Outdoor Experience Free Workshops

The activities are offered at no charge to the participant. Activities are open to anyone.
*Stewardship Award to anyone who attends four or more workshops/activities within one year.
Some dates and times are still to be determined. Hang tight!

Redlands Conservancy's Outdoor Experience Workshops open the 2026 season on Saturday, February 21, with a guided mountain bike ride on Herngt 'Aki' Preserve in Live Oak Canyon. Bicycle Commuter Jonathan Baty is the mountain bike trail maven in the region, and he will be your guide. He will lead you on one piece of the Orogenesis, the longest bike-packing route in the world, as it goes right through Redlands and Yucaipa. He will point out the special sites in the preserve, and will offer tips for making your mountain bike adventure totally awesome. Meet at the Gateway Ranch parking lot, 31313 Live Oak Canyon Road in Redlands, at 9am with your own bicycle, helmet, and filled water bottle.

Even if you know the trails well, you will certainly experience the joy of learning more about the preserve.

* Registration is free; register here

• February 21, 9am – Mountain Bike Ride at its Best! – Ride the Orogenesis at HAP – Take a mountain bike trek all over the miles of trails at Herngt ‘Aki’ Preserve (HAP) in Redlands with bicycle commuter Jonathan Baty.

• March 14, 10am – Melding Tech and Nature! – Tech Loves Nature, Too – How to use the tools and apps on your phone to learn more about the natural world – Lisa Pierce, presenter, GIS Analyst in the Innovation & Technology Dept (iT) at the City of Riverside.

• April 11, time TBD – Shooting the Beauty of Nature! – Nature Photography: The Secrets of Capturing the Beauty of Nature – Caroline McAllister, presenter. Nature photography gives me the chance to use the “paint brushes” of focus, framing, and depth of field to slow down, look closely at, and appreciate the colorful, delicate pattern-rich natural world around us. I invite you to join me in a quiet walk to “collect” some of that beauty.

• May 16, 9:30 – Happy Kids, Happy Hikes! – Hiking with Kids for a Happy Trip – Leslie Scofield (Kids Nature Club), presenter, leads a one-hour + hike on a nature trail and shows the kids and their adults how to have fun on the trail.

• June 20, 7:30pm – Summer Night Skies! – Summer Night Skies: Knowing where you are by the summer sky – Dave Maupin, Wizard of the Stars, presenter

• July, date TBD – Nature at Night! – Summer Night Hike on Saha’tapa Loop Trail – Hike the 2-miile loop trail at night to hear and smell one of Redlands’ wild places; refreshments at The Watering Hole on return

• September – Be a Citizen Scientist! – Citizen Scientists make Conservation efforts more effective – demonstrate how to collect and log data, how to share data, and what kind of data is useful.

• October 10, 10am – How Live Oak Canyon Was Saved! – Canyon History – Serrano People, Outlaws, Railroads, Stage Coaches, and Ranchers in Live Oak Canyon, and how developers almost won! – Sherli Leonard, Redlands Conservancy executive director, presenter

• November, date TBD – How Serrano People lived on and with the land – November, date TBD – How Serrano People lived on and with the land