Thank you for a wonderful summer!

With the fall equinox coming up this weekend, we are reflecting on one of our best summers yet. ACES is proud to provide opportunities to be curious about and connected with nature, and involved with this incredible community we are lucky to call ours!

From observing a moose wading in Hallam Lake and learning about plants in the high alpine, to delicious farm to table meals and inspiring speakers, we hope you enjoyed the busy summer season as much as we did.

This summer, we hosted 2,827 people at our events including but not limited to Raptor Fair, Scott Weidensaul's Jessica Catto Dialogue, Elizabeth Kolbert’s William A. Nitze Community Lecture, and Dr. Jane Goodall’s Community Youth Lecture and school visits.

ACES summer programs—summer camps, bird of prey demonstrations, free Naturalist-guided hikes, nature journaling, birding, and more—got over 4,370 people of all ages outside exploring the natural world!

We provided nearly $18,000 in scholarship money for camps, and our Educator-in-Training high school volunteers conducted over 840 hrs of volunteer time.

View summer 2023 photo highlights here

If there are particular photos you would like to save, please email Marketing Manager, [email protected], for access.

Photos courtesy of ACES staff, Anna Stonehouse, Kelsey Brunner, Eli Stoken, and Mary Sue Bonetti.

We had some incredible partnerships this summer with the Aspen Art Museum, The Art Base, City of Glenwood Springs, Red Brick Center for the Arts, Forest Conservancy, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, Aspen Snowmass, and the United States Forest Service.

Thank you to each and every one of you who joined us for a class, camp, event, program, or tour.

We hope to see more of you this fall!

“The things [our children] learn and experience [at ACES] are not something we could provide for our children on our own, or experience anywhere else. We travel to Colorado for this experience and we know these experiences will be something our children will never forget and something they will carry with them throughout their lives.”