Good hearted and hard working school teachers take on the task of organizing camp for their students; they educate parents and students, organize paperwork, collect money, and lose sleep. Once camp day comes, students head up to the mountains where High Trails takes over. Visiting teachers have a very free form role in our program; we need their help supervising during meals and in the case a student cannot participate in the program. Other than this they are encouraged to interact with the students, watch classes, catch up on school work, and, like the students themselves, just enjoy their time in the fresh air.

For the students, we look at ourselves as a wonderful combination of both a school and a camp. Our science and ecology based classes, based on California State Standards, are taught from thoughtful and detailed lesson plans in interactive and experiential ways, and offer three activities and one experiment per class. Unlike other science schools, though, we operate on the notion that this one experience may be the only outdoor "camp" experience that many of these students ever see. Because of this, we would be remiss if we did not include the "camp" side of things; classes like climbing, archery, teambuilding and orienteering, songs and skits, and lots of fun, silly games. We want students to understand that life is a proper balance of hard work and fun play.

At camp, students spend their time split between the field and the cabin. In the field, students grab a sack lunch and head off with their field instructor, out of doors the whole day while being taught classes chosen by the visiting school teachers. Dinner is back in camp at the dining hall, after which students switch to their cabin instructor, who teaches night classes, hosts evening programs like snakes and line dancing, and makes sure certain essential demands (showering, sleeping, etc.) are met. After a night's sleep in a heated cabin, students are up and ready for breakfast and the next day. Students are supervised 100% of the time, and our program is purposefully designed to keep students busy and occupied the entire time they are here with us.

Your next step is to take some time and thoroughly explore all of this website. After this, it's time to start in on the details: we encourage you to use every part of the Teacher's Guide, which has all of the information and details you need to start planning your trip. Be sure to check out the Cabin and the Field. We've done our best to give you a good picture of everything we do up at High Trails, so that you can be confident your students are in for a great experience. There is only one thing that you will not be able to find on this website: personal contact and support. As you have questions or thoughts, big or small, please let us know how we can help you give your students the time of their lives