April Trips   

Download Full Itinerary

Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

Follow Diamond Creek Road as it winds through Peach Springs Canyon – the only road access to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Diamond Creek Road will take us down the canyon to the banks of the Colorado River. Along the way, we will stop to enjoy the views and learn about Hualapai history, cultures, and the geology and the natural history of the canyon. You will enjoy a picnic lunch with an optional walk the last mile to the Colorado River following a narrow canyon that crosses Diamond Creek. Includes driving on a bumpy and winding dirt road to the Colorado River.  Activity Rating: 1-2. 

 -Tuition includes transportation, Hualapai permits, box lunch and field instruction. Departs at 7:30AM from Prescott Campus.

*Chino Valley pickup available. 

View Refund/Cancellation Policy

 

Download Full Itinerary

Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

Follow Diamond Creek Road as it winds through Peach Springs Canyon – the only road access to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Diamond Creek Road will take us down the canyon to the banks of the Colorado River. Along the way, we will stop to enjoy the views and learn about Hualapai history, cultures, and the geology and the natural history of the canyon. You will enjoy a picnic lunch with an optional walk the last mile to the Colorado River following a narrow canyon that crosses Diamond Creek. Includes driving on a bumpy and winding dirt road to the Colorado River.  Activity Rating: 1-2. 

 -Tuition includes transportation, Hualapai permits, box lunch and field instruction. Departs at 7:30AM from Prescott Campus.

*Chino Valley pickup available. 

View Refund/Cancellation Policy

 

Download Full Itinerary

Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

Follow Diamond Creek Road as it winds through Peach Springs Canyon – the only road access to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Diamond Creek Road will take us down the canyon to the banks of the Colorado River. Along the way, we will stop to enjoy the views and learn about Hualapai history, cultures, and the geology and the natural history of the canyon. You will enjoy a picnic lunch with an optional walk the last mile to the Colorado River following a narrow canyon that crosses Diamond Creek. Includes driving on a bumpy and winding dirt road to the Colorado River.  Activity Rating: 1-2. 

 -Tuition includes transportation, Hualapai permits, box lunch and field instruction. Departs at 7:30AM from Prescott Campus.

*Chino Valley pickup available. 

View Refund/Cancellation Policy

 

Download Full Itinerary.

Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

Near the northern edge of the great field of volcanos that surrounds Williams and Flagstaff is an otherwise average cinder cone, about 1,000 feet tall, called Red Mountain. What makes this little mountain unique is how erosion has carved a spectacular amphitheater out of the heart of this extinct volcano, creating a magical landscape of cliffs, spires, and little slot canyons. While talking about the history and dynamics of the San Francisco Volcano Field, and the local ecosystems, we will hike into the heart of Red Mountain, enjoying our lunch inside the volcano.  After our main hike, we’ll travel back roads south to Parks, then west on Historic Route 66 to Keyhole Sink, hiking into this unusual feature with petroglyphs and a seasonal waterfall.  Hiking distance is about 4.5 miles, mostly on well-maintained trail; inside Red Mountain there’s some optional off-trail exploring. Activity Rating: Level 3.

Tuition includes ground transportation, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 8AM from Prescott campus.

*Chino valley pickup available.

View Refund/Cancellation Policy.

Download full itinerary.

Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

This road trip will take us out Thumb Butte Road, along the crest of the Sierra Prieta Mountains above Prescott, the setting for Gail Garner’s famous cowboy poem, “Tying the Knot in the Devil’s Tail”, then down through Copper Basin to Skull Valley for lunch.  We’ll then head over to Walnut Grove on the Hassayampa River, returning to Prescott via Highway 89. Along the way we’ll see incredible scenery, historic mining activity, the Skull Valley Historic Museum, the historic Hassayampa River Bridge, and the site of the Walnut Grove Dam.This dam failed in 1890, killing over 100 people and causing downstream devastation as far as Wickenburg. There will be a few short walks of up to a quarter mile, but no serious hiking. 

Activity Rating: 2

Tuition includes transportation, box lunch, museum fees and field instruction. Departs 8AM from Prescott Campus.

View Refund/Cancellation Policy.

