diff --git a/lib/vagrant.rb b/lib/vagrant.rb
index 958992cc6..ea2268090 100644
--- a/lib/vagrant.rb
+++ b/lib/vagrant.rb
@@ -8,11 +8,13 @@ module Vagrant
   # TODO: Move more classes over to the autoload model. We'll
   # start small, but slowly move everything over.
 
-  autoload :CLI,       'vagrant/cli'
-  autoload :Config,    'vagrant/config'
-  autoload :DataStore, 'vagrant/data_store'
-  autoload :Errors,    'vagrant/errors'
-  autoload :Util,      'vagrant/util'
+  autoload :Box,           'vagrant/box'
+  autoload :BoxCollection, 'vagrant/box_collection'
+  autoload :CLI,           'vagrant/cli'
+  autoload :Config,        'vagrant/config'
+  autoload :DataStore,     'vagrant/data_store'
+  autoload :Errors,        'vagrant/errors'
+  autoload :Util,          'vagrant/util'
 
   module Command
     autoload :Base,      'vagrant/command/base'
diff --git a/lib/vagrant/box_collection.rb b/lib/vagrant/box_collection.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2bd646eb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/vagrant/box_collection.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+module Vagrant
+  # Represents a collection of boxes, providing helpful methods for
+  # finding boxes.
+  class BoxCollection < Array
+    attr_reader :env
+
+    def initialize(env)
+      super()
+
+      @env = env
+      reload!
+    end
+
+    # Find a box in the collection by the given name. The name must
+    # be a string, for now.
+    def find(name)
+      each do |box|
+        return box if box.name == name
+      end
+
+      nil
+    end
+
+    # Loads the list of all boxes from the source. This modifies the
+    # current array.
+    def reload!
+      clear
+
+      Dir.open(env.boxes_path) do |dir|
+        dir.each do |d|
+          next if d == "." || d == ".." || !File.directory?(env.boxes_path.join(d))
+          self << Box.new(env, d)
+        end
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
+
diff --git a/lib/vagrant/environment.rb b/lib/vagrant/environment.rb
index 0c2c05a77..28f6b8d02 100644
--- a/lib/vagrant/environment.rb
+++ b/lib/vagrant/environment.rb
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ module Vagrant
     attr_reader :parent     # Parent environment (in the case of multi-VMs)
 
     attr_reader :cwd
-    attr_reader :box
     attr_accessor :vm
     attr_writer :ui
 
@@ -81,6 +80,17 @@ module Vagrant
       vm.name rescue "vagrant"
     end
 
+    # Returns the collection of boxes for the environment.
+    def boxes
+      return parent.boxes if parent
+      @_boxes ||= BoxCollection.new(self)
+    end
+
+    # Returns the box that this environment represents.
+    def box
+      boxes.find(config.vm.box)
+    end
+
     # Returns the VMs associated with this environment.
     def vms
       return parent.vms if parent
@@ -252,7 +262,6 @@ module Vagrant
         # After the first run we want to load the configuration again since
         # it can change due to box Vagrantfiles and home directory Vagrantfiles
         load_home_directory!
-        load_box!
         load_config!
       end
     end
@@ -273,11 +282,6 @@ module Vagrant
       end
     end
 
-    # Loads the specified box for this environment.
-    def load_box!
-      @box = Box.find(self, config.vm.box) if config.vm.box
-    end
-
     # Loads the persisted VM (if it exists) for this environment.
     def load_vm!
       # This environment represents a single sub VM. The VM is then
diff --git a/test/support/path.rb b/test/support/path.rb
index fa666d896..a84170456 100644
--- a/test/support/path.rb
+++ b/test/support/path.rb
@@ -26,7 +26,11 @@ module VagrantTestHelpers
     # Cleans all the test temp paths
     def clean_paths
       FileUtils.rm_rf(tmp_path)
-      FileUtils.mkdir_p(tmp_path)
+
+      # Call these methods only to rebuild the directories
+      tmp_path
+      home_path
+      boxes_path
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/test/vagrant/box_collection_test.rb b/test/vagrant/box_collection_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..67a9338ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/vagrant/box_collection_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+require "test_helper"
+
+class BoxCollectionTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
+  setup do
+    clean_paths
+
+    @klass = Vagrant::BoxCollection
+  end
+
+  should "load all the boxes from the box path" do
+    vagrant_box("foo")
+    vagrant_box("bar")
+
+    result = @klass.new(vagrant_env)
+    names = result.collect { |b| b.name }.sort
+    assert_equal 2, result.length
+    assert_equal ["bar", "foo"], names
+  end
+
+  should "reload the box list" do
+    instance = @klass.new(vagrant_env)
+    assert instance.empty?
+
+    vagrant_box("foo")
+
+    instance.reload!
+    assert !instance.empty?
+  end
+
+  should "find a specific box" do
+    vagrant_box("foo")
+    vagrant_box("bar")
+
+    instance = @klass.new(vagrant_env)
+    result = instance.find("foo")
+    assert result
+    assert_equal "foo", result.name
+  end
+
+  should "return nil if it couldn't find a specific box" do
+    instance = @klass.new(vagrant_env)
+    assert_nil instance.find("thisshouldnotexist")
+  end
+end
diff --git a/test/vagrant/environment_test.rb b/test/vagrant/environment_test.rb
index ddd75573a..4797a921f 100644
--- a/test/vagrant/environment_test.rb
+++ b/test/vagrant/environment_test.rb
@@ -285,6 +285,41 @@ class EnvironmentTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     end
   end
 
+  context "accessing the box collection" do
+    should "create a box collection representing the environment" do
+      env = vagrant_env
+      assert env.boxes.is_a?(Vagrant::BoxCollection)
+      assert_equal env, env.boxes.env
+    end
+
+    should "not load the environment if its already loaded" do
+      env = vagrant_env
+      env.expects(:load!).never
+      env.boxes
+    end
+
+    should "return the parent's box collection if it has one" do
+      env = vagrant_env(vagrantfile(<<-vf))
+        config.vm.define :web
+        config.vm.define :db
+      vf
+
+      assert env.vms[:web].env.boxes.equal?(env.boxes)
+    end
+  end
+
+  context "accessing the current box" do
+    should "return the box that is specified in the config" do
+      vagrant_box("foo")
+      env = vagrant_env(vagrantfile(<<-vf))
+        config.vm.box = "foo"
+      vf
+
+      assert env.box
+      assert_equal "foo", env.box.name
+    end
+  end
+
   context "accessing the VMs hash" do
     should "load the environment if its not already loaded" do
       env = @klass.new(:cwd => vagrantfile)
@@ -405,25 +440,6 @@ class EnvironmentTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
       end
     end
 
-    context "loading box" do
-      should "not load the box if its not set" do
-        env = vagrant_env
-        assert env.config.vm.box.nil?
-        Vagrant::Box.expects(:find).never
-        env.load_box!
-      end
-
-      should "set the box to what is found by the Box class" do
-        env = vagrant_env(vagrantfile("config.vm.box = 'foo'"))
-
-        @box = mock("box")
-        @box.stubs(:env=)
-        Vagrant::Box.expects(:find).with(env, env.config.vm.box).once.returns(@box)
-        env.load_box!
-        assert @box.equal?(env.box)
-      end
-    end
-
     context "loading the UUID out from the persisted dotfile" do
       setup do
         @env = vagrant_env