Little has changed of the earth-covered Hobbit-esque building that houses the Wildwood School—nestled on 10 acres of US Forest Service land east of Aspen—since its founding 50 years ago. Sure, there’s no longer an open fireplace to cook lunch. Also gone or decommissioned are the root cellar, indoor circulating waterfall and pond, and—most memorably—the Clivus, an early composting toilet that kids either feared or were fascinated by (to encourage them to maneuver into a good position, boys were told there were special frogs in its depths that loved to be peed on), and whose odor spurred its replacement with flush toilets in the early 2000s.

Otherwise, the natural sensory wonderland of this environmental preschool remains intact. Wildwood founder Bob Lewis intentionally designed the building with “rounded and soft earth-like textures and lines, the sun shining through the skylights and rain pounding on them,” says former Wildwood teacher and director Becky Helmus, who retired after 39 years on staff.

Two “domes,” one for each age group, offer several cozy, child-size nooks, where students can retreat to or simply play. In the younger dome are sensory nooks, meant to allow toddlers (starting at two-and-a-half) to learn about themselves using eyes, ears, and hands. The older dome, for preschoolers, features different environments, including realistically painted desert, forest, and ocean nooks.
Outside is as much a part of the school as inside, if not more. Wildwood students spend half their day outside year-round. There are two playgrounds (one extends up the school’s earthen roof), a grow dome where children plant, tend, and harvest, and wild spaces where manmade toys are forbidden and kids use imagination to play at outdoor living. Students slide down the snow-covered roof in the winter and use snowshoes, strider bikes, and their own feet to explore the surrounding woods, meadows, and riverbank. Wildlife sightings—including deer, coyotes, and moose—are frequent and incorporated into the learning.

An environmentalist, scientist, and high school biology teacher, Lewis started Wildwood after realizing his students were not connected to nature. His idea, according to Helmus and current Wildwood Director Tina Person, was to encourage relationships with nature at a young age, through discovery and curiosity. Feeling comfortable and connected with the natural world would then lay a lifetime foundation of environmental ethics, respect, and activism. 

There’s a Wildwood alumnus on the US Ski Team and another who founded and operates the Farm Collaborative, a local nonprofit regenerative agriculture farm that focuses on education, nature connection, and collaboration for systemic change. But even for those who are not in an environmental or outdoors-related field, the Wildwood experience has effected how they live, raise their own children, and influence their communities.

“It’s easy when you have these surroundings,” says Person. “That’s why we’ve kept our focus.”