Experiential Learning / Travel   

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Travel the back roads to Phoenix as we explore the Agua Fria National Monument, crossing through Bloody Basin and on to Seven Springs. We will explore prehistoric ruins, take short hikes, bask in the riparian areas, and experience the variety of geology and ecosystems as you travel from the high desert to the Sonoran Desert. Geology, prehistoric history, and natural history will be topics of the day. Hiking up to 1 mile at Pueblo la Plata and Sears-Kay prehistoric ruins. End the day with dinner (on your own) at El Encanto Restaurant in Cave Creek. Activity Rating: Level 2 (travel on rough roads).

Instructor: Chris Wuehrmann

$215 per person – Tuition includes transportation, admission fees, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 7AM from Prescott Campus.

*Cordes Junction pickup available.

Activity Rating: 2
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Download full itinerary.

Travel the back roads to Phoenix as we explore the Agua Fria National Monument, crossing through Bloody Basin and on to Seven Springs. We will explore prehistoric ruins, take short hikes, bask in the riparian areas, and experience the variety of geology and ecosystems as you travel from the high desert to the Sonoran Desert. Geology, prehistoric history, and natural history will be topics of the day. Hiking up to 1 mile at Pueblo la Plata and Sears-Kay prehistoric ruins. End the day with dinner (on your own) at El Encanto Restaurant in Cave Creek. Activity Rating: Level 2 (travel on rough roads).

Instructor: Chris Wuehrmann

$215 per person – Tuition includes transportation, admission fees, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 7AM from Prescott Campus.

*Cordes Junction pickup available.

Activity Rating: 2
View Refund/Cancellation Policy.

 

This is a single room supplemental fee.

Please select the appropriate dated section for a single supplement to your Canyon de Chelly trip. This single supplement fee is in addition when registering for the Canyon de Chelly Adventure trip. Select this option if you want your own hotel room as a single passenger. 

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Canyon de Chelly, an amazing other-worldly landscape of 800-foot tall red cliffs, includes spectacular cliff dwellings and mystical rock art from centuries in the past.  The canyon was once home to the ancestral Hopi and today sustains a living community of Navajo (the Dine’) living in spiritual connection with this beautiful landscape.  We’ll tour the canyon’s south rim, viewing its beauty from above, and also take a 4x4 tour into the canyon with Navajo guides who will share their stories with us.  During our journey there and back, we’ll visit Petrified Forest, the Painted Desert, and historic Hubbell Trading Post as well as traveling paved back road across Navajo land (Dinetlah).  A fair amount of walkng is included, some optional, but all on easy terrain. 

Activity Rating: 1-2

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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. 

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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.

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.

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. 

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Northwest of Flagstaff is a little-known crater lake, surrounded by meadow and aspen groves, hidden inside a small volcanic cinder cone just east of the Kendricks Mountain Wilderness Area. Our day afield will focus heavily on the volcanic history of the San Francisco Volcano Field surrounding Flagstaff and Williams. We will drive up the access road to the ski area on San Francisco Peaks, hike into Crater Lake for lunch, then in the afternoon visit a lava tube (with optional exploration of the tube) south of Kendrick's Peak. We will also traverse some of old Route 66 on the way home. Total hiking distance for the day about two miles at elevations near 8,000 feet. Activity Rating: 3

Tuition includes transportation, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 7AM from Prescott Campus.

*Chino Valley pickup available

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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.

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Sycamore Canyon enters the Verde River near Clarkdale but begins in the vast Ponderosa Pine forest southeast of Williams. We will travel across to the canyon’s headwaters area from Drake, just north of Chino Valley, visiting JD Dam, Sycamore Point (with incredible views down the canyon), White Horse Lake, and Sycamore Falls, where the creek drops over a hundred feet into the beginnings of the canyon. Our journey will reach I-40 just east of Williams and we’ll return home. Along the way we’ll talk about the geology of the canyon and the varied ecosystems along the way. The trip will include about a mile of easy hiking.  Activity Rating: 2

 

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

 

*Chino Valley pickup available.

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 Apple Creek (an informal name) is a tributary to the Hassayampa River east of Spruce Mountain and crossed by Senator Highway.  Homesteaders and miners have both left their mark on this little drainage.  During this half-day trip, we’ll hike up the creek (about a mile round trip - fairly easy informal trail) while we visit the old abandoned mine and both homesteads.  There’s a standing cabin at one, and many blackberries and several apple trees. This time of year, we may find the apples in bloom, although ripe blackberries will have to wait for fall. Activity Rating: 2. 

Tuition includes transportation and field instruction. Departs 8AM from Prescott campus. 

