - 6th

Treasure Trackers

Welcome recruits to the Treasure Trackers! We’re tasked with recovering cultural relics & treasures from around the world. Join us as we follow clues to take down a Pirate Ring and their nefarious Captain. Campers will learn about various navigation techniques and tools that different cultures have developed. We will play games, collect evidence, solve puzzles, and complete team challenges as we become top agents in this globetrotting adventure! Skills include Compasses, GPS, Maps, Invisible Ink, Constellations, Astrolabe, and Animal Tracking.

Entering grades: 1st - 3rd

Wet n’ Wild

We drink, bathe, and play in water, but what is water? Explorers will dive into this question as they splish & splash their way through experiments and summertime play! We’ll explore water’s unique properties by creating solvents, freezing yummy treats, investigating water tension, and more. Explorers in our Wet n’ Wild camp should expect to get wet every day of the week—a must during summer!

Entering grades: 1st - 3rd