NOLS tents with cactus in the Galiuro Wilderness
Camera Eryn Pierce

Women's Southwest Backpacking - Adult

Explore the wilderness of the Southwest

On this course, join a group of self-identified women to explore the unique “sky islands” of the Galiuro Wilderness. Wake up early and savor breakfast cooked on a camp stove. Listen for the early-morning sounds of coyote and deer as you pack up for the day’s hike. Learn about the area’s ecology as you explore pockets of manzanita and juniper surrounded by desert basins. Form a new community of adventurous peers as you meet challenges together. On this course, you’ll spend your days backpacking and your nights sleeping in a tent as you develop outdoor skills like minimum-impact camping, map reading, and navigating off-trail.

Leadership will also be a key component of this course. Learning to navigate through a boulder field becomes a lesson in decision making, while resolving a group conflict becomes an opportunity to practice communication and learn about group dynamics. Meeting new challenges is your opportunity to set and meet goals. These experiences will help you form your own leadership style and use it to contribute to your group. You’ll leave this course with new relationships, leadership skills you developed from your own experience, and the skills to continue your own human-powered explorations. 

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What Our Grads Say

“Our group created an incredibly supportive learning environment, and it was incredible to have four female trip leaders that also happened to be complete.... It was so empowering to feel strong and confident in the outdoors with a group of other women.” 

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