Join the Campaign to Acquire and Renovate Ilfeld High Mountain Lodge

Ilfeld High Mountain Lodge is a Nature Healing Center for Youths

Since our founding in 2006, we have served over 30,000 diverse youth from across Northern California through our multi-day Sierra Experience programs and Natural High Retreats, combining environmental literacy with social-emotional learning and mountain adventures.

Requests for our multi-day programs, particularly those serving young people with higher needs, have dramatically increased. Our effort to rent lodging space from others has become more expensive and difficult to come by as many youth serving organizations are no longer willing to share space with outside groups.

Located on Donner Summit, at an elevation of over 7,200 feet, is Ilfeld High Mountain Lodge, a beautiful and historic 100-year-old stone lodge situated on 23 acres of spectacular high conservation value land.

Video Tour of Ilfeld High Mountain Lodge

The Opportunity

Gateway Mountain Center has an exclusive opportunity to purchase this 5,800 square-foot lodge and a three-bedroom, two-bathroom staff house. Creating a permanent home for our nature-based Sierra Experience adventure programming and a basecamp for our proprietary Natural High Retreats. Once renovated, High Mountain Lodge will be one of a handful of fully wheelchair accessible ADA-compliant lodges in the Northern Sierra.

The good news is that we are nearly three-quarters of the way to fully funding the total costs of making this nature healing center a reality. The California Department of Health Care Services has awarded Gateway Mountain Center $1.8 million toward the purchase and renovation of Ilfeld High Mountain Lodge and we have received awards totalling $190,000 from the Truckee Tahoe Airport District. With the recent generous gift of $1.1 million from Fred and Barbara Ilfeld to retire the mortgage, what remains is the need for approximately $500,000 in additional funding for necessary renovations and upgrades.

Join Us

We believe this is a special opportunity to come together to create a legacy of healing for our young people, who will inherit and ultimately lead our increasingly uncertain world, and invite you to join us in raising the remaining funds needed to renovate and upgrade this amazing property. To learn more, contact Kate Frankfurt, Director of Philanthropy, at kate@sierraexperience.org