An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
Official websites use .gov A
.gov website belongs to an official government
organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A
lock (
) or https:// means you've safely connected to
the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official,
secure websites.
Small group sizes offer more personalized learning experiences.
NPS Photo
Colorado National Monument offers ranger-led field trips Tuesdays through Thursdays during the schoolyear (external link to Microsoft Bookings). Field trip experiences typically start at 10am and conclude by 1:30pm Mountain Time, meeting at Devils Kitchen Picnic Area. There is a half-hour lunch break around 11:45am.
If your school group is planning on camping at Saddlehorn Campground, please email the campground staff at COLM_Campground@nps.gov to let them know. They will assist with campsite reservations and try to help make sure your group can camp in adjacent sites!
Planning a Ranger-Led Field Trip to the Monument
Choose a program (below) that fits your classroom's needs.
This is available as an online form or as a fillable PDF (256 KB PDF, complete Sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 and email it to COLM_Education_Fee_Waivers@nps.gov). After you have sent in this form, a ranger can reply with a confirmation of your field trip and schedule a pre-visit and post-visit with your students. This form needs to be completed at least four weeks prior to your requested date in order for staff to process the high volume of requests we receive. If we do not receive these details about your group two weeks before your requested date, the ranger-led field trip will be canceled and you will be notified. An alternative date might be possible but is not guaranteed.
Things to Consider:
We can accommodate groups of up to 75 students.
Please maintain a ratio of close to 10:1 students to adults, including chaperones and teachers.
A maximum of five personal vehicles, in addition to the school buses, will be allowed entry with a school group per academic fee waiver. Additional vehicles (six or more personal/chaperone vehicles) will be charged standard entry fees.This decision is to ensure adequate parking space for other monument visitors.
Accommodations might be available for any students or adults in your group with accessibility needs. Please let us know so that we can prepare and try to provide for you.
Programs may be canceled due to inclement weather. In the case of a weather cancellation, we will contact you to discuss rescheduling options. If you are concerned about the weather conditions, please call us at 970-858-2835. Programs may be rescheduled to a later date; however, we cannot guarantee a reschedule date.
Semester Availability
School program field trips are offered during the following windows of time:
Fall Semester: Labor Day until Thanksgiving Day
Spring Semester: First Day of Spring until Memorial Day Weekend
Upon request, rangers might also be available for classroom visits or distance learning programs including outside the above time frames.
Bus Funding Available
Our non-profit cooperating association partner, Colorado National Monument Association, received a $5,000 grant from National Park Trust, in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, to connect our community's elementary school-aged learners with local parks, public lands, and waters through the Every Kid Outdoors Small Grants Program. If your elementary classroom needs funding assistance to pay for transportation to the monument for a field trip, please send us a message and ask about bus funding. We're so grateful to our partners for this opportunity to more equitably serve the Grand Valley's learners!
Pre-Visits and Post-Visits
After scheduling a field trip, a ranger will contact you to schedule a pre-visit and post-visit for your group. Pre-visits prepare learners for what to expect on the field trip and get to know the rangers who will be leading them in the monument. Post-visits review the field trip experience to reinforce the learning and apply skills to one final capstone challenge.
At the bottom of this page is a two-minute video you can show your learners about what to bring to prepare them for the adventure.
Colorado National Monument’s Canyon Education Series
Learners will dig into deeper levels of knowledge as they attend the monument’s field trips throughout grade school. Park rangers facilitate activities that are place-based, student-centered, and experiential in nature. All activities occur outdoors, though there is an open picnic shelter that offers shade for some activities throughout the day.
In Earth Science,
learners start in second grade with how wind and water change the surface of the land,
look more deeply into erosive forces and uncover fossils in fourth grade,
dig into rock types and the rock cycle in fifth grade,
and in middle school reach foundational understandings about rock formations and layers.
In Life Science,
learners start in kindergarten and first grade exploring parts of animals and plants to understand basic survival needs;
learn how the environment affects adaptations in third grade;
and in fourth grade delve into structure, function, and interdependence.
