Drala Mountain Center

Another field trip today, which was mostly spent on the bus...lol. We drove about an hour and 20 minutes down to Colorado. Tucked away up in the foothills is a retreat and Buddhist stupa. The kids have been studying Asia this year and so a trip to see the stupa became a reality. It was about a mile hike to get to the stupa. Inside was a giant golden Buddha. I didn't take any photos inside not knowing the protocol but I see on their website that they have a picture of it.
There were cushions inside and the kids went in class by class and just sat in silence for ten minutes or so. They all did so good. There was LOTS of pre-teaching about being respectful and quiet when inside. Everyone had to remove their shoes. It was just stunning inside.
The center holds retreats for all sorts of different organizations. But it's pretty wild to find this place out in the mountains. It is 600 acres  and at 7500 feet. So actually just a little higher in elevation than Laramie. There was a bad fire several years ago that burned a lot of the hillsides, but the buildings were saved luckily.
The bus trip home was really stressful. There was a long way on a slippery dirt road and once we got to the highway the wind was ferocious. It was really blowing the bus around. I was so glad to get back to Laramie.