ECO EXPERIENCE
CSU Mountain Campus educational program turns 50 years old
May 22, 2025
THERE’S NOT MUCH better than visiting Colorado’s mountains in the late summer and early fall, when the landscape is gilded with aspens in the sun’s autumnal glow.
Now, imagine that experience as a fifth grader with all your friends – discovering red raspberry, yellow-bellied marmots, moose, osprey, trout fry in mountain streams, and the butterscotch fragrance held in the trunks of ponderosa pine.
Last fall, from August through October, about 2,000 fifth graders from Northern Colorado schools delighted in these discoveries during their Eco Experience at Colorado State University’s Mountain Campus west of Fort Collins. Students from 30 elementary schools participated; three-fourths of those schools are in the Poudre School District in Fort Collins.
It was a special year for Eco Experience: The outdoor learning program – a signature part of fifth grade – turned 50 years old at Mountain Campus. The program began in 1974. Since then, scores of Northern Colorado fifth graders have attended two- and three-day educational sessions, which incorporate nature hikes, wildlife observation, stream ecology, and other scientific studies.
“I’ve been waiting a year for this trip!” enthused a student named Annabelle, who traveled to Mountain Campus with classmates from Bennett Elementary School in Fort Collins.
Students enjoy the CSU Mountain Campus ropes course and outdoor education during Eco Experience, which is a highlight of fifth grade. Photography: Joe A. Mendoza / CSU Photography.
Eco Experience – earlier known as Eco Week – is so well established at Mountain Campus that moms and dads who attended as kids are now sending off their own children on the immersive mountain trips. In many cases, these are their first overnight trips surrounded by wilderness.
For instance, Meghan Molin attended in 1995 as a student at Eyestone Elementary School in Wellington. This year, her son Noah attended.
“It’s one of my favorite memories from elementary school, and sending my son Noah off for the same experience was so fun for me,” Molin said. “Having Noah go to Eco Experience definitely opened up conversations in our family about our own experiences.”
Noah especially enjoyed ropes course challenges; he talked about his hands-on pond activity for weeks after he returned home.
“It’s such a fun and wonderful tradition – a vital one to continue to expose kids to the wonders of our ecosystem, when they might not have the opportunity otherwise,” Molin said.
In the early 1980s, Sarah Fox was an Eco Week participant as a student at Tavelli Elementary School in Fort Collins. After formative experiences with maps and a compass, she went on to study biology and chemistry in college and earned a master’s degree in ecology and atmospheric science; now, she works as a corporate sustainability director. And decades after her own time at Mountain Campus, Fox’s three children attended.
“Eco Week definitely developed my environmental passion at an early age,” Fox said. “It’s those experiences you have in your youth that stick with you and often influence your career choices.”
Bill Bertschy, co-founder of Eco Experience and former Mountain Campus director, said the program was at first federally funded as part of a national science boom, with impetus added by the environmental movement.
These days, participating schools pay for the program; many have fundraising activities that allow students to attend. The Mountain Campus staff is responsible for delivering educational content, much of it aligned with school curricula.
“Eco Experience is vital to the legacy of the Mountain Campus,” Lauren Gleason, campus director, said. “We have countless CSU students, staff, and guests who are connected to us because of their time at Eco Experience. We are here to serve the local school districts, and being able to provide an experiential educational component to their curriculum is important to our mission.”
Photo: Joe A. Mendoza / CSU Photography.
The CSU Mountain Campus covers 1,600 acres in a secluded valley at 9,000 feet elevation. Surrounded by towering peaks, alpine forests, and a rushing river, the campus hosts educational programs for CSU students and students from other colleges and universities. It is also a venue for conferences, workshops, meetings, and retreats.
For Leslie Hass, a fifth grade teacher at Bennett Elementary School, visiting Mountain Campus as a teacher last fall brought her full circle. Having grown up in Fort Collins, she attended Eco Week in 1988 through Putnam-Fullana Elementary School; even today, she has favorite memories of her first hike to Cirque Meadows and singing with classmates around a campfire. Later, she even worked at Mountain Campus.
“One of my roles as a fifth grade teacher at Bennett Elementary is to prepare my students for the unique rite of passage that is Eco Experience,” Hass said. “With my teaching team, we coordinate all the logistics of the overnight trip with our kids. It involves a lot of preparation that begins at the end of their fourth grade year. We spend time preparing the students academically in the classroom prior to the visit, but we also spend a significant amount of time on the social-emotional preparation needed to spend time away from home.
“There is so much teambuilding and bonding that happens during the trip that we talk about it all year,” Hass said. “It’s a grounding and unifying experience for everyone.”
Photo at top: Stream ecology is among the topics studied when area fifth graders visit the CSU Mountain Campus for Eco Experience. Photography: Joe A. Mendoza / CSU Photography.
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