Community, Gestalt, Architecture
and Design in Nature

with author, green architect, and activist Nathaniel
Corum from Architecture for Humanity.

Launching on the Solstice, we will focus on community, gestalt, and architecture and design in nature. We’ll explore indigenous land use and community, nomadic art and agriculture. We’ll paddle, journal, and sketch a new vision for the way we inhabit our environment. We’ll design and build environmental art and collage from the occasional trash, debris, and natural flotsam and jetsam that we harvest from the riverbanks. (We’ll re-camouflage back into nature after we document the work.) We’ll discuss appropriate technology for mobile and off- grid systems, super-green materials and systems, indigenous technology and appropriate use of emerging technologies, salvage and waste-as- resource materials approaches, low-impact building techniques and foundation systems, and characteristics of “sustainable” communities.

We’ll learn how to sit in a circle around a fire and listen to each other much as the ancestral Puebloans did. We’ll learn to sing along. With the help of our OARS trip leader, we'll investigate ancient rock art and archeological sites and learn about the natural history of the Canyonlands as well.

Austin singer/songwriter Patrice Pike, co-founder of the Grace Foundation (an Austin organization that provides services for homeless teens), will play music and coordinate our open mic!

Fun will be had, art will be made, and participants will become card-carrying eco-hedonists.

(Curriculum is calibrated for college students, although we welcome participants of all ages. This provides for a diversity of perspectives and insures that our floating temporary intentional community actually feels like a community.)

Itinerary at a Glance

• Our Cataract Canyon rafting trip begins with a scenic and instructional drive from Salt Lake City to Moab
• Overnight in Moab and depart in the morning for the put-in at Potash
• Enter Meander Canyon and watch for petroglyphs
• Float leisurely into Canyonlands National Park
• Spectacular side canyons, prehistoric ruins, seasonal waterfalls and incredible vistas
• Lathrop Ruin and ancient pictographs of solstice calendar
• Explore Indian Creek’s fascinating Native American ruins
• Float past Pyramid Butte, the mighty Goose Neck and Dead Horse Point (immortalized in the movie Thelma and Louise)
• Meet the confluence of the Green River where Cataract Canyon begins, hinting at the whitewater to come
• Major rapids begin at Spanish Bottom where it is possible to see a fading 1893 inscription from the steamer, Major Powell
• Enter the Maze District and hike 1,200 feet up to the Doll House where you can view the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park from a unique vantage point
• Challenge Brown Betty, Mile Long, Capsize and the legendary Big Drop Rapids
• Enter Lake Powell at Hite and transfer back to Moab