Our programs are designed to:
complement and expand upon what students learn in the classroom,
align with our local school district’s pacing guide,
and meet Colorado Grade Level Expectations and Next Generation Science Standards.
Field Trip Options
Rangers facilitate observation skills to help students make direct connections with the monument.
NPS Photo
Canyon Life Survival
Kindergarten & 1st Grade Life Science
Summary: Learners engage their natural curiosity and sense of adventure on a small scale through a guided scavenger hunt, a storytime activity, playing a camouflage game, acting as local animals, and dancing out the parts of plants.
Disciplinary Core Ideas: LS1.A, LS1.C, LS2.A
Topics in this Program: Animal Characteristics, Parts of a Plant, Survival Needs, Explorer Skills, Using Senses
Essential Question: What can our senses help us understand about animal and plant survival needs?
Rangers guide multisensory scavenger hunts where students engage with a variety of natural wonders.
NPS Photo
Canyon Rock Changes
2nd Grade Earth Science
Summary: Learners explore weather and its effects on landforms, including how to identify evidence of fast or slow weathering and erosion, connecting these big ideas to the immediate landscape.
Topics in this Program: Weather, Weathering & Erosion, Fast & Slow Changes, Landforms (river, mesa, canyon, valley)
Essential Question: In what ways does weather affect the surface of the land?
Rangers facilitate student games that help them model and better understand real-world phenomena.
NPS Photo
Canyon Life Adaptations
3rd Grade Life Science
Summary: Learners consider the unique challenges of surviving the high desert environment, explore how different plants and animals have inherited traits that help them adapt to these conditions, and make the connection that these are just unique adaptations of universal survival needs.
Topics in this Program: High Desert Adaptations, Traits, Surviving Change, Habitats
Essential Question: What can the high desert environment reveal to us about adaptation and survival traits?
Rangers guide short hikes for students to get first-hand experience with the geology and ecosystems of the monument.
NPS Photo
Canyon Organisms & Land Movements (Every Kid Outdoors)
4th Grade Earth & Life Science
Note: Fourth grade students are eligible for the free Every Kid Outdoors public lands pass. This field trip offers one way for students to obtain these free passes to access public lands, including national parks like Colorado National Monument.
Summary: Learners investigate the interdependent roles of five ecosystem components (Plants, Animals, Geology, Water, and Humans) and connect to their own place in this system.
Topics in this Program: Interdependence; Fossils; Structure & Function; Weathering, Erosion, & Deposition; Force, Energy, & Motion
Essential Question: In what ways do living and non-living things affect each other in Colorado National Monument ecosystems?
Rangers facilitate construction of landscape models in the sand for students to test hypotheses about different erosion types.
NPS Photo
Canyon Rock Systems
5th Grade Earth Science
Summary: Learners construct and analyze models of landscape changes, observe and ask questions about sedimentary rock structures and geologic features along a hike, participate in a rock cycle game, and actively model igneous rock formation, making the connection that rocks are always in a state of change.
Topics in this Program: Erosion & Natural Disasters, Rock Cycle, Rock Types (Sedimentary, Metamorphic, Igneous)
Essential Question: In what ways does the rock cycle shape the landscape of the Grand Valley?
Rangers help students apply concrete, observable evidence to broad earth science concepts through activities requiring dialogue and critical thinking.
NPS Photo
Canyon Rock Foundations
Middle School Earth Science
Summary: Learners explore why rocks form layers, investigate how they’re arranged across a landscape, navigate the rock cycle’s role, and start to comprehend deep time, connecting these big ideas to their in-person experience of the monument’s landscapes and features.
Topics in this Program: Stratigraphy (Rock Layers & Columns), Maps (Topographic & Geologic), Rock Cycle, Geologic Time, Roles of Water, Design & Refine Models
Essential Questions: What evidence in the landscape is there for large-scale systems working to shape Earth’s surface? In what ways can we better understand these systems?
Rangers help students explore their curiosity about the natural world around them.
NPS Photo
Single-Classroom Custom Ranger-Led Program
Summary: This customized program option is available for groups smaller than 20 students. Email COLM_Education@nps.gov with your educational needs, and we’ll do our best to accommodate based on availability and staffing.