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Perry Mesa, in Agua Fria National Monument, was heavily occupied by prehistoric people some 700 years ago. There are significant abandoned village sites all across the mesa. One of the largest of these, and one of the least visited, is Baby Canyon Ruin, several hundred rooms perched on a butte on the south side of Baby Canyon, a little over a mile from the Agua Fria River. We’ll visit this site while talking about the prehistory of the area, and a bit of geology and ecology. The hike is about 6 miles total, largely off trail, and includes a nearly 400-foot steep elevation gain at the end to reach the ruin. The footing on the climb is very stable and not hand and foothold climbing, just steep hiking, but a lot of work. Activity Rating: 5.

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

*Cordes Junction pickup available around 8:30am. 

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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. 

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The Northern Bradshaw Mountains overlooking Prescott are the highest range in Yavapai County, peaking out near 8,000 feet. We’ll explore south through this region on the old Senator Highway as far as the site of the town of Goodwin, then head east to Mayer and return via Highway 69. Along the way we’ll visit old mining and homestead sites on Wolf Creek, explore the ruins of the Senator Mine, enjoy distant views from the Mt. Union Divide, and other historic and natural features. We’ll also pass though the burn area of the Goodwin fire of 2017 and talk about fire management and the role of fire in the natural ecosystem. The trip will include about two miles of moderate hiking. Expect driving on bumpy, winding roads. Activity Rating: 2

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

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This road trip takes Williamson Valley Road all the way to Seligman with a return via Ash Fork and Highway 89. We’ll visit the areas of many early historic sites, including the town sites of Simmons and Walnut Creek. On the return from Ash Fork we’ll stop at the old Little Hell Canyon stage stop and a mysterious and unique signpost from the earliest days of air travel in the county. Along the way we’ll discuss the geology and natural history and many aspects of the human history of the area. There will be a few short walks of up to a quarter mile, but no serious hiking. Activity Rating: 2

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

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Explore the awe-inspiring San Francisco Volcanic Field with a focus on its iconic landmarks. Begin at Cinder Hills, where vibrant volcanic cinders create a striking landscape. Journey to Sunset Crater, a stunning cinder cone that erupted around 1085AD, offering dramatic views and a glimpse into the region's volcanic past. Continue to Wupatki, where ancient pueblo ruins provide insight into the lives of the early inhabitants. Conclude at S.P. Crater, an impressive cinder cone with a symmetrical shape and a vast, surrounding lava field, showcasing the raw power of volcanic activity. This tour promises a captivating blend of natural and historical wonders. Activity Rating: 1-2.  

Tuition includes ground transportation, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 7:00AM from the Prescott Campus. *Camp Verde pickup available. 

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Tonto Natural Bridge, under the Mogollon Rim north of Payson, is one of the more unusual features of Arizona. The bridge, somewhat more a huge natural tunnel, is 150 feet wide, nearly 200 feet tall, and 400 feet long. Several trails thread their way through and around the bridge. We’ll hike these trails, somewhat flexible on distance, exploring the bridge and its environs and have our lunch at the picnic area there. We’ll also see the historic Goodfellow Lodge adjacent to the bridge, dating from the 1920s. Our journey there and back will feature spectacular views from the Mogollon Rim, an historic stone mileage marker from the original General Crook Trail, and a visit to the historic Strawberry one-room schoolhouse. Activity Rating: 2.  

Tuition includes transportation, box lunch and field instruction. Departs 7:30AM from Prescott Campus. *Camp Verde pickup available. 

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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.

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The headwaters of the Verde River, just northeast of Chino Valley, is a fascinating area. The springs there are the source of the only perennial river flowing entirely within Arizona. We will hike some distance along the rim and enter the canyon about a mile downstream from the confluence with Granite Creek, hiking upstream to the headwaters springs and a large and little-known rock art site which incorporates both Hopi and Yavapai winter solstice observatory features. We will discuss geology, natural history and prehistory along the way. Total hiking distance about four miles. The climb out, several hundred feet elevation gain, is steep and rocky. We will ford the river once, 12-18 inches deep; suitable barefoot or light water shoe/sandal wading. Activity Rating: 3.

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

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Long-time Prescott resident, Gail Gardner (1892-1988) wrote a poem call “The Sierry Petes:  Tying knots in the Devil’s Tail” that’s performed regularly by many cowboy poets and musicians.  We’ll spend a half-day exploring the Sierra Prieta Mountains south of Prescott, the setting for this poem.  Our time will include a short hike on West Spruce Mountain Trail, a visit to the spectacular Sierra Prieta overlook, with great views of Copper Basin far below, and a visit to one of the few Aspen groves in the area, as we talk about the geology, ecology, and history of the range.  Includes about a mile of moderate trail hiking at near 7,000 feet elevation.  Activity Rating: 2. 

