Registration Opens for PEEC’s Summer Outdoor Adventures Programs

• What are PEEC’s summer outdoor adventures all about?

They are times of great explorations and discoveries, imagination and wonder, challenges and accomplishments. One participant, Karin Ebey, sums up the experience even better:  “Every single day I come home dirty and happy!”

Nature Odyssey:  Rio Grande (June 10-14)

Each day of the Rio Grande week the group spends the hot summer afternoons near water. Sometimes children are capturing and identifying invertebrates and amphibians; other times they are exploring and playing. Last year along the edges of the Chama River a group of kids stalked frogs with nets and buckets in hand along the river’s grassy fringe, while other children waded across the cold water to a sandbar and claimed it as their very own kingdom. On their island they discovered shallow warm puddles to sit in and with hands and sticks they built channels and dams in the smooth sticky mud. That day on the edges of the Chama the children were kings and queens of their imaginary worlds.

Nature Odyssey: Valles Caldera National Preserve (June 24-28)

During the Valles Caldera week children explore cool pine forests, mountain streams, and open meadows. The preserve scientists meet us each day and the children become wildlife biologists, archaeologists, and fire ecologists. Throughout the week the children’s senses come alive as they learn about wilderness awareness skills such as the fox walk and owl eyes.  On a blindfold walk the children follow a string along an obstacle course – over rocks, around trees and down gullies.  Without sight they rely on touch and sound. Their faces are intense as they maneuver through the forest. At the end when they remove their blindfolds they look back with wonder at their accomplishment.

Living Earth Adventure Program (June 17-21)

This summer participants will let their curiosity be their guide as they explore the diverse ecosystems between the Rio Grande and the Valles Caldera. Kids can make new friends while exploring the archeology, geology, ecology, and wildlife of northern New Mexico. The journey will culminate with an exciting rafting trip through spectacular rock formations and canyons that formed millions of years ago.

New this year is an overnight campout! Activities will include telling stories, using bat detectors, looking at the stars, working together to set up camp, and getting to know each other as only can happen in the outdoors.

Medicine Hawk Survival Camp (June 6-9)

Adults and families with children over the age of 12 are welcome to Medicine Hawk’s Summer Survival Basics Camp. The long weekend with three overnights will be packed full of interesting demonstrations and hands-on lessons, with lots of time to perfect new skills.

Participants will learn skills including primitive fire making, shelter building, making ember bowls and spoons, wildcrafting (finding and eating edible wild plants), hunting with throwing sticks, traps and snares, making cordage, locating and purifying water primitively, weaving baskets, making primitive pottery, and primitive camouflage.  

To register for any of these summer adventure programs, visit PajaritoEEC.org. These programs are popular, and there is a new sliding tuition scale.

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of stories from the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) leading up to its annual Earth Day Festival set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, April 20at PEEC, 3540 Orange St., in Los Alamos.

This year’s Earth Day Festival will feature displays by community groups of their earth-friendly products and practices and their information about our environment on the Pajarito Plateau.

• Over 20 booths
• Food vendors
• Live entertainment by Clan Tynker and the Hill Stompers
• Kids activities, including “Walk Like a Wolf”, the “Mudpie Kitchen” and making miniature adobes with the Cornerstones Community Partnership.

Important Update: Park at Sullivan Field and ride a free Atomic City Bus to Saturday’s Earth Day event because LAHS parking lot will be full from three events being held at the school.

For more information about Earth Day, e-mail EarthDay@PajaritoEEC.org or visit EarthDay@PajaritoEEC.org