Download Full Itinerary

Reserve at least two weeks in advance

In 1904 Frank Murphy, a renowned railroad builder, built a railroad that many believed was impossible.  This railroad ran from Mayer to the silver mines at Crown King over an unimaginably rugged landscape.  This railroad was so amazing that folks today come from all over the world to view its route.  While the railroad has been gone since 1924, its route is closely followed by a gravel road.  We’ll journey to Crown King, visiting old sites along the railroad route, and talking about the history of the area.  We’ll stop at the site of Bradshaw City, once with a population of 5,000, the Crown King Saloon, dating from 1898, the old Middleton town site, and the Cleator Yacht Club (not to be missed).  Lot’s of short easy walks, but a long bumpy road. Activity Rating: 1

Tuition includes transportation, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 8AM from Prescott Campus.

View Refund/Cancellation Policy

 

Download full itinerary.

Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

Perkinsville Depot.
 

This back road exploration will take you from Drake, just off Highway 89 north of Chino Valley, across to Perkinsville on the Verde River, then down to Woodchute Mountain.  There we encounter the grade of the old narrow gauge railroad that once connected Jerome with the railroad from Ash Fork to Phoenix near Chino Valley, site of the long-gone town of Jerome Junction.  We’ll follow the narrow gauge railbed to Jerome, then return to Prescott over the mountain.  Along the way we’ll talk about geology, natural history, the Verde River, the Perkins Ranch, the old railroad, and the mines of Jerome.  Lots of short walks but no serious hiking. Activity Rating: 2

Tuition includes ground transportation, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 8:30AM from Prescott Campus.

View Refund/Cancellation Policy.

Download full itinerary.
  Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

The middle section of the Hassayampa River, which drains the west side of the Bradshaw Mountains south of Prescott, is a beautiful, interesting, and little-visited area. We will spend a day exploring along the river (generally east of Wilhoit) including several short hikes totalling about three miles. One of the hikes has a short and rugged (and optional) scramble at the end. During the day we’ll explore a canyon narrows (with waterfall), historic hydraulic mining areas, prehistoric settlements along the river, and take a moderate hike (about 2 miles) into “The Bend” of the Hassayampa. Along the way we’ll talk about the archaeology, history, geology and ecology of the area. Activity Rating: 2 to 3.

Tuition includes transportation, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 8AM from Prescott Campus.

View Refund/Cancellation Policy.

Download Itinerary

This back road exploration will take you from Jerome along the old narrow gauge railroad bed that once led to Chino Valley (formerly known as Jerome Junction), then down to the Verde River at Perkinsville.  From there, we’ll head across to Drake, just off Highway 89 north of Chino Valley.  From Drake we’ll skirt around Prescott and Prescott Valley and back to campus via Mingus Mountain.  Along the way we’ll talk about geology, natural history, the Verde River, the Perkins Ranch, the old railroad, and the mines of Jerome.  Lots of short walks but no serious hiking. Activity Rating: 2. 

Tuition includes ground transportation, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 8:00AM from Verde Valley Campus. 

View Refund/Cancellation Policy

Download Full Itinerary

Reserve at least two weeks before trip date. 

Yavapai County’s Verde Valley has hundreds of prehistoric village sites, ancestral to both the Hopi of northeastern Arizona and the O’odham peoples of southern Arizona.  We’ll visit a number of these sites, including Tuzigoot, Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well (where we’ll enjoy lunch under lush Cottonwood and Sycamore trees) as we learn of the prehistory of these ancestral residents of the valley and the story of why they left this seemingly beautiful environment.  We’ll also visit the Verde Valley Archaeology Center in Camp Verde.  Up to a mile or so of walking on mainly paved trails.  Activity Rating: 2.

 Tuition includes transportation, box lunch, park entrance fees and field instruction. Departs 8AM from Prescott campus.

View Refund/Cancellation Policy.

Download Full Itinerary

Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

Spend a day with us as we travel Historic Route 66, “The Mother Road” from Ash Fork to the Colorado River at Topock, at 145 miles the longest single surviving stretch of this road that once conncected Chicago, Illinois, with Santa Monica, California.  We’ll stop at many historic sites, old bridges, roadside attractions, the Historic Route 66 Museum in Kingman (where we’ll have lunch) and the old town of Oatman, where wild burros wander the streets.  Along the way we’ll dicusss the history of transportation across northern Arizona.  Activity Rating: 1.

Tuition includes transportation, box lunch, admission fees and field instruction. Departs 7AM from Prescott campus.

*Chino Valley pickup available.


View Refund/Cancellation Policy.