On a sunny afternoon in Sinks Canyon, a group of nearly 20 women put on harnesses and helmets, tied into ropes and tried their hand at climbing on pocketed limestone rock faces outside Lander. They were part of an outing through Wyoming Wildflower Women, a program run by Wyoming State Parks, which organizes all-women outdoor adventures around the state.
The program, which started in 2022, piloted daylong trips this summer to reach working women and moms, as well as partnered with Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game to help expand outdoor adventure opportunities for Indigenous women.
Women training women
Anna Holm lives in Lander and was one of the first in the group to try hopping on the wall. She said it was the first time she’s been climbing in over a decade.
“I really like this whole group of ladies and the vibes, more than back in the day when I was climbing with a couple dudes. This is actually cooler, so much cooler,” she said.
Angelina Stancampiano is a Shoshone District Interpretive Ranger with Wyoming State Parks and started organizing all-women weekend long campouts in 2022. Thanks to a grant from the Bronco Wild Fund, Wyoming Wildflower Women started offering more introductory 101 programs this summer, like the climbing afternoon, to help people try new skills in the outdoor world in a supportive learning environment.
“This year, my friend Vanessa and I started talking about doing something locally more frequently, just doing some day programs to be more attainable and more accessible, and thinking about women who maybe have jobs that they can't take off, have child care responsibilities or other things going on where a whole weekend is too much starting out,” she said.
For most of the participants, including Stancampiano, the afternoon at Sinks Canyon was their first time trying climbing.
“People give me a hard time living in Sinks Canyon with world class climbing and I've never been on belay, but I’m just not an adrenaline junkie. I am a safety freak, being a park ranger, so I'm glad to do it and experience it and be able to talk to people about doing it,” she said.
Macy Watson moved to Lander a year ago and said the group has been a great way for her to learn and to meet like-minded women who love being outdoors.
“With outdoor stuff especially, some of it's male-dominated and sometimes it’s hard to find good groups that are truly beginner and truly will guide you step-by-step through everything. I think just being with a group of women, it's more accepting,” she said.
Tribal connections
This year, Stancampiano also started partnering with Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Fish and Game to support the organization in building up their own all-women programming and to bring more folks to Wyoming Wildflower Women.
“We’ve been highlighting this group to tribal women, to locals, to people that have historically been overlooked in the outdoors,” she said. “[We’re] ensuring that we opened up spots to tribal women and made sure that we communicated to make sure that as many as possible could take part in this.”
The group hosted its first-ever campout for tribal women at Hot Springs State Park earlier this summer, with women from six different tribes attending. Hot Springs, which is Wyoming’s first state park, was established on lands that were ceded to the U.S. government by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes through an agreement in 1896.
“I thought it was important to do our first one there, acknowledge that,” said Stancampiano. “We had [Central Wyoming Colllege’s Tribal Education Coordinator] Ivan Posey come and talk to us about the history of the area to try and make sure that we were grounding ourselves in the place where we were.”
Jolene Brown is a special education teacher at Arapaho Elementary School who attended the outing. She’s an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe and is also Northern Ute and Pyramid Lake Paiute, and she said climbing was a totally new experience for her.
“Honestly, I would have never come rock climbing if it wasn't offered. I'm scared of heights and that's probably not something I would have done, so I got out of my comfort zone a little bit,” she said.
Brown said this was the fifth event she’s attended with Wyoming Wildflower Women, and she’s also been going on some of the all-women’s trips organized by Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game, like a whitewater rafting trip and a float on the Wind River.
“It gets me out of the house, gets me a little ‘me time’ and a little physical activity. I like it,” she said.
Brown’s been bringing her co-worker and fellow special education teacher Kelli Davis with her to programs throughout the summer. Davis agreed that the outings are a good break from the normal routine.
“I just appreciate being able to get out and not be home, tired from work,” Davis said.
Both Brown and Davis said they’ll be coming back to more programs together next summer.
