Bridging the gap between nature and the classroom John Knox Ranch provides a uniquely appropriate setting for environmental education. Our outdoor classrooms include 4 nature trails, fossil beds, and an artesian spring fed blue hole that is 30 feet deep and surrounded by limestone cliffs. Cliffs for rappelling and rock climbing line Carper's Creek which winds it's way through Pecan, Cypress, and Walnut trees. The ranch is bordered by the Blanco River whose banks support native and endangered grasses and wildflowers. John Knox also has a low and high challenge ropes course, a swimming pool, and sports fields. Other activities include canoeing, arts and crafts, archery, hay rides, and a 100' slide into Blue Hole.

Students learn the most when they can connect classroom theory to the world around them. John Knox Ranch provides a setting where classes come alive as students see, touch, hear, smell, and even taste the natural environment around them.

All of the programs at John Knox Ranch are based on experimental learning as children and youth learn by doing. They collect wildflowers and grass seeds, listen to crickets and frogs, watch the stars at night, and uncover 105 million year old fossils. Students learn to work together and gain awareness of the complexity of the natural world. Some of the classes we offer include:

• Amphibian and Reptile Studies
• Nature Discovery
• Conservation
• Work Projects
• Field Botany
• Map and Compass Orienteering
• Tree Studies
• Range Stewardship
• Wildlife Management
• Ornithology
• Deer Populations
• Animal tracking
• Fresh Water and Spring Ecology
• Creatures of the Night
• Star Gazing