Mountain Trail Outdoor School

Since 1991, Kanuga’s Mountain Trail Outdoor School (MTOS) has provided experiential outdoor education in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. Designed primarily for Grades 4-8, we welcome public and private schools as well as homeschool families for overnight field trips, typically staying two to five days. We tailor our program to fit the goals of individual groups, ranging from a science curriculum that meets state standards to team-building exercises and adventure-based programming.

Since 2007, MTOS has stewarded a 1-acre organic teaching garden, the Foster Educational Garden, where students groups, youth groups, community groups, and conference groups have participated in service work, and educational programming related to regenerative agriculture, organic gardening, sustainable growing practices and more. The garden space is used to grow food for the dinning hall at MTOS and for composting food waste on campus.

In September of 2024, the Foster Ed Garden was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene. We are rebuilding everything from scratch and rely on volunteers for the restoration work to continue.