‘Detroit to Gloryland’ takes local students back to Yosemite

30 September 2025 at 20:30

Detroit Outdoors has taken a group of students and teachers to Yosemite National Park for the second time.

The Detroit to Gloryland journey is designed to introduce youth to outdoor activities like camping and rock climbing and pick up on some history.

The group travels to Yosemite in late July so they are in there during National Buffalo Soldier Day, and within reach of the park system’s expert on the history of Buffalo Soldiers in the park.

Shelton Johnson is a native Detroiter, an alum of Cass Technical High School and a park ranger. He has worked to collect the narratives of the Black and other non-white soldiers who served as Yosemite’s first rangers and share their individual and collective stories.

Park ranger Shelton Johnson in the park — Park ranger Shelton Johnson helps guide the Gloryland students and teach them the park’s history.

WDET’s Sascha Raiyn got to travel with the students both years. You can hear stories from the first Detroit to Gloryland trip and learn more about Shelton Johnson in 2024 here.

‘Gloryland’ veterans speak

Three students pose on top of a mountain — Jaiden Nedd, Cameron Thomas and Arcia Quinn in Yosemite.

Listen: ‘Gloryland’ veterans speak

It was Cass Tech High School Junior Tiffany Orr’s first-time camping and first-time in Yosemite. She interviewed the three students who came on the trip for a second time: Jaiden Nedd, Cameron Thomas and Arcia Quinn.

Expressing Yosemite: a poet’s guide to being in nature

Poetry books on a picnic table at a campsite in the woods — Poet and author Jacqueline Suskind traveled to Yosemite with the students.

Listen: Expressing Yosemite: a poet’s guide to being in nature

Poet and author Jacqueline Suskind traveled with the students. Suskind’s work focuses on her relationship to nature – and on teaching others to explore their own relationships to nature — through writing.

Students had an inside guide to Yosemite this year

Listen: Students had an inside guide to Yosemite this year

Photographer Robel Fessehatzion poses with a student at Yosemite — Students learned some photography skills from professional Rodel Fessehatzion.

Robel Fessehatzion is a landscape photographer who works at and with Yosemite National Park.

He met the students who traveled from Detroit to Yosemite on the 2024 trip.

This year, Fessehatzion introduced the students to the people, places and history that shape his relationship to Yosemite.

He also gave them a little lesson in landscape photography.

A look at how Detroit Outdoors gets it done

Three carts overflowing with groceries at a big box store — Moving more than 20 people across the country to camp is a big undertaking.

Listen: A look at how Detroit Outdoors gets it done

Moving more than 20 people across the country to camp — many for the first time — is a big undertaking. We take a look at the logisitcs of the trip.

‘Gloryland’ first-timers speak

Two students sit at the top of a mountain in Yosemite — Pershing student Eva Effinger and Hamtramck High grad Nora Algahaim in Yosemite.

Listen: ‘Gloryland’ first-timers speak

Sascha Raiyn gave her recorder to Pershing student Eva Effinger and Hamtramck High grad Nora Algahaim. They interviewed each other — on the one night the campers had very loud neighbors. They talked about their first camping experience and starting the trip not feeling so well.

To learn more and see photos of the experience, check out the Detroit Outdoors Instagram account.

Students see the sights offered at Yosemite

'Detroit to Gloryland' offers young adults the chance to learn while out in a national park. Here they ask questions in front of a towering tree.

The trip even allows hands-on learning in the arts, as they travel alongside photographers and poets.

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The post ‘Detroit to Gloryland’ takes local students back to Yosemite appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

Canoemobile brings ‘floating classroom’ to Michigan’s waterways

WDET 101.9 FM

Emma George-Griffin

18 July 2025 at 11:00

More than 400 students got the opportunity to board a “floating classroom” at Lake Erie Metropark in May as part of an outdoor field-trip experience known as the “Canoemobile.”

The program aims to educate kids about the outdoors, local habitats, wildlife, invasive species and more while they navigate waterways on 24-foot-long canoes.

Wilderness Inquiry is a Minnesota-based company that brings the program to schools around the country. The Canoemobile spent five days in the metro Detroit Area, with students from six different schools participating.

More than 400 students participated in Wilderness Inquiry's "Canoemobile" program this spring. — More than 400 students participated in Wilderness Inquiry’s “Canoemobile” program this spring.

At the start of the field trip, half of the students put on life jackets, grab paddles and board canoes. The other half make their way to the grass to sit, run and play as they learn more about what they may see — both in and out of the water.

When they’re on the water, the kids paddle as a team, navigating the river with the help of a “captain.”

Scout Trom, a captain with Wilderness Inquiry, says learning on the water provides more opportunities for students to get curious.

“They’re asking questions about the things we’re seeing, the animals we see, the birds we see, ‘what’s a marsh? What’s different than Lake Erie versus the marsh we’re in?’ And we get to talk about all of that while we’re seeing it,” Trom said.

“It provides a space for people to feel included in the outdoors and provides the knowledge and the message that everyone belongs, deserves and should have a space in the outdoors — no matter your age, ability, background or identity.”

– Scout Trom, Wilderness Inquiry captain

She says she hopes the field trip leaves the students with more than just random facts. The goal of the program is to give the kids lasting knowledge of how nature works and how humans can interact with it, she said.

“It provides a space for people to feel included in the outdoors and provides the knowledge and the message that everyone belongs, deserves and should have a space in the outdoors — no matter your age, ability, background or identity,” Trom said.

Friends of the Detroit River was the local partner for the project. McKenzi Waliczek, the group’s stewardship director, emphasized the importance of making early connections with nature.

“Oftentimes, just making that connection of, ‘hey, this resource is here, and it needs someone like you to care about it,’ is ultimately the ground floor of what we do and everything else just builds off of that,” Waliczek said.

After spending the day outside, the kids packed their bags, boarded buses and headed back to school. (Photo courtesy of Friends of the Detroit River)

The goal of the "Canoemobile" program is to teach kids about local waterways and habitats. (Photo by Emma George-Griffin, WDET)

Students also had an opportunity to explore and learn on land at designated activity stations.

But getting kids to connect with nature isn’t always easy, Trom said. A lot of the students haven’t been to public parks and most of them have never been on the water.

She says some kids hesitate before they board the canoes, while others jump right in.

“To see that mix of emotions come out and so very common, a group comes back, and you see everyone with a unified feeling, that in itself, is enough to bring me back to this program, year after year,” she said.

After the kids dock the canoes, they get an opportunity to explore and learn on land.  Three activity stations were set up to teach the kids about local animals, invasive species and habitats.

“We kind of laugh because with the Animal Planet, you know, kids know more about South American animals than they do about what’s in their own backyard,” said Kevin Arnold, a supervisor for Huron-Clinton MetroParks — another partner of Canoemobile.

After spending the day outside, the kids packed their bags, boarded buses and headed back to school.

The Canoemobile will be back in metro Detroit for another five days in September, but this time they’ll be on Belle Isle.

Willy Tully, external relations director for Wilderness Inquiry, says this is the second time the program visited the area twice in one year, but it’s the first time the program will stay for a total of 10 days.

He also says that the program has been able to visit more often because of funding from the U.S. Forest Service. But they continue to raise money through local organizations to make sure they can keep coming back and to keep kids connected with nature.

Visit wildernessinquiry.org to learn more about the program.

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