And so the adventure begins...

The Wellness Center Gets Students Immersed in the Outdoors

One of the many facets of the Wellness Center at CU Denver is to provide students with outdoor excursions through Adventure Trips. After wrapping up the summer sessions, the members in the Adventure branch have already posted a schedule of the fall semester expeditions that encourage students to gear up and experience the wilderness.

The Lynx Hike that the facility offers will take place on Aug. 31 and Sept. 7. New students will learn how to use their RTD pass that is included with tuition by taking a bus to Boulder and camping in the Flatirons area. This trip will consist of camping overnight and hiking the next morning while allowing freshmen to build a community early on in the semester for $10.

Marissa Frost, the program manager and President of the Transfer Student Organization, spoke to what trips like the Lynx Hike can do for students. “What’s nice about Outdoor Adventure is everyone is friendly and it’s a great way to meet friends.” As a transfer student herself who has gone on these trips, Frost said, “I got to meet people with similar interests and other transfers.”

Slightly later in September, there will be a longer trip for $80 through the Rocky Mountain National Park, totaling three days. Students will have the opportunity from Sept. 20 to 22 to hike 12 miles through the terrain.

The last trip in September is one that is making its debut this school year. For $15 avid photographers will be able to take a day hike on Sept. 28 to learn about how to capture landscapes.

Before students head home to stuff themselves with turkey, they can join the Thanksgiving Hiking Series from Nov. 23 to 26. The set price of $80 will grant students access to as little or as many hikes as they want over the course of four days. The guides will leave campus each morning at 8 a.m. to go hiking and snowshoeing before returning home for the night and repeating the next day.

“My main goal with this program is to provide opportunities for people to get outside with limited barriers,” Austin Dyer, the Outdoor Adventure Coordinator, said. “I want to show the CU Denver community how to operate in the wilderness in proper and fun ways.”

Peter Waller, an Outdoor Adventure employee and CU Denver’s Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President, expanded on Dyer’s goal. “The most important piece is that a lot of students don’t come from communities with easy access to outdoor recreational activities. They come from suburbs like me or from Denver. They work or don’t have time to plan,” Waller said as he opened up the climbing wall. “With this, there’s no planning. You just go. [These trips] are really impactful.”

A common thread between the employees is they all value keeping the prices of trips reasonable for students to give equal opportunity.

If an Adventure Trip is not of interest, the Wellness Center still offers workshops within the Adventure department that range from free to $25 and other amenities among the program areas: the rental shop, the hike shop, and the rock wall that cater to all students.

Wellness and Recreation Adventure Trips
Adventure Center on the first floor of the Wellness Center
Monday – Thursday 3 – 7 p.m.
Friday 3 – 6 p.m.
www1.ucdenver.edu/wellness/adventure/adventure-trips