Adult Classes and Trips
These programs are offered to the public to create a better understanding of our Sonoran Desert through enjoyable and informative experiences, and provide opportunities to learn practical applications for living in balance with our environment.
If you have considered taking our in-depth docent training program, but are not ready to commit the time, you may be interested in our new Sonoran Desert Naturalist Certificate program (Learn more).
14 day tour
Sep 17, 2012 - Sep 30, 2012
In the Southwest we use the adjective "Spanish" frequently and loosely. Indeed, many elements of our culture originate in Spain. But, the 16th -18th century Christian Spain that colonized the Americas was the sum total of its previous occupants - Arabs, Jews, Visigoths and Romans. Join us in an exploration of the cathedrals, markets, orchards, towns, ancient castles and sunny beaches with an eye for the influencing factors of these peoples. Harvest grapes and almonds, taste wine, learn to prepare paella, collect herbs in the mountains, see the Holy Grail ... Destinations include Barcelona, Valencia, Toledo and Madrid.
All arrangements are being made through Adventures Abroad Worldwide Travel Ltd.
Australia — With the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum & Kensington Tours
14 day tour
Sept 10, 2012 - Sept 23, 2012
Spend a full 14 days/13 nights in Australia, allowing you to visit Melbourne, Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Alice Springs & amp;Ayers Rock. The tour will allow for a maximum of wildlife observations, natural history & culture.
- Encounter kangaroos, koala, sea lions, camels, wallabies, penguins and so much more!
- Unique comparisons with the flora and fauna of Australia & the Sonoran Desert region.
- Opportunities to look at the indigenous cultures between Australia and the Tohono O'odham and learn about the ethnobotany of the region.
- In-depth interpretations by naturalist guides, and our own Museum staff.
Feb 4, 2012 - Feb 4, 2012
Southeastern Arizona's desert grasslands and agricultural areas are dotted with artificial lakes, ponds and mudflats providing habitat for winter birds, including are least twelve species of raptors and numerous waterfowl (ducks and geese). Thousands of sandhill cranes migrate from as far away as Alaska to spend the winter near Willcox. Join us for a spectacular day of discovery as we explore the Willcox area--one of the region's birding hot spots. We will meet at Park Place Mall and bring a sack lunch. Very little walking is required.
Feb 6, 2012 - Feb 11, 2012
Join Peter Siminski, Naturalist extraordinaire and Director of Conservation and Education at the Living Desert Museum, for an impressive natural history tour d' force. Peter was long-time Curator of Mammalogy and Ornithology at Tucson's Desert Museum. Experience up close and personal the incredibly diverse and scenic habitats reachable from our very comfortable Palm Desert Hilton hotel base for each evening of the program.
Hidden treasures abound. Five spectacular mountain ranges surround this valley, with the steepest escarpment in North America rising from the desert floor to almost 11,000 feet in a mere seven ...
Feb 9, 2012 - Feb 9, 2012
Southeastern Arizona's desert grasslands and agricultural areas are dotted with artificial lakes, ponds and mudflats providing habitat for winter birds, including are least twelve species of raptors and numerous waterfowl (ducks and geese). Thousands of sandhill cranes migrate from as far away as Alaska to spend the winter near Willcox. Join us for a spectacular day of discovery as we explore the Willcox area--one of the region's birding hot spots. We will meet at Park Place Mall and bring a sack lunch. Very little walking is required.
Feb 18, 2012 - Feb 18, 2012
Arizona's mineral rich mountains were home to numerous boomtowns during the 1870s and 1880s. Visit an old mining district in the Santa Rita Mountains. Learn to identify azurite, malachite, pyrite, garnet and other Arizona minerals, and make a mineral collection of your own. We will meet at the museum and can pick up people at the ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center as well. Bring a sack lunch. Total hiking distance is one and a half miles, with two relatively steep inclines.
Mar 10, 2012 - Mar 10, 2012
Did you know that we had large Ice Age mammals in southern Arizona? At the Murray Springs archeological site along the San Pedro River near Sierra Vista we will learn about which of the Pleistocene megafuana were here and which were hunted. Alongside these mammals lived the Clovis people, great hunters, which we know from their fluted projectile points. Our exploration of the Clovis culture will include trying our hands at throwing an atlatl and meeting in person "Clovis woman". For lunch, we will stop at the Holy Trinity Monastery to view their galleries and, hopefully, purchase freshly baked bread. Our last activity will be combing the St. David Formation for gypsum crystals.
Mar 14, 2012 - Mar 14, 2012
Join the Botany staff for a leisurely hike into a canyon near the Museum where we'll discuss the different varieties of desert flora. Whether we have a bountiful flower year or a ho-hum season, there will be plenty to look at and discover. We'll hike in washes and on rocky trails at an easy pace allowing ample time to botanize along the way. Total distance traveled will be two miles. Our staff will scout out the hot spots ahead of time and lead you to the best of the best.
Mar 17, 2012 - Mar 17, 2012
Join the Botany staff for a leisurely hike into a canyon near the Museum where we'll discuss the different varieties of desert flora. Whether we have a bountiful flower year or a ho-hum season, there will be plenty to look at and discover. We'll hike in washes and on rocky trails at an easy pace allowing ample time to botanize along the way. Total distance traveled will be two miles. Our staff will scout out the hot spots ahead of time and lead you to the best of the best.
