Summer Camps

The Aspen Center for Physics provides families with an extensive list of camps in Aspen, Snowmass, and the Roaring Fork Valley. A wide variety of opportunities are available – creative, athletic, scientific, etc. – including programs for children with special needs.

Typically, camps are much more limited during May, and only begin to ramp up in June. It is best to register your children for camp as soon as you are accepted to the program, as they do fill up quickly! (We update the list each year in February.)

Many physicists have commented positively about Ajax Adventure Camp, Camp Aspen Snowmass, ACES camp, and the Aspen Rec Center Camp. Theatre Aspen camp is also great, and there are some camps at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village. If you know you will be registering for a camp in Snowmass, you may request housing in Snowmass Village in advance as well! Please note, some camps are only accessible by car.

For accepted physicists: please email emily@aspenphys.org for the most updated camp list for 2024.

“I was among a small group of researchers housed at Snowmass this year, and I also very much enjoyed that. I attended the workshop with my daughter (6 y.o.) and for 2/3 of my stay was her only guardian (my wife came out for a ~week of vacation, but otherwise had to work back at home in New York). For someone like me, Snowmass was fantastic. The drawbacks (~45-minute commute to ACP via bus, or ~30-minute commute via car with lots of stuck-in-traffic) are more than outweighed by the advantages for someone with a camp-aged child: our daughter attended Camp Snowmass and loved it — she did rocket camp, hiking camp, fishing camp, took tours of some of the valley museums, etc. And her favorite part of the day (mine too!) was walking down the “hill” from our condo to camp (about 15-20 minutes, maybe 1 mile, depositing her at camp and me at the bus station). In the evenings we explored the mountain (hiking and biking trails just outside our condo), swam in the condo pool or the Snowmass rec center (10 minutes away by bus), etc.”

– Will Farr