Get Out Of Your Head.
Get Into The World.

Recovery-focused experiential adventure activities — where breakthrough happens outside the classroom.


A Different Approach to Growth and Recovery

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Most people are familiar with traditional counseling settings, where growth happens through conversation, reflection, and support. Trailhead Adventures adds another layer to the recovery journey through hands-on experiences, outdoor challenges, and team-based activities designed to build confidence, trust, and resilience in real-world situations.



Trailhead Adventures is different.


We use hands-on experiential activities — from ropes courses and high elements to team-based indoor challenges — to open people up in ways that traditional group settings simply can’t. Before they know it, they’ve said something out loud they’ve never said before. And the group around them has shifted because of it.

What We Do

Trailhead Adventures operates in two seasons:

Outdoor Season:

March- October

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Clients participate at the San Juan College HECC Ropes Course: from low trust elements and team challenges to high-ropes climbs and the full tower experience. These aren’t just for fun. The psychology of fear, challenge, and support in these settings directly mirrors the challenges clients face in recovery and teaches them that their brain can be wrong about what they can handle.

Indoor Season:

November - February

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When the weather keeps us inside, the work doesn’t stop. Our facilitator uses everyday objects: a beach ball, a pool noodle, a piece of paper in order to run icebreakers, thought challenges, and group activities that change the entire energy of a room and invite people to engage in ways that feel natural rather than forced.

Both seasons are built on the same principle: the best breakthroughs happen when people don’t realize they’re happening.

The Science Behind the Fun

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This isn’t play for the sake of play.

When someone on a 60-foot tower hears their body screaming that they’re in danger — but chooses to push through anyway — they practice something incredibly powerful: the space between stimulus and response.


That same skill is the one they need in recovery when cravings hit, when triggers appear, when anxiety spikes. We teach it in a harness, in a circle, in the gym. The context changes. The lesson carries over.


Experiential activities also create dopamine naturally and immediately. That release begins to rewire what “feeling good” means without substances.

Who It's For

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Trailhead Adventures currently serves:

Group 1

Cottonwood IOP and Aftercare clients: 

built directly into the treatment experience, included in enrollment


Group 2

Adolescents 13+ enrolled in Cottonwood’s 

juvenile services


Group 3

Partner agencies seeking facilitated group experiences for their clients

COMING SOON:

the JO Program — a Juvenile Outdoor Experience for youth and families, including family-group activities designed to help parents see their children in new ways.


If you’re a treatment center, school, company, or court program looking to add experiential activities to your group work — we’d love to talk.


There is Good in All People

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Our facilitator, Cameron Dobey, says it simply:

“There is good in all people — especially in this community. Sometimes it’s just buried under a little more than others.”

— Cameron Dobey

Person standing in a doorway on a wooden deck, gesturing while speaking, with a whiteboard nearby.

Trailhead Adventures exists to help that good find the surface. Not through confrontation. Not through more talking. Through challenge, trust, movement, and the surprising power of showing up and doing something together.

Part of Something Bigger

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Trailhead Adventures is one piece of the Cottonwood Pathways recovery network — alongside Ironwood Gym, Brenda’s House of Hope, and the full clinical team.

Together, they treat the whole person: mind, body, and lived experience.


Brenda's House of Hope

Cottonwood Pathways

Intensive outpatient addiction and mental health treatment, combining clinical care, accountability, and life skills coaching to help adults build stable recovery and transition toward independent, healthy living.

Ironwood Gym

Ironwood Gym

Physical fitness as part of your recovery. Our fully-equipped gym with certified trainers helps you build strength, structure, and confidence. Because recovery happens in your body, not just your mind.

Locke Street Eats

Locke Street Eats

A sober food truck park for community connection. Enjoy good food in a substance-free environment while building healthy social connections and exploring entrepreneurial opportunities.

People in yellow shirts, arms linked, forming a circle, viewed from below.

Brenda's House of Hope

Safe, supportive housing for men and women in recovery. Structured living environment during IOP, transitioning to sober living as you build independence and recovery skills.

Ready?

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Whether you’re a Cottonwood client, a referring agency, or just curious what it means to have a rope attached to your harness and nothing but sky above — we’re glad you’re here.