Seeing and Saving the Land

In the movie “Field of Dreams,” the message that drives Kevin Costner’s character to build a baseball diamond is, “If you build it, they will come.” The Sierra Club is based on a different idea. Founder John Muir believed that if they came, they would preserve it: “If people in general could be got out into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish.” America’s most influential environmental advocacy group learned early on that the key to digging up new support is convincing people to experience the beauty of the outdoors firsthand.

This year the Sierra Club is celebrating the centennial of its Outings program. In 1901, the club’s board of directors decided to add an annual summer/autumn trip to the club’s roster of activities, which had generally consisted of public educational meetings.

Today there are more than 300 international and domestic outings a year, and visitors to the Sierra Club Web site, https://www.sierraclub.com, are met with an order that would make Muir happy: Get outdoors.

If the call of the wild isn’t enough to sell you on a nature vacation, maybe the price is (at least for some trips). Some destinations can be expensive (and a few seem ridiculously so), but for the most part, Sierra Club trips are affordable.

“We offer a number of unique excursions, from backpack to activist to kayak to family to service--there’s something for everyone,” says Molly McCahan, Sierra Club publicity manager. “Perhaps most rewarding and intriguing ... are our activist and service trips, where participants have a chance to learn more about conservation efforts and environmental issues, or get their hands dirty working to preserve some of our nation’s most beautiful parks and wilderness areas.”

Below is a sampling of some of what the Sierra Club has to offer. Although some outings have already passed, they give you an idea of the many travel opportunities the Sierra Club sponsors in virtually every month of the year. If you’re interested in activist work, “Exploring Utah’s Dirty Devil River” might be up your alley. The $495 trip, scheduled for Sept. 25 to Oct. 5, involves exploring the red rock landscape in Utah’s canyon country while learning about conservationists’ efforts to ensure its preservation.

A service trip in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas will have participants performing much-needed trail maintenance in the state’s highest mountain range, with its prehistoric coral reef.

On the one day off, there’s a variety of possible excursions, including a climb up Guadalupe Peak (8,749 feet) and a hike into fall foliage-bedecked McKittrick Canyon. The trip costs $355 and runs Oct. 21 to 27.

To learn more about these trips, and the hundreds of others the Sierra Club offers, the outings page of the club’s Web site, https://www.sierraclub.com/outings, is helpful and comprehensive. Or contact the outings department by phone at (415) 977-5522.