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NOLS Southwest Facts Year Founded: 1991 Operating Season: Sep.-May Location: Tucson, Arizona In-town Staff: 9 Skills offered: Rock Climbing, Backpacking, Caving, Canoeing

Welcome to the American Southwest: the rumpled horizon studded with the stick figures of saguaro cactus, the hidden nooks lush with watercress, the granite strongholds glowing orange in the setting sun, the call of a Gambel’s quail, the smell of mesquite washed in a pounding desert rain.

Now put yourself in the picture. You will be climbing, hiking, canoeing, and caving in terrain as varied as those skills. With consistently good weather, the Southwest is the perfect place to focus on each unique activity.

Our headquarters on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, is a facility specially designed to meet your needs. From here we explore the great landscapes of the region, close enough to an international airport to make your travel easy yet far enough away for an extended escape into the wilderness.

The Southwest is a place of amazing diversity, where plants and animals of the Neararctic intersperse with those of the Neotropics, a land of jaguar and mountain lion, javelina and white-tailed deer. Birds such as the coppery-tailed trogon and white-eared hummingbird fly the same skies as red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures. It’s a land that famed naturalist Aldo Leopold called “near to being the cream of creation.”

The Southwest is also a region of incredible human diversity. Courses pass through areas originally inhabited by ancient cultures, and evidence of their civilizations is still present. The area’s more recent Spanish influence is obvious as soon as you arrive in Tucson.

With easy access, amazing diversity, and challenging outdoor skills, a course at NOLS Southwest is hard to beat.