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 working and playing 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).
For part or full day classes, a full refund less 25% cancellation fee will be given. For multi-day programs specific cancellation fees apply. No refunds can be made within 7 days of any program.
How about a Sonoran Studies Gift Certificate? View the details page for more information and to purchase your gift certificate.
Did you know that there are house-sized blocks of exotic sandstone, andesite and fossil-bearing limestone encapsulated in the Tucson Mountain volcanic mass? And have you heard about the dinosaur knees? Join geologist Doug Shakel on a roadside and trailside discussion of this rock mess, and it's evolving interpretation.
The first trip segment will comprise a traverse along Sweetwater Drive, where the largest of the exotic blocks in the Tucson Mountain Chaos are evident. The second part discusses features in a one-to-two hour walk mostly along a sandy wash next to Trails End Road. The third and final segment will include stops at several locations along Gates Pass Road, ...
Sign up by January 31st and receive a $100 discount!
The Mexican colonial town of Alamos sits in southern-most Sonora, where the deciduous tropics meet the Sierra Madre. This area is considered to be the grandmother of our Sonoran Desert, as most of these plants are ancestral to our northern desert vegetation. The town dates back to the 16th century and has been visited by the Spanish explorers Coronado and Cabeza de Vaca. The discovery of rich silver deposits in the late 1600s put Alamos on the Camino Real and brought wealth, a governing class, culture and fine architecture. Alamos was once the ...
The Best of Baja - Whale Watching & Natural History
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 the border 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 Tours to give you that ...
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.
Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado is renowned for its striking landscape and spectacular cliff dwellings, many of which were constructed in the A.D. 1200s. These same places have received much notoriety as the last homes of the so-called "Anasazi" before the region's abrupt abandonment in A.D. 1280. Where did these people come from and where did they go?
To understand the great span of Pueblo history in the Four Corners region we need to begin our exploration at sites situated in the archaeologically rich Montezuma Valley, an amazing, beautiful and comparatively little-known basin country that lies at the foot of the Mesa Verde.
The Sonoran Desert silently celebrates its new year with the swelling of the saguaro's rosy fruits. Join us to gather and prepare saguaro fruits in the traditional O'odham. manner, using a harvesting pole made from the ribs of the giant cactus, then cooking the fruit until it thickens into a rich, sweet syrup. We will learn about other desert plants that were important food sources for native peoples and about the animals who use the saguaro for food and shelter. Includes a native foods lunch.
August is the season that the beautiful red fruit of the prickly pear cactus ripen. Join us in harvesting this fruit, in making jelly, syrup and frozen sorbet, and finding out about how this food is important to many desert animals and peoples. We will learn about the cochineal insect, which bestowed the deep red color unto the Spanish kings' robes as well as that of the British Red Coats coats. We will also harvest and prepare nopalitos, tender prickly pear pads, a Mexican staple for over a millennia. Other desert foods such as agave, cholla buds, and mesquite will be part of the menu. This is an occasion to not only don your apron, but also prepare yourself for a grand desert foods feast at the end of the class. Price includes lunch.
August is the season that the beautiful red fruit of the prickly pear cactus ripen. Join us in harvesting this fruit, in making jelly, syrup and frozen sorbet, and finding out about how this food is important to many desert animals and peoples. We will learn about the cochineal insect, which bestowed the deep red color unto the Spanish kings' robes as well as that of the British Red Coats coats. We will also harvest and prepare nopalitos, tender prickly pear pads, a Mexican staple for over a millennia. Other desert foods such as agave, cholla buds, and mesquite will be part of the menu. This is an occasion to not only don your apron, but also prepare yourself for a grand desert foods feast at the end of the class. Price includes lunch.
We'll provide you with food for the belly and some food for thought and on this day tour of local farms. Learn how the San Xavier Cooperative Farm's return to traditional foods is reaping cultural as well as health benefits. Harvest fall crops at the Sleeping Frog Farm and at the Marana Farm. Enjoy a lunch prepared from seasonal, local ingredients, and find out about farmer-direct Community Supported Agriculture opportunities. Price includes a take-home bag of fresh produce and lunch.
Consider New Mexico - a land of enduring cultures and cultures of enduring art. From the delicately rendered pre-historic Clovis point to meticulously crafted jewelry of today, each culture that has touched this land has contributed its own distinctive traditional arts that complement the beauty that is New Mexico.
This is our most comprehensive and wonderful Indian Country program. Not often available (not since 2002), it's full of new features for 2010! Join author, Indian trader Mark Bahti, along with New Mexico Pueblo Indians, artists and historians, to savor the arts and culture of one of America's most amazingly beautiful places!