Cryptomania!

In the Red Rock Ranger District in Sedona, the Forest Service is doing some great outreach to spread the word on Leave No Trace related issues. At many of the trailheads in the Forest there, they have this great informative sign about cryptobiotic soil up. This wild soil, which is actually alive, does a lot of the heavy lifting in the desert ecosystems of the Colorado Plateau to provide nutrients to plants in the harsh environment. If you step on crypto it can take decades to regenerate in this fragile and harsh ecosystem. So, remember to Choose the Right Path, Stay on the Trail, and DON'T BUST THE CRUST!

Gone to tiptoe 'round the crypto,

Quinn & Frank

In the Zone in 'Zona

From Flagstaff to Phoenix, we spent the better part of this week working with youth from school groups to the Girl Scouts! In a state with such a wealth in public lands, it was awesome to see young people so excited about the outdoors and knowledgeable about how to protect them using Leave No Trace!

Quinn and Bigfoot drop some Leave No Trace knowledge!

Our first stop was with the Alpine Leadership Academy in Flagstaff. This innovate magnet middle school focuses on outdoor learning. All of their students know about Leave No Trace from working with the local Forest Service and even Northern Arizona University Outdoors. Every student there goes on at least one four-night trip with the school. They excelled at one of our favorite PEAK games, Step On It! The students battled over which surfaces were more durable for travel in three aggressive match-ups. After we left they even were planning on taking Leave No Trace and using it in a writing assignment the next day. Nice work team!

In Phoenix, we stopped by Orangewood School to talk to some high-achieving eighth graders. In their class they have talked extensively about trash decomposition and were old-pros when it came to figuring out how long items lasted in the outdoors. After school, some of these students are involved in a legendary environmental club. One of their activities is collecting trash on the school's outdoor basketball court every two weeks, categorizing it, weighing it, and graphing the results. Sounds like the kind of research that would be useful for the Leave No Trace Center in Boulder. What an epic crew of young researchers!

Girl Scouts learn how to keep a safe distance while viewing wildlife with the Rule of Thumb!

Finally, on Saturday we kicked it with the Girl Scouts from the Cactus-Pine Council for Thinking Day! This year, on the 100th Anniversary of the GSA, the theme for Thinking Day was Friendship Around the World. These girls and their adult leaders were psyched to learn about Leave No Trace for their many campouts. As an added bonus, there was a Bigfoot sighting at the event! Before he snuck off to find some shade in the Arizona sun, he posed for pictures with Troops, dished out highfives, and showed off some epic dance moves. Way to go, Girls!

Stompin' on Durable Surfaces Like a Boss,

Quinn & Frank

Wows and Pows - Week of Feb. 13th

Wows!

It was our first week on the road and we got to see tons of epic places, awesome landscapes, and work with some cool Leave No Trace learners! One highlight was working with the S.A.F.E. Afterschool Program in Rio Rancho, NM. In what must have been one of the most epic days in elementary school history, the students went on a field trip to a Natural History Museum to learn about dinosaurs and fossils before playing some sweet Leave No Trace games! One big hit was Okay/No Way! This rockin' game mixes questions about all seven principles, PEAK-style, with freeze tag. Kids as young as kindergarten were answering about observing wildlife from a distance with the Rule of Thumb technique and staying on the trail when on a hike. Thanks again, Rio Rancho!

Quinn poses in Petrified Forest, but stays on the trail!

Pows!

In between Albuquerque and Sedona, we were lucky enough to stop in and spend an afternoon at Petrified Forest National Park. This epic park is home to petrified wood over 250 million years old! Everyone we met who worked there was super-friendly, informative, and really dialed in to the Leave No Trace principles and mindset. Unfortunately, a lot of the sites at this park are heavily impacted. The park has to go to extraordinary measures to prevent individuals from removing pieces of the petrified wood from the park, including vehicle inspections when exiting. We also had a long talk with a Leave No Trace all-star ranger who was endeavoring to keep people on the path at petroglyph sites in order to preserve the history of peoples who once lived in the area hundreds of years ago. Remember when you're outdoors to Leave What You Find and Choose the Right Path, staying on the paved trail and avoiding visitor-created paths. We want to give a shoutout to all the rangers putting in such great work to preserve one of the coolest places we've ever been to! Y'all rock!

From the Sunny Southwest,

Quinn & Frank