Take A Tour Of The Eagle Rock Campus

No one would ever describe the sprawling 640-acre Eagle Rock campus as ordinary. Or drab. Or uninspired. Much like the 72 or so students that populate our pristine setting nearly 8,000 feet above sea level, Eagle Rock has the patent on being unique.

Most high schools don’t bump up to a national park — Rocky Mountain National Park is right next door. Most high schools don’t offer views of majestic mountain peaks from nearly every window. And most high schools aren’t designed with classrooms that are intertwined with meadows, and rock formations.

Eagle Rock has been described as “planned educational village,” offering pedestrian paths linking the heart of the campus with living and learning centers, gardens, and myriad trails waiting patiently to be explored. In fact, 500 of our acres are in a permanent conservation easement in cooperation with the Estes Valley Land Trust.

In all, the campus features 25 low-impact structures, including classroom buildings, offices and residences. Specific facilities include student housing; faculty housing; Public Allies fellow housing; our main lodge with a commercial kitchen, dining areas and administrative offices; the Professional Development Center with administrative, office and meeting space.

There’s a Learning Resource Center with technology and library; a science center with a living systems bioshelter and greenhouse; an arts center; pool and recreation center; a barn; maintenance storage structures; wilderness storage structures; and various gardens and playfields.

And that doesn’t even take into account an addition eight staff dwellings and a bunkhouse and two casitas where we lodge up to 22 visiting educators at a time.

Below is a description and photograph of our various structures on campus:

The Living Village — We aren’t fond of the institutional-sounding term “dormitory,” preferring instead the word “house” when describing our student dwellings. A house brings to mind a warm, intimate, family setting. And we’ve got six of these homes on campus — Aspen, Pinon, Lodgepole, Spruce, Ponderosa and Juniper. A seventh house is Willow, the Public Allies Teaching Fellow house:

Human Performance Center — Also located on this side of the campus, this center features a full gym — including a basketball court, aikido dogo and an indoor pool that is used for lifeguard training, and recreational swimming. We play water polo and water volleyball here during intramural sessions:

Learning Resource Center — This facility houses our print library, computers for student use as well as five classroom spaces including Societies and Cultures, Literacy & Literature and World Languages. This building also features room for our Life After Eagle Rock team and our Instructional Specialist office:

Professional Development Center — This is where our professional development team performs its magic with educators from around the country when they visit. The facility also houses our administrative team and business office. Teachers, administrators and staff members from all points of the compass come here to further understand more about how to re-engage, retain and graduate students:

The Lodge — Seen as a Mecca for staff and students alike, the Lodge is a gathering place where meals are served, love lives are discussed, burning global issues are resolved, emails are downloaded and homework is either done or delayed. This is where we hold our afternoon Gatherings in the Hearth space and where more informal gatherings are initiated:

One Room School House — This is the headquarters for that wonderful breed of student who lives for performing on stage — either as an actor or as a musician:

Science/Math Building — This space houses three classrooms and is a sanctuary for students who want to use their minds well in those disciplines:

Art Building — Three magnificent art studios are featured in this facility, including visual arts with a dark room, a wood shop and a ceramics studio:

The Field of Dreams: It’s not a structure, but our beautiful athletic field is always good for a match of Ultimate Frisbee during Wednesday intramurals. And summertime means we’ll be playing soccer and softball here.

If you’re in the area or are interested in Eagle Rock, come visit! We offer tours on the first Saturday of the month at 2:00 p.m. To reserve a spot in these hour and a half walking tours, call us at (970) 586-0600.