Tuition includes transportation and field instruction. Departs 8AM from Prescott campus. 

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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.


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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.


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About a mile from the Colorado River, Diamond Creek Road reaches its namesake, Diamond Creek. We will hike up this creek about 3 miles into a spectacular narrows (one short steep place, but mostly gentle gradients with multiple creek crossings about ankle deep), enjoying lunch at a beautiful little waterfall beneath thousand-foot cliffs. We will discuss both the geology and natural history along the way. Our day will culminate with a visit by van to the Colorado River before having dinner in Seligman (on your own) and then returning to campus.  This is an off-trail hike, 6 miles total, with fairly rocky footing and your footwear will get wet; hiking poles advised.  Like our other hikes in the area, this route is not open to the general public. This trip is for experienced hikers.  Activity Rating: 3+

Tuition includes ground transportation, field instruction, Hualapai permits and box lunch. Departs 7AM from Prescott Campus.*Chino Valley pickup available.

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About a mile from the Colorado River, Diamond Creek Road reaches its namesake, Diamond Creek. We will hike up this creek about 3 miles into a spectacular narrows (one short steep place, but mostly gentle gradients with multiple creek crossings about ankle deep), enjoying lunch at a beautiful little waterfall beneath thousand-foot cliffs. We will discuss both the geology and natural history along the way. Our day will culminate with a visit by van to the Colorado River before having dinner in Seligman (on your own) and then returning to campus.  This is an off-trail hike, 6 miles total, with fairly rocky footing and your footwear will get wet; hiking poles advised.  Like our other hikes in the area, this route is not open to the general public. This trip is for experienced hikers.  Activity Rating: 3+

Tuition includes ground transportation, field instruction, Hualapai permits and box lunch. Departs 7AM from Prescott Campus.*Chino Valley pickup available.

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Reserve at least two weeks in advance.

About a mile from the Colorado River, Diamond Creek Road reaches its namesake, Diamond Creek. We will hike up this creek about 3 miles into a spectacular narrows (one short steep place, but mostly gentle gradients with multiple creek crossings about ankle deep), enjoying lunch at a beautiful little waterfall beneath thousand-foot cliffs. We will discuss both the geology and natural history along the way. Our day will culminate with a visit by van to the Colorado River before having dinner in Seligman (on your own) and then returning to campus.  This is an off-trail hike, 6 miles total, with fairly rocky footing and your footwear will get wet; hiking poles advised.  Like our other hikes in the area, this route is not open to the general public. This trip is for experienced hikers.  Activity Rating: 3+

Tuition includes ground transportation, field instruction, Hualapai permits and box lunch. Departs 7AM from Prescott Campus.*Chino Valley pickup available.

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The only road to the Colorado River canyon’s depths is located on Hualapai lands in western Grand Canyon. This road accesses a little-known hiking route that leads out onto the Tonto Rim, nearly a thousand feet above the Colorado River. This is a truly wild and spectacular Grand Canyon hike with fabulous distant views up and down the canyon, views ordinarily only accessible on multi-day backpacking expeditions. Hiking distance is almost four miles and includes some steep grades and narrow trails - not for the fainthearted. We will discuss geology and natural history along the way. The day will culminate with a van stop at the Colorado River. Dinner stop at Lilo's in Seligman (on your own). This trip is for experienced hikers.  Activity Rating: 3+ to 4.

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

*Chino Valley pickup available.

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Alexander Duff came to Arizona Territory in 1879, a trapper, prospector, and market hunter, married to a Shoshone Indian woman. He left the territory in 1906 as a respected hotel and mercantile owner, with a whole new family. In between he homesteaded at a beautiful spot on the Verde River, overlooked by a centuries-old cliff dwelling, where a crystal-clear spring bears his name; a locale still miles from any road today. He then became one of the early movers and shakers of Jerome Junction, terminus of the narrow-gauge railroad to the copper mines of Jerome and precursor community to Chino Valley. Join us in on this exploration of Duff’s story and of some of the history and natural features while visiting both these localities, prominent in the early history of Yavapai County, including discussing the prehistoric inhabitants.
The video link will be emailed upon registration.

