As soon as I heard about the Wolf Conservation Center’s program “Sleeping with Wolves,” I couldn’t NOT do it. My kids have been asking to go camping and my oldest is obsessed with wolves.
A friend had mentioned it casually as we sat in the park, watching our kids play. I pulled out my phone and signed us up on the spot – my partner, our 7- and 11-year-old kids, and myself.
The Wolf Conservation Center is in South Salem, New York, a less-than two-hour drive north from the city. The center helps raise and release endangered wolves to live in the wild, and holds programs like “Sleeping with Wolves” to inspire people to want to protect the animals.
The center has offered “Sleeping with Wolves” since 2012, and its Director of Education Regan Downey says the idea behind the program is to expand the time people could be around wolves at dawn and dusk, when they’re at their most active.
What it was like to arrive at the wolf center
After our drive, in which only one of my children threw up, we grabbed our sleeping bags and headed to the tents. We were the last to arrive.
There were about 20 other people there with us – a couple of other parents with kids, plus a handful of adults. One woman was there celebrating her birthday with a few friends.
The tents were already set up, arranged in a row a few feet from each other, on top of tarps. We picked one, unrolled our sleeping bags inside, and made our way to the education center.
Shortly after we arrived, Dana Goin, the program coordinator and wildlife educator with the Center, led us past the tents to a chain link fence. Behind it live the center’s two so-called ambassador wolves, Silas and Nikai, in an enclosure slightly smaller than a city block in Manhattan.
She explained the importance of keeping hands away. If a wolf were to injure someone, even with an accidental nip, the Center would be required to kill it.
Behind Goin, the wolves lolled in the grass inside the enclosure, watching impassively.
Goin put on gloves and reached toward a barrel of meat scraps. Silas, the younger wolf rocketed over, crashing into the fence behind her and somersaulting into the air like a puppy excited to go for a walk.
“Yeah, that is a puppy,” Goin laughed. “He’s just ridiculous.”
Each enclosure is about an acre or two, and holds several wolves. But without any deer in there, the underbrush grows thick, and the shy wolves can be hard to spot.
The center has 25 wolves. There are two gray “ambassador” wolves, who reside at the center and help teach visitors through programs like this one and via a live web cam. The other wolves are members of two critically endangered species: Mexican gray wolves and red wolves.
After walking the enclosures, they left us to roam for a bit before setting up the night’s next event: pizza and a movie on the grass.
The kids quickly hit it off and started playing, howling and arguing over who was the alpha.
The movie, a National Geographic documentary about the wolves of Yellowstone, completely captivated my kids.
They liked the next part even more: s’mores over a campfire, also provided by the Center’s staff. After that, it was dark, and we zipped ourselves into the tent for the night.
What it was like to sleep with the wolves
Some time after we’d all fallen asleep, we heard it – our first howl. It was a long, single sustained note, that rose and then fell against the night sounds of frogs and crickets.
My daughter roused in the sleeping bag beside me. “Is that a wolf?”
The next one came an hour later. This one sounded different: shorter, sometimes almost yappy, and seemed to involve more wolves.
Another came some time after that, and was similar to the last.
At some point in that long night, early morning broke, and birds began to sing. Then suddenly it sounded like every wolf in the world began to howl. It sounded like it came from multiple directions at once in a cacophony of aroooooooooo sounds.
Just before 6 a.m., a siren went off at the nearby volunteer fire department. By then ALL the birds were awake, including one that seemed to be sitting on our tent, singing as loudly as it could. The siren set off the wolves, who again gave it all they had.
Downey, the center’s director of education, acknowledged that the space doesn’t make for the most restful night.
“We get a lot of comments that, from some folks, it was not the best sleep of their life, but it was certainly the most memorable and exciting,” she said. “You don't come here to sleep. You come here to camp out, but lay awake in your tent and hear the wolves.”
Downey says the center may be the only place to have this particular sonic experience because the two types of wolves don’t inhabit the same places in the wild.
But even if you only get to hear one of them, she said it’s still totally worth it. “It's an experience hopefully everyone can have at least once, whether it's here or in the wild, hearing a wolf howl. Definitely one of the best things you'll ever hear.”
What to know before you sign up to stay at the Wolf Conservation Center
Reserve early.
The program runs from May through October. It sells out, so you might want to plan ahead. It’s $340 for a pretty cozy tent for up to four people, or $150 for one person, but solo visitors have to bring their own tent.
Assume you won’t get great sleep.
I probably slept for an hour or two. It was camping, so in addition to the wolves, there were the normal night sounds of critters moving outside. If you’re a light sleeper, don’t expect much shut-eye. We got home and immediately took an hourslong nap.
Pack the extras.
Bring a camping mattress and pillows – this is definitely not glamping. The tent's floor is just a layer of canvas over a layer of tarp, so it’s not soft, though it is dry. I also recommend bringing bug spray and a blanket or camping chair to sit on while you watch the movie. The center provides dinner (pizza) and breakfast (instant oatmeal, juice and coffee), but you can bring snacks if doesn't sound like enough. There are vegan pizza options, too.
Arrrrrrooooooo.
Goin told me many people who come once, return again in following years, and I totally get that. It’s truly a cool experience, and if I go again, I won’t expect to get any rest. I could see myself doing it again when my kids are teenagers.