Mar 19, 2012 - Mar 27, 2012
THE MARCH 1ST-9TH TRIP IS FULL. We have opened a second trip!
Join us for this comfortably paced, comprehensive and diverse whale watching and natural history learning vacation in one of the most storied places on earth. Desert delights abound during the scenic road trip between San Diego and fabled Scammon's Lagoon: Boojum forests, immense cardon cacti, and brilliant spring flowers. Enjoy two days with boating on Scammon's, the gray whales' largest and best-protected migratory destination, where biologists often count over 2000 gray whales and several hundred newborn calves during our visit!
ASDM teams up with Baja's Frontier ...
Mar 24, 2012 - Mar 24, 2012
Plant a perfect prickly patch of desert. Our "Landscaping with Succulents" class is an excellent opportunity to learn how and why people use spiny plants. There will be all the information you need to create a fantastic succulent garden. We will focus on irrigation, selecting, planting, handling, propagation, pest control, and fertilizing. Join Jeffery Moore for a morning of succulent success.
Apr 7, 2012 - Apr 7, 2012
Participate in a century-old Sonoran Desert springtime ritual of harvesting cholla buds. After collecting this bounty from a site near the Museum, we will prepare it, along with other traditional foods such as tepary beans and nopalitos, and we will experiment making drinks with sweet "tunas". We will delve into the natural history of the cholla and its sister cactus the prickly pear, discuss associated myths, learn about the little red cactus-sucking bug that made some men rich and others slaves. The class concludes with a feast of native foods.
Apr 12, 2012 - Apr 14, 2012
Hummingbirds, the smallest of North America's birds, endear us with their brilliant colors and rapid aerobatics antics. Southeastern Arizona is the hummingbird capital of the United States with more than fourteen different species of hummingbirds. Join us for a trip to hotspots in Miller Canyon to watch and to learn about their behavior. We will meet for the field trip at I-10 and Speedway. Bring a sack lunch. There will be a lecture Thursday evening and an all-day field trip on Saturday.
Your instructor, Karen Krebbs, has worked at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for over 20 years. For more than three years Karen was the primary caretaker of the hummingbirds in the Hummingbirds exhibit at the Desert Museum. Karen is currently a ...
Apr 14, 2012 - Apr 14, 2012
Did you realize that by harvesting water in a well-mulched depression, you can keep that moisture in the soil for up to two months? Learn how to redirect rainwater from problem areas into vegetated basins and into cisterns. Calculate how much water can be captured off of your roof or carport. We'll show you inexpensive solutions as well as pricey/showy ones. Learn about weed control, tax incentives and the City's code regarding planting, cutting curbs and harvesting in the right of way. Includes site visits and a lecture. Mid-town location.
Apr 21, 2012 - Apr 27, 2012
Explore the stark sandstone geology and the ancient native cultures of
Arizona's Colorado Plateau.
Visit several villages on the Hopi Mesas where we will talk to artisans and purchase their wares. In addition to learning about Kachina dolls and their associated cult, we will meet silver workers and possibly visit a traditional farm. Among the villages that we visit is Old Oraibi, which has been continuously inhabited for 1100 years, where residents still live in the traditional way and which is the site that provided archeological wood specimens pushing the Tree Ring calendar back to 1200 A.D. Along the Hopi-Navajo border we stop at Coal Mine Canyon, where we study fossils and discuss the formation of its colorful, deep-cut canyon walls. There are dinosaur tracks that we'll ponder outside of Tuba City, Anasazi cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument (Betatkin Ruins) and a petrified coal swamp on Black Mesa. From Kayenta, we'll take a Navajo-guided sunrise tour of Monument Valley. We then travel south to Canyon de Chelly, exploring White House Ruins, Antelope Ruins and seeing Spider Rock, a 1000 foot high sandstone spire. The following day takes us to the Hubbell Trading Post, where Navajo weavers offer their wares, then to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. The return drive through the scenic Salt River Canyon allows us to touch "The Great Unconformity", some 700 million years of missing geologic time.
This ...
Sep 17, 2012 - Sep 30, 2012
In the Southwest we use the adjective "Spanish" frequently and loosely. Indeed, many elements of our culture originate in Spain. But, the 16th -18th century Christian Spain that colonized the Americas was the sum total of its previous occupants - Arabs, Jews, Visigoths and Romans. Join us in an exploration of the cathedrals, markets, orchards, towns, ancient castles and sunny beaches with an eye for the influencing factors of these peoples. Harvest grapes and almonds, taste wine, learn to prepare paella, collect herbs in the mountains, see the Holy Grail ... Destinations include Barcelona, Valencia, Toledo and Madrid.
All arrangements are being made through Adventures Abroad Worldwide Travel Ltd.
This trip is very ...
Oct 18, 2012 - Oct 22, 2012
The center of Anasazi culture 1000 years ago, Chaco Canyon in Northwest New Mexico is an impressive archaeological site! The magnificent masonry ruins encompass six large pueblos containing over 1600 multi-story rooms, more than 90 kivas and Great Kivas. The Anasazi traded widely and created an extensive network of pueblos with connecting roads. Dr. Gwinn Vivian, our highly experienced archeologist and teacher for this learning adventure, has devoted much of his life to interpreting Chacoan culture; we are honored to have Dr. Vivian as our teacher!
Gwinn literally grew up at Chaco. He treasures Chaco, knows Chaco and shares Chaco like no one ...
