As eleven of my classmates and I descended into a slot canyon in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, a nearby hiker stopped and asked, “How come you aren’t in school?”  It’s mid-September and we are about as far from traditional classrooms as we could be. The wild, remote landscapes of Montana have become

The Missouri River Breaks is a landscape dominated by striking sedimentary landforms, endless sagebrush flats, placid green water, acres of cattle, and men. While the latter two elements may seem minor in the geological timescale that has shaped the landscape, their influence in the last two centuries has been marked and undeniable. Cow pies score

Sitting in the Great Falls doctor’s office with a sling on my right arm, I sighed, replaying the moment I dislocated my shoulder in the Bob Marshall Wilderness over and over in my head like a broken record. I almost couldn’t comprehend that days before we had been blissfully trekking along and now I was

Rocks are lively, dynamic, and bearers of history. This was certainly never a thought that crossed my mind until I abandoned old perspectives and simply sat among them. With my college education rooted deeply in Western science, and working toward a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Management, unbeknownst to me, my mind became rooted in

As we paddled down the Upper River Breaks National Monument, I was constantly reminded of the Corps of Discovery’s observations recorded by Lewis and Clark regarding the presumably untouched wilderness. These documented observations are found plastered on papers, posters, and plaques along the Upper Missouri river bottom, in “baseline of wilderness statements” in our course

MONTANA AFOOT & AFLOAT FINAL PRESENTATION: Join us Wednesday, October 23 from 5:30-7:00 PM at the UM FLAT studio to welcome our Afoot & Afloat students back to Missoula after two months in the field! Be the first to hear their stories, see their photos, and ask them questions about their remarkable journey across Montana.

I sat perched several hundred feet up on the side of the crumbling sandstone cliff, looking out of the large hole that had been formed in its side. I gazed out at the vast expanse of land laid out below me, the hills of sage and towering white stone pillars reaching for the sky, and

In all of my 16 and a half years of education, it wasn’t until I started taking adventure classes in college that I realized how rarely we are asked to problem-solve in our everyday lives, to put ourselves out there and do something truly challenging. Sure, we ask kids to figure out how to score

Rivers and holidays are hopeful. They’re both loud and big. They draw attention and glee, and on American soil, they represent a proud history. Just as the Missouri River meanders through the continent — its headwaters in Montana so vastly different than where it meets the Mississippi in St. Louis – The Fourth of July

As we left the shore of the muddy Missouri, we crossed a cow burnt field and started up a draw. We worked our way through the rolling hills, which flanked the mouth of what would soon be Neat Coulee. We bobbed or way up canyon, slowly pristine white Virgelle Sandstone rose like the walls of