This 81-day semester course takes place in a variety of desert landscapes as you complete an odyssey across the southwest. From Big Bend National Park, the Copper Canyon in Mexico, the Rio Grande and into the surreal landscape and gorgeous rivers of southeastern Utah.

Outward Bound Semester
The Mexico to Canyonlands Spring Semester is designed to develop your technical outdoor skills and to enhance your leadership, communication, environmental, and teaching skills all while you train in methods of wilderness travel in a variety of environments in Utah west Texas and Mexico.

You will work on becoming a member of a team: listening to others, giving and receiving feedback, and expressing your ideas. You will learn leadership techniques within that team, discovering how best to incorporate each otherís opinions and work with each other's strengths. Because the success of the expedition depends on your collaborative efforts, an ethic of service is tightly woven through all of our courses. Some opportunities will occur within your group: helping a teammate, coaching them up a steep hike, preparing food for the group. Others will present themselves within a larger community as organized or informal projects.

Course Area
Big Bend is one of the most remote national parks in the lower forty-eight. It is classic desert terrain alive with tenacious plant life, dramatic vistas and scattered fossils. Your whitewater paddling expedition on the Rio Grande will take you down the remote lower canyons or through the 300 foot walls of Santa Elena Canyon.

Copper Canyon is a huge land, inhabited by the Tarahumara Indians. The lands are neither public nor private; trails keep widely spread homes and small farms connected as neighbors. Your expedition across Copper Canyon includes home visits and a focus on gaining cross-cultural perspective.

The Green, San Juan and Colorado Rivers in Utah,are an area of fascinating geological formations: sandstone and slick rock , rock bridges, pinnacles, buttes and arches. There are twenty-five exciting rapids on the Colorado that rate with those of the Grand Canyon. In the nearby canyons, fantastic rock shapes carved by the whimsical forces of nature await hikers who venture off-river.

Course Description
Your course begins in west Texas; a cross-cultural odyssey from the Chihuahuan Desert of Big Bend National Park to the Copper Canyon of Mexico and the Rio Grande. Then travel north to explore the whitewater rivers and multi-hued vistas of Utah's canyon country. Your group of six to 11 students will travel together and form a functional team. Given the length of your course, you and your group will take on a variety of leadership roles as you encounter a wide range of terrains and weather conditions. In addition to skill development in wilderness living in varied desert environments, you will learn low-impact camping, map and compass navigation, and wilderness safety skills. Develop skills in decision-making and problem solving, leadership, and teamwork.

NOTE: Semester courses are demanding physically and socially. Students who are unmotivated or stuggle with inappropriate behaviors on course may be expelled. Students who are expelled are not eligible for a refund. You and your family should be aware that this should not be considered a vacation.

Important Note: Pack weight is between 50 and 70 lbs dependent on participant's body weight. Packs on courses in desert environments weigh more because of additional water carried. We encourage students to test out a pack that is this heavy prior to choosing this course.

NOTE: This course is an international semester. You and your group will drive together across the border into Mexico. You will need a PASSPORT!

To enroll in this course click the enroll button next to the course dates that work for you. To shop comparatively on line visit our Advanced Course Finder or better yet call one of our expert Admission Advisers at 866-467-7651. Course tuitions listed below do not include our Application Fee or Transportation Fee.