The NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Mesa Laboratory sits on a mesa above Boulder in an I.M. Pei-designed building, and its visitor center is free: weather and climate exhibits, a public guided tour every weekday at noon (no reservation needed for individuals or groups), free parking with ADA spaces, and trails that start right at the building. It is open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends and holidays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., 363 days a year.
For homeschoolers, NCAR’s education team offers free custom PreK-12 field trips and tours Monday through Friday, so a co-op can book a program built around weather, climate or the science of the lab itself, then hike the mesa trails afterward.
Lesson hooks
- Earth science: how weather forms, how climate is measured, what a supercomputer does.
- Architecture: why Pei’s building is modeled on cliff dwellings and colored to match the Flatirons.
- PE: the Walter Orr Roberts weather trail and NCAR trailhead connect to Boulder’s open space.
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