Wild Rockies Field Institute: Colorado & Montana

WRFI promotes rigorous interdisciplinary, holistic learning through a diversity of readings, discussions and experiences. We do not separate and compartmentalize course content as is done on most university campuses. Instead, course content and subject matter are taught concurrently. The result is an authentic representation of the complexity present in issues faced by the ecosystems and human communities we visit.
It’s not all cerebral, either. WRFI courses are a sensory experience, all taught while traveling under our own power – backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, and cycling – in rural and wilderness settings from Montana to the Canadian Rockies and the American Southwest. Depending on the course, students might bike 700 miles across Montana or hike in the footsteps of Yellowstone’s grizzlies. Students sleep in tents, beneath the stars and in the wind; there are no cushy field stations or dormitories—which means developing outdoor and leadership skills is part of the program too.