Drala Mountain Center

In May 2021, Governor Jared Polis, Senator Michael Bennet, Congressman Joe Neguse and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sat on a hillside on the north side of a Colorado property and talked about forestry. The land was Drala Mountain Center, six hundred acres near Red Feather Lakes. The subject was what its conservation work had done when the Cameron Peak Fire came over the ridge in 2020.

In a letter to staff, land steward Mac McGoldrick described how firefighters first fell back from the heat, then realized the fire was heading into the center's treated areas and contained it there. The Colorado State Forest Service director, he wrote, took his hat off in salute. The center had completed a forestry project in 2018, and in 2019 it received the Larimer County Land Stewardship Award. The work continues under a Land Steward, with regional conservation partners.

The land's spiritual life came first. Chögyam Trungpa (1939-1987), trained in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages and in North America after his 1959 escape from Tibet, founded the center in 1971. Visiting teachers over the decades have included the 14th Dalai Lama, the 16th Karmapa and Pema Chödrön. The center carries forward his secular Shambhala teachings alongside Buddhist and other wisdom traditions.

Today it is an educational nonprofit, with over 100 year-round offerings in meditation, yoga, mindful living, contemplative arts and eco-dharma. The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya draws day visitors from 9 AM to sunset daily. Lodging runs from lodge rooms to seasonal platform tents on wooded hillsides, with meals included. Group spaces hold workshops of 35 to 150, and the center's silent retreats were the subject of a 2025 Washington Post piece.