Summer Camp

Camp Rocky

Camp Rocky is an educational, week long residential camp for 14 through 17 year-olds who enjoy the outdoors and are interested in natural resources, agriculture, or environmental science.

Camp is located outside Divide, Colorado. Camp Rocky’s professional staff helps participants learn about their environment through hands-on experiences. Students work in teams, making new friends from across Colorado.

Conservation Resource Fields

New and returning students choose one of the following resource fields for their area of focus:

  • Fish and Wildlife Management: The Fish & Wildlife resource group examines how resource availability or scarcity impacts fauna across Colorado, how changes we make impact the relationship between humans and wildlife, learns methods for observing and quantifying fish & wildlife behavior, and will learn about the careers available in this sector from those who live them.
  • Forestry Management: The Forestry resource group evaluates data on forest and soil health, assessing the impacts of human use, the potential for and impact of events such as fire, and learn about the impact that various stages of forest health has on watersheds and availability of other natural resources.
  • Rangeland Science: The Rangeland Science resource group examines both ecology and management practices with the goal of sustaining healthy, productive rangelands. Students learn about the various range environments found in Colorado, native and introduced species of rangeland grasses, and how those species impact the landscape.
  • Soil and Water Science: The Soil & Water resource group studies how water flows across our natural and managed landscapes, how soil type and quality impact the flow and availability of that water, and how all these factors affect agriculture, the built environment, and natural resources throughout Colorado’s landscapes.

At the end of the week, students will use their group learning plan to complete a management project. Additional camper activities include volleyball games, hiking, campfires, group challenges, nightly natural resource presentations, and a talent show!

Whole-Camp Experiences

Some of our special guests and activities are too special to keep to one instruction group! The whole camp may gather to learn from speakers such as our area game warden, wildlife biologists who let us go hands-on stunning fish in Camp’s stream to count populations, or wildland fire crews who talk to us about how they manage a healthy forest year-round.

Traditional Camp Experiences

We are at summer camp after all! In addition to a week packed full of instruction and hands-on experiential learning, all the facets you might think of with a traditional camp experience are present at Camp Rocky. Campfires, hikes, group games, etc. round out our days at camp.

Scholarships

In 2022, more than 90% of Camp Rocky students received some level of scholarship! Each year, the El Paso County Conservation District awards students with partial or full scholarships to attend. Contact us for more information.

Register for camp or learn more at camprocky.org