Time Traveler's Notebook: Mesa Verde

Join author Craig Childs Oct 7-11 for a field experience in Mesa Verde National Park. This is a journaling and archaeology workshop, though you don't have to be a journaler or an archaeologist. Everyone will get something out of this.

All you need to bring is a personal journal, pen or pencil, and layers for weather.

The program is limited to 15 participants.

$1,800 per person.

WHAT YOU GET

• Access to Mesa Verde National Park with Craig Childs as your guide, including 18 hours of immersive instruction in a small group setting of 15 participants.

• One small field journal hand-illustrated with an inked block print.

• Natural and wholesome meals and snacks prepared by a chef coming up from southern New Mexico.

• Three nights of bunkhouse lodging outside of Mancos, CO.* 

• Transportation from the bunkhouse into the park by "River Trippers," a guide outfit from Durango.

SCHEDULE

Thursday, October 8th arrive for happy hour where we’ll hand out field journals at the bunkhouse, meet each other, orient, and have a short journaling exercise to stretch our writing muscles. That will be followed by dinner and a campfire.

Friday the 9th is our first day walking among 13th century cliff dwellings, homelands to Pueblo people, Ute, and Athabaskan speakers, and the digging grounds of European explorers and early scientists like the Wetherills and Gustaf Nordenskiöld. In the evening, Childs will hold a session sharing his journals and techniques he used for books like House of Rain, Finders Keepers, and Tracing Time.

Saturday the 10th is our second field day, back to Mesa Verde to explore more of the park with continued lectures and writing sessions. We’ll return to the bunkhouse by mid-afternoon for a journaling session with prompts and instruction. This is where we transcribe our field notes into our personal journals. After dinner will be readings and a campfire.

Sunday morning is breakfast, a final session with Childs, and by 11am we scatter to the winds.

* A note on lodging: the bunkhouse has beds in both shared and private rooms for 9 of our 15 people. Those beds are first come first serve. If you’d prefer to camp or lodge elsewhere, lodging will be deducted from the workshop price. There is also covered deck space at the bunkhouse that would suffice for those with warm bags and pads.