Oakdale Junior High School seventh graders, teachers and parent chaperones are off on a Southwest adventure, including some exploration of the Grand Canyon, for a six-day educational tour during Spring Break, April 25-30.

Seventh grade science teacher Fred Yerzy and U.S. History teacher Rachel Torres teamed up with Grand Classroom to offer this trip to their students. The trip offers both scientific and historical educational opportunities.

A total of 21 travelers from OJHS are on the trip. They are staying in Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Page, Arizona and also Kanab, Utah. They boarded a 6 a.m. flight in San Francisco on Monday, April 25 and as soon as their plane landed in Tucson, they departed for Katchner Caves, then on to the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens. The next day they visited Montezuma Castle, and then departed for Sedona where they mountain biked through the Red Rocks of Sedona on the Bell Rock Path, and if weather permitted, they got to cool off in a natural waterslide at Slide Rock State Park.

On their third day, today, they’ll tour the Meteor Crater, do a fossil dig simulation at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, and do some rock climbing in Flagstaff. On day four, they depart for the Grand Canyon and hike the South Kaibab Trail and check out the information plaza and Mather Point, the Desert View Watch Tower, and eat authentic Navajo tacos and see real dinosaur fossils at the Cameron Trading Post.

They begin their fifth day with a tour of Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend. Then they’ll float on a raft down the Colorado River. They’ll depart for Kanab and check out the Navajo footbridge across the Colorado and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes at sunset, and end the day with a cowboy dinner. On their sixth and final day, they’ll drive through Zion National Park, then depart for Las Vegas, Nevada and time permitting, will drive over the Hoover Dam Bridge. They’ll dine in Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood and depart from the airport to arrive in San Francisco later that evening.