The last week of October I worked as a guide in the Grand Gulch canyons of Utah. My group and I embarked on a 4 day backpacking trip from Bullet Canyon to Sheiks Canyon.
Our trip through the canyon passed through incredible desert eco-zones, and the dwellings of ancient Anasazi, or the Basket Weavers. We visited The Perfect Kiva, Jailhouse Ruins, Green Mask Springs, and many unnamed primitive ruins along the way.
Working with a group of highschoolers on a traveling semester, our classroom was place-based and I taught the students about Cryptobiotic Soil, conservation of the canyonlands, and we herped along the way.
Eeyore & the Crypto Crust
Desert Spiny Lizards
Eeyore was heavily involved in the classroom. We studied pictographs (painted on rock) and petroglyphs (pecked into rocks) of the Anasazi, and explored their ancient dwellings. To the right, Eeyore is pictured with pictographs above the Jailhouse Ruins.
Pictured below, the students engage in a literature lesson in the middle of a wash in Bullet Canyon.
Hiking the canyons brought lots of rock scrambles, pack-passing, tough climbs, and humbling views the entire time. Sheiks canyon brought an extra punch, where we spent an entire day pack-passing through a boulder field.
The terrain was tough, but so were the students, and we learned lots along the way.
Place-based biology education combined with guiding is a career path for myself that fills my cup. There is no better place to learn and teach conservation biology than the backcountry.
The students and I shared the night skies, meals, support through their first wag-bag experience, trail games, and a love for the outdoors.
