Discover the rich and varied landscapes of the U.S. Southwest on your next adventure. Arriving on campus, you’ll find yourself surrounded by an iconic desert landscape dotted with saguaros and ocotillo. But the Southwest has far more to offer than sand and cacti—the wilderness classrooms you’ll explore range from desert terrain to ponderosa pine forests and narrow river canyons. The technical skills you can learn here are just as varied: hiking, climbing, lightweight backpacking, whitewater canoeing, and caving. Backpack through the “sky islands,” isolated mountain ranges that rise up out of vast expanses of desert. Canoe the Rio Grande or climb granite crags at Cochise Stronghold, notable for its cultural and historical importance to the Apache as well as its climbing routes. The U.S. Southwest has a far-reaching and ongoing history of human presence, from the traces of ancient cultures you’ll see at Cliff Dwellings National Monument to the stories of indigenous communities, past and present, and water rights on the U.S./Mexico border. On semester courses, you’ll have the rare privilege of going caving, exploring underground in what feels like another world. And on every course, you’ll be captivated by the magic of the desert—the diversity and beauty of a landscape that you might’ve pictured as barren and empty.