Dallas Sierra Club Outings Provide an Essential Link to Nature

The purpose of The Sierra Club is to explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the Earth, to promote the responsible use of the Earth’s ecosystems and resources and to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.

 More than a century ago, John Muir and a group of conservationists laid the foundation for an organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the magnificent wild lands of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The impact of the newly formed Sierra Club was immediate, and its efforts long overdue. With more than 750,000 members, the Sierra Club is today the leader in the grassroots environmental movement. Its members not only preserve our unspoiled landscape, but also protect endangered species and help enact policies so that the air we breathe and the water we drink are safe for future generations.

Muir believed that if you took people out into our wild lands to see for themselves America’s majesty and beauty, they would work toward preservation and protection, and this is still the guiding principle of the Sierra Club’s outings program.

The Dallas Sierra Club has an active program of more 120 outings per year. On any weekend, you might find dayhikes in and around the Dallas area, car camping trips to state parks and wild areas, backpacking trips, canoeing trips and family outings. Several times a year, they go hiking in Colorado, New Mexico or Big Bend National Park. The Dallas Sierra Club sponsors many different types of outings, including backpacking, bus trips, bicycling, service outings, family outings, inner-city outings, singles outings and Young Sierrans outings.

 A Rock Lake shoreline cleanup takes place the second Saturday of each month; check the outings list for details. Occasional trail maintenance and trail building outings are also sponsored.The Dallas Sierra Club also offer a variety of skills development classes for those new to camping or backpacking. Twice per year (usually in February and September) Beginner Backpacking classes are offered, followed by several backpacking trips suitable for beginners. Other classes include Wilderness Navigation, Advanced Backpacking and Camping, Knot Tying, Wilderness First-Aid, Beginning Canoeing, and Leader Training classes.

 The best way to find out about Dallas Sierra Club classes and outings is to viewtheir website calendar and sign up for their Twitter feed. There is also a free monthly email distribution subscription with more outings. For more information, visit DallasSierraClub.org.

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