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By Eliot Hawkes 

Over my years at Colorado State University I have experienced many firsts. One of the many was experiencing the Mountain Campus in Pingree Park at the Fall Hall Retreat. My beginning weekend started off with a sunrise hike and eating breakfast with some peculiar moose, which became a usual thing. The weekend went by quickly, packed with identity beads and other team-bonding activities, icebreakers, oh, so many ice-breakers, hikes, and very little sleep. After my first visit I fell in love with the open space and natural beauty at the Campus.  Many CSU students share another Mountain Campus experience, specifically those within the Warner College of Natural Resources: a month-long summer course called NR (natural resources) 220. This is a 5-credit course composed of lecture time inside and a lot of outdoor field experience all around Mountain Campus. 

I couldn’t keep myself away from the mountains so decided to live and work for the dining services for a summer at the Mountain Campus preceding my sophomore year. This incredible experience was quite different from my first trip during Fall Hall at the beginning of my freshman year. During this summer, I made friends who are now in my absolute closest circle, I hiked mountains and saw wildlife my twelve-year old self wouldn’t believe, and I felt fuller and happier than maybe any other time in my life.

This time was so special to me then, and probably even more special to me now, a year and some odd weeks later. I know that not everyone loves the outdoors, not many are natural resource students, and even fewer would choose three months of waking up at 5am, five days a week, to serve scrambled eggs and breakfast potatoes to a bunch of hippies, but I believe there is a place for everyone at Mountain Campus. If there’s an outlying case, there are multiple people who are present and willing to do everything they can to make it work, because a place as special as CSU Mountain Campus is a place worth sharing.