 

Date Creek flows from the crest of the Weaver Mountains above Yarnell west into a vast desert plain, studded with rugged mountain ridges, finally joining the Santa Maria River above Alamo Lake.  Originally home to the Yavapai People, Date Creek’s first Anglo visitors were led by Charles Genung in 1863, who upon seeing one of the creek’s green valleys declared it to be the Garden of Eden.  Near this spot the military post of Camp Date Creek operated from 1867-1874.  We will explore this little-known landscape, seeing ancient rock art, viewing the ruins of Camp Date Creek, visiting with modern ranchers, and searching for the elusive beaver reintroduced along the creek in recent decades.  We will also observe a little-known historic rock art site from 1864.  Date Creek is so remote that less than fifty people live within a mile of its course. The video link will be emailed upon registration.

 

When the Santa Fe Railroad was constructing their line across northern Arizona in the early 1880s, they overcame many physical obstacles in the rugged landscapes they traversed. One of the more difficult was the steep drop westwards off the Coconino Plateau, between Williams and Ash Fork. Their surveyors and engineers chose a somewhat obscure canyon as the optimum route off the plateau, a canyon so rugged that it required the only tunnel from Albuquerque to Los Angeles. We will explore this canyon, visiting many man-made features related to the construction and operation of the railroad, including the now-abandoned Johnson Canyon Tunnel and the only functional dam of steel construction in the United States. Our explorations will also include some strange and interesting natural features, and we will hear the story of rancher and homesteader George Johnson, after whom the canyon is named. The video link will be emailed upon registration.

 

In 1863, during the height of the Civil War, several parties of intrepid prospectors discovered gold in the flanks of what became known as the Bradshaw Mountains. While the Walker party was most notable, the range was named for one of others, William Bradshaw, who died under mysterious circumstances in La Paz, on the Colorado River, in December of 1864. We’ll explore the northern part of the range, which overlooks Prescott, visiting old mine sites, ghost communities, homesteads, and historic Palace Station, established by the Spence family in 1875. We’ll be traveling mainly via historic Senator Road, talking about the history of the range and about the basics of mining and geology. Since this area has been subject to several large forest fires in recent decades, we’ll also discuss the ecology of fire and some history of forest and fire management. We’ll be exiting the range via Mayer, saving the Southern Bradshaws for another day. The video link will be emailed upon registration.

 

In 1863, during the height of the Civil War, several parties of intrepid prospectors discovered gold in the flanks of what became known as the Bradshaw Mountains. While the Walker party was most notable, the range was named for one of others, William Bradshaw, who died under mysterious circumstances in La Paz, on the Colorado River, in December of 1864.

We’ll explore the southern part of the range, prominent in the view from Sunset Point on I-17, visiting quirky desert communities like Cleator (home of the Cleator Bar and Yacht Club) and Bumblebee (what’s in a name?), ghost mining and railroad locales, and the little mountain town of Crown King. We will be traveling in significant part via the route of Frank Murphy’s “Impossible Railroad”, built from Mayer to Crown King in the first years of the 20th Century despite many naysayers who claimed it couldn’t be done.

Along the way, we will talk about the original Yavapai Indian inhabitants, the challenges of passage via rail, and some of the history of mining in the rugged and forbidding landscape of the Southern Bradshaws. The video link will be emailed upon registration.

 

Leading southwards into Verde Valley are two spectacular red rock canyons. To the east, well-known and heavily visited Oak Creek Canyon is followed by highway, although the west flanks are wilderness area. To the west, lightly visited Sycamore Canyon is entirely wilderness area. Between the lower ends of these canyons is still more wilderness area, surrounding on three sides is a nearly unknown landscape of utterly amazing views, exotic volcanic features, and canyons so steep and wild as to require technical climbing gear to traverse. Enjoy exploring this wild country with us via remote and rugged back roads. We’ll talk about geology, natural history, and forest management; the handful of early pioneers who braved this remote wilderness; and the historic logging railroads that once traversed the area. The video link will be emailed upon registration.

 

 

In 1903, two young girls traveled to the Grand Canyon with their families. They rode from Flagstaff to the Canyon by stagecoach, stayed in the historic, long extinct Grand View Hotel and took a 3-day trip by burro into the Canyon with Captain John Hance, the Canyon’s first tour operator and renowned storyteller. Chris Wuehrmann, our trip leader, met these two girls when they were nearing 90 years of age during a Yavapai College program in 1981, when they shared their unique memories. With their childhood experience as inspiration, he re-creates their journey to the Canyon via the route of the Moqui Stage. The trip loops west of San Francisco Peaks through pine and aspen forest, then north through largely uninhabited ranch country to the little-known Grandview Entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. Follow along as he visits the South Rim sites of both John Hance’s compound and the Grand View Hotel, owned, and operated by Pete Berry. We will hear about their histories as miners and tour operators in the Grandview Point area, in addition to little-known histories of other Northern Arizona pioneers and places. The video link will be emailed upon registration.