Lake Estelle Beginner Backpack, ID

• Cost: $120
• Ages: 5 and up
• Difficulty Rating: 4 out of 10

This is a gentle trail and we’ll be in no hurry to get to camp. Both the journey and the destination will be an adventure. This is a great way to get into the high country of the Idaho Cabinet Mountains with young children or inexperienced backpackers. We’ll have a chance to climb on rocks, swim, and make rock sculptures in the talus slopes as we watch for marmots and pikas. The wildflowers will be spectacular — and we’ll try to find time to do some watercolor painting.

Family Camping Weekend, ID

• Cost: $10 per person
• Ages: 5 and up
• Difficulty Rating: 1 out of 10

This is an opportunity for families to get an introduction to camping, backpacking and spending time outdoors in a safe and friendly way. You can come to this with any knowledge base — very experienced to no experience at all — and we guarantee you will walk away knowing more.

Equipment will be provided or you can bring your own and we’ll help you with it. Families will rotate between stations teaching navigation, knots, first aid, nature journaling, plants, shelter building, and animals. The $10 fee includes food and equipment.

Four Mile Lake Canoe Trip, WA

• Cost: $80
• Ages: 10 and up; younger ok with a parent
• Difficulty Rating: 2 out of 10

Leaving after school on Friday. This beautiful basalt cliff-lined lake full of waterfowl is just a half hour west of Spokane. Learn the history, geology and biology of this wetland-dotted sagebrush country. In this area 3 major habitat types blend together to provide visitors with an interesting array of wildlife and plants. We’ll canoe four miles to the south end of the lake where we’ll set up camp as a base for our explorations.

Kirkwood Ranch Backpacking, ID

• Cost: $120
• Ages: 8 and up
• Difficulty Rating: 5 out of 10

We will backpack 6 miles up the Snake River in the deepest canyon in North America — Hells Canyon — to the historic Kirkwood ranch. Learn about the volcanic past of this area, and the plants and animals who have adapted to live here. The backpack in is short and fairly flat, and we’ll take our time. This is a very good trip for folks who are new to backpacking. We’ll do day hikes, swim and learn about Native American culture and wilderness skills in our leisure time, of which there will be a lot!

John Day Fossil Beds Trip, OR

• Cost: $200
• Ages: All ages
• Difficulty Rating: 2 out of 10

On this trip we’ll tour the three districts of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument — the painted desert, Sheep rock, and Clarno — traveling through 65 million years of the most complete fossil record on the planet. There will be a traditional turkey dinner for thanksgiving and we’ll spend three nights in teepees.

Missoula Flood Trail, WA

• Cost: $200
• Ages: 6 and up
• Difficulty Rating: 2 out of 10

The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, the first such trail in the United States, follows the path of the Missoula Floods, which shaped much of the Northwest thousands of years ago. The trail begins at glacial Lake Missoula, passes through Lewiston, Idaho, and spreads through the channeled scablands of eastern Washington before blowing past Portland and into the Pacific Ocean at Astoria. Back-flooding, caused by gaps in the landscape that were too narrow to let all of the water flow out at once, formed temporary lakes in the Willamette Valley extending as far south as Eugene, Oregon. These floods contained 10 times as much water as all the rivers in the world combined. We will tour the areas affected in eastern Washington, going to Potholes State Park, Dry Falls, Grand Coulee and Palouse Falls.