Coming of age experiences

Nature-Based Rites of Passage for Youth Ages 12-15

Coming of Age Today | Types of Trips | Benefits | Our Guides | Return to Youth Programs

The Importance of a Coming of Age Rite of Passage for Youth Today

There comes a moment in the life of every youth where they leave Childhood behind, and step into that phase of development we call Adolescence, or the teen-age years, during which time they cultivate the capacities, knowledge and skills they will need to step powerfully into adulthood in our modern world. This transition requires a true transformation of a person, because being a child and being a young adult require us to be, in some very important respects, entirely different kinds of people. The two largest themes tend to be moving from dependence to independence (always of course interdependent), and becoming a sexual being (puberty). These necessary changes require young people to transform how they see themselves in the world, to tell a new story about who they are, how they want to be, and what they are contributing to the world.

The power of the Coming of Age as a real, overt rite of passage experience for youth comes in large part from being dramatically and thoroughly separated — severed, even — from all of the surroundings that have held them and shaped them as a child: parents, siblings, friends, teachers, and even pets, rooms, toys, belongings. They will find themselves suddenly within a circle of young people, guided by supportive adults, encountering a whole new world. That world constantly asks them “Who are you really?” They will try out their childhood answers, and often find that those don’t really work anymore. They will have to find new answers to some crucial questions: What are my strengths? What are my challenges? How can I contribute? What do I care about? Where do I want to grow? What do I value? What kind of person do I want to be?

Family Participation

It is easy to think that a rite of passage is primarily about the transformation of the youth who are experiencing it, but in reality, each youth is part of a family, and a community, and who they are now as a child is actually shaped and held by those people. To truly invite a youth to leave childhood and become a young adult means asking those who have been holding them as a child to give up that knowing of them, and make room for something new, something bigger to emerge. The arrival of adolescence inherently brings big changes to the whole family and community!

Saying goodbye to the child they have known can be surprisingly difficult for family members. Especially for parents/guardians, a large part of our identity comes from our role as a caregiver for our child. What does it mean for us if we no longer have a child to nurture and protect? The task of parents and primary caregivers is to gracefully give up our role as a parent/guardian of a child, and discover a new meaningful purpose in being the parent/guardian of a young adult (which requires very different things from us). This is why at Rite of Passage Journeys, our Coming of Age trips include significant ceremonies and activities that support parents and community members in powerfully reimagining their sense of both self and family, to support and make room for the new youth who is returning.

what trip is best for your youth?

Trips for Young Women

Rite of Passage Journeys offers two types of Coming of Age experiences for young women. Our Mountain Quest trip is our flagship 21-day backpacking-based experience that we have been delivering for over 50 years. More recently, we developed Moon Rise, an 8-day retreat-based experience for those who aren’t drawn to do a long backpacking trip. Both experiences are strongly nature-based. These journeys welcome all who identify as female, trans girls, and non-binary youth, knowing this journey is an initiation through the female lens.

MoonRise(2018).png — moon Rise

7 & 8-day Basecamp Coming of Age experience for young women age 12-14

mountain quest

21-day Backpacking Coming of Age experience for young women age 12-14

Trips for Young Men

In 2023, Rite of Passage Journeys is offering one Coming of Age experience for young men, the classic Mountain Quest for Young Men. This 21-day backpacking trip is our longest running experience, returning to the amazing Olympic mountains that we have been visiting for over 50 years. This journey welcomes all who identify as male, trans boys, and non-binary youth, knowing this journey is an initiation through the male lens.

olympic odyssey

8-day preparatory adventure for boys age 12 - 14.

COAB(Circle2).jpg — Mountain Quest

21-day Backpacking Coming of Age experience for boys age 13-15

Not sure which trip is right for your youth? Contact Us and we’ll help figure it out.

Trips for LGBTQ2IA+ Youth

Rite of Passage Journeys began offering trips centering queer, trans and gender-diverse youth in 2018, and each year has looked very different. For 2023, our queer, trans and gender-diverse centered program is Queer Crossing, a program for youth ages 14-18. Queer, trans and gender-diverse youth ages 12 and 13, who comfortably intersect with the young women’s and young men’s gender-grouped trips described above, are welcome to join those programs (as are 14 and 15 yr olds!).

queer mountain quest

This Program Is In Development

queer Kinnection

8-day Basecamp Rite of Passage experience for youth age 14-18

Benefits of a Coming of Age Rite of Passage

Improved self-confidence
Group communication and problem solving skills
Understanding and taking responsibility
Ability to listen to intuition
Creative self-expression

