The Outdoor Experience

As a classroom, wilderness provides extraordinary opportunities to learn. Leaving behind the distractions created by peer pressure, drugs, alcohol, and negative media, students are left with few things to consider other than those that are most important: Why was I sent here? What does it mean to be accountable to others? How can I learn to have fun in a healthy, positive manner? How can wilderness help me and my life?

In designing the outdoor experience and evaluating other wilderness models, Phoenix Outdoor chose to utilize a combination of a base camp and wilderness experience. Unlike other programs that choose to keep students in a continuous wilderness environment, the integration of wilderness and base camp allows Phoenix to offer a variety of pre-planned activities, improved health and hygiene, increased access to therapy, better diet, and easier re-supply.

Students hike and camp in the U.S. National Forest on pre-planned expeditions, returning to base camp on a regularly scheduled basis. Students are supervised by highly skilled professionals seasoned in wilderness travel, first aid, and risk management. This expertise ensures that student safety is our top priority. In addition to providing safety and supervision, Field Instructors execute daily lesson plans designed to help students uncover their issues and begin to process how they feel about those issues.