Leadership & History

Hidden Valley Camp has been owned and operated by the McKinlay family since 1973. Bob McKinlay spent his entire career in organized youth camping (over 60 years) starting with YMCA camps in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington State (Camp Orkila) and Pennsylvania and was very involved with the American Camp Association over this time as past Minnesota Section President, board member, camp standards visitor, program chairman of a mid-Atlantic states convention, past President of the Evergreen Section, chairman of the Western Region A.C.A. including all states west of the Rockies, member of the National Board of A.C.A. and General Chair of the 1989 National A.C.A. Conference in Seattle. Bob received a National Honor Award given at the A.C.A. National Conference in 2003.

Todd, Jen, Ryan and Kristen

Todd McKinlay is the Executive Director and supervises all staff and camp program activities. A graduate in Education from Washington State University, Todd taught school for 10 years and has been involved with Hidden Valley Camp each summer since 1973. Todd has spent each summer of his life (except 2) at a summer camp and has worked for full time for HVC since 1992. He is an active member of the American Camp Association and has been an Evergreen Section Board Member, member of the Nominating Committee, Chaired the Public Relations and Education Committees and was a camp standards visitor for over 25 years. Todd manages the year round administrative responsibilities of camp and is responsible for staff hiring/training and provides leadership for camp programming based on years of outdoor living experiences. Todd's wife Jennifer has been involved with HVC for over 35 years, is a Registered Nurse, and is also the Camp Registrar. Todd and Jen's kids (Kristen and Ryan) have been very involved with camp over the years. Kristen was a Counselor and Head Riding Counselor, and is now a Registered Nurse and Mom. Ryan has been a Counselor at HVC, Program Director, Assistant Director, and is now the Camp Director. He currently resides at camp and takes care of all of the routine maintenance (and the non-routine). He has assumed many of the Director responsibilities in recent summers and will become the full time Camp Director within the next few years. Todd’s plan is to retire after the summer of 2024 … but will remain very involved with camp.

Hidden Valley Camp was established in 1947 by Harry and Imogene Truman and it is one of the finest camps in the Northwest and in the country.