With nearly five million visitors per year, Grand Canyon National Park attracts individuals with a wide variety of educational and recreational needs. GCFI strives to meet this demand with a diverse and evolving list of classes. New destinations, new topics, new instructors—all designed to offer a greater variety of learning experiences for newcomers and to keep our many “groupies” stimulated. Here are a few of this year’s new offerings:

January 2-5
Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, a maverick architect in a male-dominated industry, planned and constructed a number of her signature structures while employed by the Fred Harvey Company and Santa Fe Railroad from 1902 to 1948. During her tenure Colter built a tourist facility at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. She called this quaint complex of rustic buildings in the most unlikely of settings Phantom Ranch. This class will examine the legacy of Mary Jane Colter, the construction of Phantom Ranch, and the long cultural history of Bright Angel Canyon that extends for Millennia before the arrival of the modern tourist. No visit to the canyon floor would be complete without a discussion of the geology and ecology of this popular destination, and this class will address these topics as well. Participants will hike down the South Kaibab Trail, and exit via the Bright Angel Trail during the course of this outing. Group accommodations and meals at Phantom Ranch are included.

Grand Canyon Winter Photography
January 4-7
Winter is a special time at Grand Canyon National Park. The summer crowds are long gone, leaving the South Rim to the hardy few willing to brave the chilly temperatures. The rewards for those willing to make the effort are many, especially for photographers in pursuit of dramatic compositions. The winter snowpack is exceptionally dazzling against the canyons red cliffs and azure sky. With the sun low in the southern sky the angled rays often make for an amazing spotlight effect on the frozen stone giants that populate the canyon. During this skills-based workshop, participants will learn techniques to capture such moments on film or pixel. Classroom lectures on composition, lighting, manual camera settings, and other pertinent topics will be punctuated with sunset and sunrise shoots at a variety of locations along the lofty South Rim. A tour of historic Kolb Studio to ponder the legacy of the Grand Canyon’s most famous resident photographers will provide a historical backdrop to the proceedings. Daily critique sessions will allow participants to improve their game as the workshop progresses. Participants provide their own camera equipment, and will carpool to the various shooting locations on paved roads.

Grand Canyon Wildflower Art Workshop
August 6-8
The Grand Canyon is most widely known as a rugged land of cliff-and-slope. Those with a more intimate familiarity with the park also know it as a land of leaf-and-stem. Indeed, Grand Canyon National Park is home to greater biodiversity than any other. And no other plants stand in starker contrast to the often forbidding terrain than the delicate, colorful wildflowers that bloom seasonally. During this art workshop, participants will learn how to artistically render these exquisite plants in a variety of mediums. Alternating between the field and classroom, capturing the vivid beauty of the canyon’s humblest of botanical residents will be a pursuit that participants won’t soon forget. And the skills artistic skills honed in the process will last a lifetime.

Bass Canyon Geology Backpack
September 5-9
Havasupai Point, with its command view up and down canyon, is one of the South Rim’s most dramatic scenic overlooks. This class will begin with a visit to this unforgettable vantage from which participants will look down upon the terrain they will be exploring during subsequent days. To the east lies the classic rugged topography of buttes and temples that rise from the Tonto Platform bench; to the west the distinctive two-step topography dominated by the Esplanade Platform, deeply-incised by a hidden inner canyon. Why the difference from east to west? Why such an abrupt and dramatic change in Grand Canyon topography and scenery? The class will discuss possible explanations for these geologic mysteries during this one-of-a-kind learning adventure. After camping for the night at the nearby South Bass trailhead, participants will descend the historic South Bass Trail from rim to river. The Upper Granite Gorge, Bass Fault Zone, and the Darwin Plateau are but a few of the interpretive points of interest that will illustrate the forces of nature that have created the grandest of canyons. Participants will carpool to and from the South Bass Trail and Grand Canyon Village on rough but reliable dirt roads.


Thunder River, Stone and Deer Creek Wilderness Studies Workshop
September 10-16
In the desert, water possesses a near-magical quality. A few of the more stunning water sources in the Grand Canyon will serve as the backdrop for this skills-based workshop. Descending North Rim’s Bill Hall Trail for a week in the Tapeats, Stone, and Deer Creek drainages, this class will cover desert backpacking, Leave No Trace camping, water management, food storage, route finding, and the proper use of map and compass. A visit to Thunder River, the Deer Creek Narrows, Deer Creek Falls, and banks of the fabled Colorado River will serve as watery rewards for those participating in this high-intensity backpack; one that includes off-trail hiking to and from Stone Creek. The class will rendezvous north of the Grand Canyon, and carpool to the trailhead on rough dirt roads. The ideal candidate for this class is a veteran backpacker in the Grand Canyon. Please inquire to see if you qualify.


Grand Staircase Photography
September 20-26
As the California condors ride the wind currents searching for food, they sometimes fly north from the Colorado River, soaring higher and higher as they cross in succession the Paleozoic cliffs of Grand Canyon, the Mesozoic cliffs of Zion Canyon and the Cenozoic cliffs of Bryce Canyon. Observing this same series of cliffs from the ground in the 1870’s, geologist Clarence Dutton referred to them as the “Grand Staircase”. Starting at the top of the staircase, we will photograph the “treads” and “risers” of each of these National Parks as we step our way down through different ecosystems and different rock layers. On the “tread” of Bryce Canyon National Park we’ll be able to photograph a variety of summer flowers in the midst of an old growth forest of ponderosa pine, spruce, fir and aspen. The “riser” is composed of alternating bands of pink and white rock that have been weathered into pillars in a myriad of fantastic shapes—“hoodoos”. These hoodoos look luminescent in the predawn light, and their appearance changes continuously with the interplay of shadows and highlights as the sun rises. In Zion National Park, we’ll photograph a tread of rounded slickrock domes with scattered juniper and piñon pine and a riser of shear sandstone in colors of orange, white, and blue/black, cut by the narrows of the Virgin River gorge. At Grand Canyon National Park’s Toroweap Overlook the black volcanic cone of Vulcan’s Throne dominates the tread, while creeping to the edge of the tread reveals a gut-wrenching view down the riser’s 2,800 foot vertical drop to the Colorado River. The class carpools to the various shooting locations on a variety of roads, a few of which are unpaved and require high-clearance/4 wheel drive vehicles.

Hermit to Boucher Wilderness Studies Workshop
October 13-16
In the late 1800s, numerous dreamers and schemers made their way to the Grand Canyon to carve out a living. One of the more famous of these pioneers was Louis “The Hermit” Boucher. This stoic gentleman of French descent mined, farmed and guided tourists from rim to river in a network of canyons that now bear his name. This rugged corner of the canyon just west of Grand Canyon Village will serve as the setting for participants to develop skills in desert backpacking, Leave No Trace camping, water management, food storage, and the proper use of map and compass. Practice sessions will be conducted along the lushly-vegetated Hermit and Boucher Creeks, the sandy banks of the Colorado River, and the steep cliffs and windswept ridges that cradle Boucher’s namesake trails. In addition to the wilderness skills primer, participants will learn basic geology, and consider the modern and historic forces that are shaping the grandest of canyons. This class is ideally suited for experienced backpackers looking for the next step up in difficulty from the more heavily-travelled Bright Angel and South Kaibab Trails.