Night Connection Overnight

Explore the power and mystery of the night!

Learn and practice nature connection skills beyond the realm of day in this unique weekend camping experience. Learn the patterns of the night sky, move like a nocturnal critter, play with your non-dominant senses, and tend to your personal relationship with darkness and light. Learn in workshops and games throughout the day, step intentionally together into the night, sleep out on the land, and spend the morning recounting stories and reflecting.

Over this 23-hour course, you will:

• Learn and practice core routines of nature connection
• Learn stargazing, astronomy, and sky navigation basics with a simulated sky (and the real sky, depending on weather conditions)
• Mindfully experience the phases of twilight, and move confidently through the dark woods with games and challenges
• Practice techniques to calm your nervous system and work through your fears in the dark. 
• Share songs, stories, and cooking out around the campfire
• Sleep in the trees or under the stars
• Create a candle to take home with you
• And more!

Program Logistics

Class takes place on our 40-acre property outside of Duvall, WA. It will go from 12 PM (noon) Saturday afternoon to 11 AM Sunday morning. No meals are provided, so participants must bring Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast. 

All participants are highly encouraged to camp Saturday night on our campus, and may tent, hammock, tarp, or ‘cowboy camp’ in our forest, our field, around the campfire, or in their vehicles. While sleeping on the land is not mandatory, participants leaving campus risk missing late-night and early-morning activities. Potable water and porta-potty access are provided. 

More details are provided on our Program Details page.

Meet Your Core Instructor:
Natalie Copeland

Natalie is the leader and founder of Night Club, and is also the Summer and Adult Program Coordinator at WAS. She is devoted to blending art, science, nature, and play to lead people to their highest passion, wonder, and curiosity. After earning her BFA in Musical Theatre at Central Washington University, Natalie joined the Education team at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, where she spent 7 years specializing in traveling planetarium shows, museum theatre, outreach, and cultural astronomy. A former Solar System Ambassador, she continues to teach with the Seattle Astronomical Society and her own company, The Sky Connection. She is currently working on her MA in Cultural Astronomy at the Sophia Centre for Study of Cosmology in Culture (UWTSD). 

Most of all she loves wandering the wilds with people who marvel at the same things she does – animal tracks, native plants, bird calls – and sharing curiosity about all we find.