Field Trip to Saguaro National Park

One benefit of living close to a national park is that the likelihood of your children taking a field trip to the park is high. Both my kids have visited Saguaro National Park with their classes and I was fortunate to attend as a chaperone both times. School field trips are some of my favorite days each year. My kids are still at the ages where they want me to attend and I love getting to spend the day with them doing something fun. Learning is so much more exciting now that I am a grownup.

Saguaro National Park has a really cool school program. My kids did the exact same program years apart so I assume it’s a fairly standard program. The ranger came to their classrooms prior to the field trip day and did some teaching so the kids came to the park prepared for what they were learning about.

Little Miss proudly wore her Junior Ranger shirt and her Junior Ranger badges.

The day started with the history of Arizona and Saguaro National Park as the kids divided into groups and placed events in a timeline. I learned a lot about the history of our state. Throughout the rest of the day the kids participated in activities based upon how things were done at different periods throughout history.

They conducted an archeological dig and created their own petroglyphs on a “pottery sherd”.

They ground corn and mesquite pods, made tortillas, and tasted mesquite flour.

They roped cows, collected water from the “well”, and washed clothes on a washboard.

The kids all loved washing clothes using the washboard. Little Mister remarked that he wanted to do laundry this way at home. Ha! I am fairly certain he would be over it before finishing his first shirt.

And while the kids were learning and working I got to sit back and take in the view. Not too shabby of a day if I do say so myself.

I would like to thank the employees and volunteers at Saguaro National Park for this wonderful educational experience. My kids still talk about what they learned on this field trip years later and it is one of my all-time favorite field trips.