Our school's mission talks about developing in our students four distinct strengths: disciplined minds, sound character, healthy bodies and creative spirits. Our outdoor education program addresses all four of these aims. Experiential programs provide opportunities for individual strengths and weaknesses to come to the fore, allowing individuals and groups to appreciate meaningful differences among people. Experiential education can present unequalled opportunities for teachable moments and new insights into human relationships. It is about what happens inside people - the growth and development educators constantly encourage. In short, experiential educational programs provide opportunities for groups to get to know each other on a deeper level and work together with a focus on improving skills. We have built a widely recognized and highly respected outdoor education program over the past fifteen years.

• In sixth grade, students kayak and swim with the seals at Catalina Island Marine Institute's marine biology program.
• In seventh grade students study constellations at Idyllwild's AstroCamp.
• In the eighth grade students put all their belongings into canoes and paddle down the Colorado River, camping and cooking each night, learning about the ecology and environment of the West's most important water source.
• In the 9th grade students hike and do ropes training at a forest camp near Big Bear.
• In 10th grade students rock climb and learn about desert ecology in Joshua Tree National Park.
• Juniors camp and explore Yosemite National Park, finishing with a group hike to Upper Yosemite Falls.
• The seven-year program finishes with a flourish as seniors make up the crew of a Tall Ship, hoisting and setting the sails as they cruise around Catalina Island near the coves where they swam with the seals six years earlier.

RHP's outdoor education program intentionally takes students (and teachers too) out of their comfort zones. During the week we are removed from the noise of televisions, cell phones, and traffic and placed in situations where appreciation and understanding of nature, ecosystems, and environmental issues are brought to the fore. Cooperation and collaboration are not only encouraged but required for many of the activities.

Many students are outdoorsy types and just love every moment. Others prefer the indoors and don't mind saying so. In many ways the latter students benefit most from the program, because they are doing things they might never have done in their life and may never do again. It is these students who otherwise might have had a really hard time with unfamiliarity and independence during those first few weeks away at college, but now are more prepared to meet the challenges of living away from home, dealing with roommates, and cooking, eating, and cleaning on their own when that time comes.

Head of School Peter McCormack always chaperones the 8th grade trip down the Colorado River. He comments, " Much of what students learn on these trips prepares them for the non-academic challenges of being away from home when it's time to leave for college. I believe that a huge part of our graduates' success in college is down to their being prepared to work with others in unfamiliar surroundings during the outdoor ed weeks."