Location and Environment

The peaceful natural beauty of Orme's environment is an important asset of our educational programs. The open country around the School offers great physical freedom and is an ideal outdoor laboratory for geology, biology, ecology, archeology, and outdoor pursuits, while the dark night sky makes astronomy come alive.

The campus itself occupies half a square mile (125 hectares) near the geographic center of Arizona. It has tall trees, green lawns, flowery gardens, and historic nineteenth-century ranch buildings. The School is surrounded by hundreds of square miles of public land (Prescott National Forest), with broad, uncluttered vistas of distant mesas and mountains. Students may walk, mountain bike, or horseback ride for hours in any direction. An elevation of 4000 feet (1200 meters) makes the climate ideal, with just a bit of snow in the winter and without the intense heat of the lowland deserts of southern Arizona. The surrounding lands support native shrub grassland, juniper-piñon woodland, and chaparral. Small permanent streams near the campus create ribbons of riparian green. Wildlife is abundant and includes deer, pronghorn (antelope), coyotes, javelina, bobcats, foxes, hawks, hummingbirds, and migratory birds such as great blue herons, great egrets, Canadian geese, and ducks, along with an occasional bald eagle, black bear, mountain lion, and many smaller mammals, birds, and reptiles.

Urban centers

And yet, Orme is not isolated. The bustling metropolis of Phoenix, and the charming towns of Prescott, Sedona, and Flagstaff are close enough that some students commute to school daily. They provide regular cultural and recreational opportunities.