Staffing
Teachers (naturalists on site)

Length of trip
4 days, 3 nights

Travel time
1.5 hours each way

Food
Lunch and snack to be brought by students for day one; all other meals will be provided

Transportation
Carpools to be arranged by teacher and roomparents

Objectives

1. To further develop necessary skills for a better experience in communal and cooperative living without parental supervision.
2. To reacquaint students with evolution-ecology concepts studied in previous years.
3. To focus on the concept of adaptation via ecology-based games on the trail.
4. Via a long hiking loop, to emphasize the changes that occur in flora and fauna as the elevation and distance from the shoreline increase.

Point Reyes National Seashore contains unique elements of biological and historical interest in a spectacularly scenic panorama of thunderous ocean breakers, open grasslands, bushy hillsides, and forested ridges. Native land mammals number about 37 species and marine mammals augment this total by another dozen species. The biological diversity stems from a favorable location in the middle of California and the natural occurrence of many distinct habitats. Nearly 20% of the State's flowering plant species are represented on the peninsula and over 45% of the bird species in North America have been sighted. The Point Reyes National Seashore was established by President John F. Kennedy on September 13, 1962.

The Clem Miller Environmental Education Center consists of a main building housing two large classrooms, teaching aids, library, and nature exhibits. There are six rustic dormitory cabins. Located in a meadow at the foot of a Douglas fir and bay laurel canyon, the Education Center is surrounded by hiking trails and is just two miles from the great stretch of beach at Limantour. A newly developed nature trail at the Education Center provides a short exploration through a forested valley.

Reprinted by permission from Clem Miller Environmental Education Center, Point Reyes National Seashore.
More information available at http://www.ptreyes.org/clem/center.html