Travel Courses

Gila Cliff Dwellings and Wilderness Field Experience

July 14 – July 18, 2025

The application deadline for this trip has passed. Details on next year's trip will be posted in early 2026.

Explore and study the biology and geography of the Gila Cliff Dwellings and Wilderness in Western NM. Through guided explorations, this five-day trip gives students a first-hand opportunity to study the environment of one of the most remote and pristine wilderness areas in the continental United States, as well as the Mogollon culture and the habitats they occupied 750 years ago.

This trip is an embedded field experience in both BIOL 1407 - Biology for Science Majors II and GEOG 1302 – Human Geography. Students must be enrolled in at least one of these classes to participate, but are encouraged to enroll in both (contact your academic advisor to determine which course(s) fulfill your degree plan requirements).

The cost of this trip is $200 per student, which covers transportation and park fees, but does not include tuition, fees, camping equipment, or food.

This trip includes four-nights of tent camping and four-days of hiking in a National Park Service facility. Camping experience is not required, but a sufficient level of physical fitness and outdoors resilience is necessary to gain the most from this experience.

The application deadline for this trip has passed. Details on next year's trip will be posted in early 2026. If you have any questions about this field experience, please contact one of our trip sponsors:

Tomas Hernandez Department Chair - Biology Professor - Biology tohernandez@midland.edu (432) 685-6751

Michael Makowsky Dean - Social & Behavioral Sciences Professor - Geography mmakowsky@midland.edu (43) 685-6828