About
Echo Hill Ranch offers horseback riding, swimming, creative arts, athletics, cookouts, camping, hiking, and a range of waterfront activities. Activities are run by professional staff, and each special activity is taught by experts.
• Schedule: Volunteer Orientation runs June 12 to June 14, 2026, and the Super Session runs June 15 to June 24, 2026.
Echo Hill Ranch operates as a 266-acre ranch camp with western-style bunkhouses, a fully equipped dining hall, an infirmary, and activities run by professional staff. Each bunkhouse has its own bathroom with sinks, showers, and commodes, and each cabin has hot and cold water. The camp includes over 200 acres of Texas Hill Country owned by the Friedman family since 1952, with features such as Wallace Creek, Echo Hill, Mount Min, Mount Baldy, canyons for hiking, and the South Flat used for cookouts and camping. Nearly a mile of Big Foot Wallace Creek, a spring-fed tributary of the Guadalupe River, provides two main swimming areas in clear water controlled by rock dams. All meals are prepared on-site by certified and experienced staff, served family-style with bunkhouse groups, with balanced menus that include items such as fried chicken, spaghetti, pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, a veggie option, and ice-cold watermelon, and dinner is typically served in an outside picnic area. The camp has a fully equipped infirmary with a nurse on staff and a doctor on call.
Echo Hill Ranch’s mission is to provide a safe, fun, relaxing, and empowering professional summer camp experience for the children of Gold Star families, immediate family members of a fallen service member who died while serving in a time of conflict, or those of first responders. Echo Hill Ranch Foundation partners with military non-profits already serving Gold Star families and provides camperships at no cost to different military organizations, which then identify the children, and the camp works with military advisors to meet the children’s needs.
Echo Hill has been a place for boys and girls to spend their summers since its founding in 1953, and the ranch land has been owned by the Friedman family since 1952. Echo Hill Ranch was operated by Marcie Friedman’s parents for 50 years. The leadership team includes Marcie Friedman as Volunteer Camp Director and Director, and Bobby McBride as Assistant Camp Director. Camping professionals with extensive experience lead the program, and staff have experience with Echo Hill Ranch, camping, and counseling. Marcie Friedman is a certified camp director, which is the highest professional credential that the American Camping Association bestows, and she has served on the State Board of the American Camping Association with responsibilities that have included representing the private camps of Texas on child development, education, and safety issues. She holds a master of arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley in biology and social behavior, graduated with honors from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, earned a master’s from the National Defense University at Fort Bragg in International Security Strategy, and is serving as a diplomat and foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department.
Echo Hill is internationally recognized for its noncompetitive child-centered program and its focus on each youngster’s successful away-from-home experience. Its unique features include over 200 acres of Texas Hill Country, Wallace Creek running through the camp, Echo Hill, Mount Min, Mount Baldy, canyons for hiking, cookouts and camping on the South Flat, western-style bunkhouses with in-cabin bathrooms and hot and cold water, a fully equipped dining hall with meals prepared on-site by certified and experienced staff, and family-style meals with bunkhouse groups, with typical dinners served in an outside picnic area. The program includes camperships at no cost for children of Gold Star families and related groups. A testimonial associated with the camp states, “Childhood at best,” my father said, “is a fleeting golden moment in the race of time.”
Last updated February 1, 2026.
• Schedule: Volunteer Orientation runs June 12 to June 14, 2026, and the Super Session runs June 15 to June 24, 2026.
Echo Hill Ranch operates as a 266-acre ranch camp with western-style bunkhouses, a fully equipped dining hall, an infirmary, and activities run by professional staff. Each bunkhouse has its own bathroom with sinks, showers, and commodes, and each cabin has hot and cold water. The camp includes over 200 acres of Texas Hill Country owned by the Friedman family since 1952, with features such as Wallace Creek, Echo Hill, Mount Min, Mount Baldy, canyons for hiking, and the South Flat used for cookouts and camping. Nearly a mile of Big Foot Wallace Creek, a spring-fed tributary of the Guadalupe River, provides two main swimming areas in clear water controlled by rock dams. All meals are prepared on-site by certified and experienced staff, served family-style with bunkhouse groups, with balanced menus that include items such as fried chicken, spaghetti, pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, a veggie option, and ice-cold watermelon, and dinner is typically served in an outside picnic area. The camp has a fully equipped infirmary with a nurse on staff and a doctor on call.
Echo Hill Ranch’s mission is to provide a safe, fun, relaxing, and empowering professional summer camp experience for the children of Gold Star families, immediate family members of a fallen service member who died while serving in a time of conflict, or those of first responders. Echo Hill Ranch Foundation partners with military non-profits already serving Gold Star families and provides camperships at no cost to different military organizations, which then identify the children, and the camp works with military advisors to meet the children’s needs.
Echo Hill has been a place for boys and girls to spend their summers since its founding in 1953, and the ranch land has been owned by the Friedman family since 1952. Echo Hill Ranch was operated by Marcie Friedman’s parents for 50 years. The leadership team includes Marcie Friedman as Volunteer Camp Director and Director, and Bobby McBride as Assistant Camp Director. Camping professionals with extensive experience lead the program, and staff have experience with Echo Hill Ranch, camping, and counseling. Marcie Friedman is a certified camp director, which is the highest professional credential that the American Camping Association bestows, and she has served on the State Board of the American Camping Association with responsibilities that have included representing the private camps of Texas on child development, education, and safety issues. She holds a master of arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley in biology and social behavior, graduated with honors from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, earned a master’s from the National Defense University at Fort Bragg in International Security Strategy, and is serving as a diplomat and foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department.
Echo Hill is internationally recognized for its noncompetitive child-centered program and its focus on each youngster’s successful away-from-home experience. Its unique features include over 200 acres of Texas Hill Country, Wallace Creek running through the camp, Echo Hill, Mount Min, Mount Baldy, canyons for hiking, cookouts and camping on the South Flat, western-style bunkhouses with in-cabin bathrooms and hot and cold water, a fully equipped dining hall with meals prepared on-site by certified and experienced staff, and family-style meals with bunkhouse groups, with typical dinners served in an outside picnic area. The program includes camperships at no cost for children of Gold Star families and related groups. A testimonial associated with the camp states, “Childhood at best,” my father said, “is a fleeting golden moment in the race of time.”
Last updated February 1, 2026.
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