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It’s the perfect day to explore the Valley Floor. The sky is bright blue, the sun is warm, and the wind tussles the trees and grass.

“Who do you think owns the Valley Floor?” asked Sarah Holbrooke, executive director of the Pinhead Institute.

“You?” replied a group of children.

“We all do, because the Town of Telluride bought the Valley Floor so nothing would be built on it. It would remain natural,” Holbrooke said.

On Monday, kindergarteners through second graders tromped through the Valley Floor as part of the annual Valley Floor Education Day.

“There are five different stations that you’ll be at today,” Holbrooke said. “The first one is the pond, where you’ll learn about all the weird things that live in the pond. The second station is the river, so you’re going to learn a little bit about water flow and what lives in the river. The third station is snack!”

Station four is the forest station, and station five is the willow station.

The Pinhead Institute — a local STEM education nonprofit — hosts the day in collaboration with Sheep Mountain Alliance, the San Miguel Watershed Coalition, EcoAction Partners, and the Telluride Historical Museum.

Trang Pham, program manager at the Pinhead Institute, said she hopes the day inspires young people to be curious and observant of the land they live on.

“A lot of times when the kids are just wandering, they might not know what they’re looking at,” Pham said. “So, to have experts to say ‘Oh, that’s a caddis fly you’re touching right now,’ to be able to understand the environment they see is great.”

Over at the pond station, students discussed the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates.

“My name is Banks and I’m in first grade,” said Banks Carter, who was out on the Valley Floor with his class.

He said his favorite part had been learning about the bugs.

“I got to see bugs and I got to learn about the ecosystem,” Carter said. “There’s a bunch of animals that live here and there’s a lot of animals that like the Valley Floor.”

For Carter’s father, Chris Carter, the hope is that spending time on the Valley Floor will help instill the importance of taking care of the natural world.

“I have three boys and one of the things I teach them that my job is, is to provide, protect, and prepare them for their future,” Chris Carter said. “When I think about what we need to do for the environment, we need to teach them to do the same. They need to be good providers, protectors, and prepare the environment — leave places better than they found them at all times.”

At the willow section, representatives from the Telluride Historical Museum spoke about the original stewards of the land.

“Native Americans, specifically the Ute people, were the people who lived on the Valley Floor and all around the region,” said Charlotte Lynch, with the Telluride Historical Museum.

Nestled back in the forest, Ruthie Boyd, program director for Sheep Mountain Alliance, said she hopes the day brings wonder and curiosity.

“I think it just fosters curiosity and care for the places they’re growing up,” Boyd said. “I can only hope it turns them into climate activists or environmentalists in whatever way that looks to them, and inspires joy and belonging of this home in Telluride.”

The Valley Floor is approximately 570 acres of land at the entrance of Telluride. It was placed in a conservation easement in 2009 to be permanently protected as open space.