Leadership and teamwork skills

Improved physical strength and personal resolve
Knowledge of natural history of Northwest terrain
Low-impact camping techniques
Understanding of healthy and appropriate paths to adulthood

our coming of age guides

Annabelle fox

Queer Crossing
Mountain Quest Young Women
Annabelle (she/her) is from southwestern Washington where she picked up some of her favorite hobbies, such as looking for bugs and making fire. She has since found many avenues for those early desires…

mitch circle pic.jpg — Mitch Glover

Mountain Quest Young Men
A West Coast native, Mitchell Glover believes that the natural world can provide us with the means to find our own path to bliss. After an unforgettable 16yr career as a Navy Deep Sea Diver, he began his next life step as a mentor…

Onna Jaeger

Coming of Age Guide

Onna (she/her) arrived in the Seattle area in late 2019 with plans to pursue her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Washington. Onna was born and raised in Connecticut, just a short walk from a nature preserve that ignited her curiosity of the natural world. Through hikes and trips to Rhode Island in the summer, Onna learned through her parents that calm comes with walking and water - a piece of truth she holds sacred to her journey today. Onna followed her love of beautiful natural places and interacting with humans through study abroad programs in Spain and South Africa, majoring in Communications, Spanish & Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies. After her studies in 2016, she followed her desire to learn how to grow food, and chose to work at Riverbank Farm - an organic vegetable, fruit and flower farm in Roxbury, Connecticut, where she learned for 3 seasons. She felt greatly impacted by the gifts that farming offered her - a deep connection to herself, the land and humanity. There was a deeper metaphor to explore through healing alongside the land, which led her to guide at Pacific Quest, a rites of passage-based horticultural therapy program on the Big Island of Hawaii. Onna quickly grew a passion for facilitating the rites of passage program for adolescents at Pacific Quest, which she believes is a crucial form of initiation lacking in our society today. In April of 2019, Onna completed her own initiatory vision fast on the Big Island. She began guiding for Rite of Passage Journeys in 2020: teen Fire on the Mountain, coming of age Moon Rise, and pre-teen Call to Adventure.

Jay Cacka

Coming of Age Guide

Jay Cacka (pronounced Cha-ch-ka) grew up in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. As a child, he played for endless hours around the creek in his backyard, building forts, climbing trees, swimming and skipping rocks. In high school while backpacking, he fell in love with Opal Creek with its clear blue pools and wonderous rock water slides, the beds of soft green moss and crisp clean air. Connecting with the more-than-human world while in nature became essential to developing a healthy life, body, mind and soul. Jay became interested in rites of passage in his early 20s while working for a mentoring program in Denver, CO and seeing many young people without clear pathways to adulthood. After moving to Seattle in 2007, he was introduced to Journeys and began training with them to bring rites of passage to the community he was involved in. This eventually led to Jay's own participation in the Adult Wilderness Quest and then on to leading youth trips starting in 2011. The call to deepen into our common humanity, inspire the human spirit, and create meaning community through ritual and ceremony continues to draw Jay toward this work with ever greater appreciation and gratitude for the gift of life. Jay also completed a Masters degree in Counseling in 2013 and now works with the BIPOC community in Portland, OR. His passion for this work has only grown stronger as the urgency of our times calls for us all to step up to the plate and become initiated adults in a hurting world.

Kensey Nadler

Program Guide

Kensey Nadler was born nestled in the hills of Santa Barbra, Ca. She graduated from Cal Poly, SLO with an undergraduate degree in Experience Industry Management, concentrating on outdoor adventure leadership and women's studies. She was lucky enough to be introduced to rites of passage through her epic mom who weaved them throughout her life. These experiences proved to her the incredible potency and necessity for this work. During her time in school, she explored the High Sierra with Outward Bound, led outdoor adventures for girls in the mountains of Colorado, and trained with Poly Escapes. She was awarded an Internship with the non-profit NARETOI Kenya “women empowering women”. Through her involvement, she was honored to climb mountains and learn besides an incredible cross-cultural group of Maasai and American women. This experience opened her to the opportunity for utilizing outdoor adventure as a platform to build equity, solidarity, and allyship amongst womankind. This has since been a core mission of hers. Once stateside, She co-founded Wilderonez- an adventure collective for womxn. Kensey has been exploring facilitating and creating outdoor trips and gatherings with Wilderonez on the central coast. She currently works for Adventure Club Slo where she guides those with diagnoses on nature adventures. She can also be found studying to finish up her Ayurvedic health coaching credentials. Kensey guides to connect folks to their inherent inner wisdom, one another, and the magic of nature. She is a lover of giggles, poetry, avocados, honeybees, and little wave surfing. She’s stoked to be working with Journey’s youth this summer as she believes they truly hold our future in their palms!