Registration for our 2022 Summer Exploration Camps is right around the corner! We have more than 100 week-long day camps available for completed grades K4 through 9th.

Do you have a passion to support the purpose, vision, and mission of Roper Mountain? Would you be dedicated to working toward that through fundraising, advocacy, and volunteering? Each year, the Roper Mountain Science Center Association seeks members and adult volunteers to join our Board. If you are interested in serving as a Board member, please contact us via email for more information.

Disney's FROZEN, The Hit Broadway Musical, premieres in Greenville at Peace Center April 6 - 17, 2022. We've partnered with the show to offer you the chance to win four tickets to one of the shows starting March 15! You can win tickets through Roper Mountain's social media accounts, or onsite during Afternoon Explorations and Friday Starry Nights between March 15 and April 15. Tickets also available now at PeaceCenter.org.

Science on Wheels will be premiering a new public program called “Coastal Critters” in June. This program will focus on animals that live along the South Carolina Coastline and will correspond with the national library summer reading program “Oceans of Possibilities”. As dates continue to add, check with your local branch for a program near you. Booked programs to-date include:

…that South Carolina has a rainforest? Some of our mountain areas – like Lake Jocassee Gorge and Jones Gap State Park – receive up to 80 inches of rain or more a year, making them a temperate rainforest. These mountain areas are the only temperate rainforests east of the Rockies. The abundant rainfall is due to the moist air that cools with the sudden rise in elevation. Like tropical rainforests, our mountains are rich in biodiversity, even having colorful tropical rainforest birds that summer here.

Neotropical migratory birds are those that winter in Central and South America and migrate thousands of miles north in the summer, like to our higher mountains. In our southern mountains, food is more abundant and habitat is greater during the summer than in their dry-season rainforest habitats. On a recent December trip to the rainforests of Costa Rica, I saw a Wood Thrush, Swainson’s Thrush and a Common Nighthawk, all birds that I see here in South Carolina in the summer. Our guide mentioned that our longer summer daylight hours and fewer predators are also factors that aid in their breeding success.

In the winter of February, it’s hard to imagine our southern mountains as temperate rainforests. As spring nears though, these rainy, evergreen mountain forests will begin to fill with sounds and colors of arriving tropical rainforest birds. The forests of Roper Mountain serve as a stop-over or rest stop for many of these neotropical birds and some – like the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird – even spend their summers here. Find out more about our temperate rainforests by visiting during our Afternoon Explorations.