Botany and Herbalism Intensive
Join us for a weekend of botany, plant medicine, ancestral skills - and hot springing:)
Thursday, September 17th - Sunday, September 20th
Near Gunnison, CO
This hands-on class will be held at a beautiful private hot spring near Gunnison, CO. Come get your hands dirty and your spirit full while learning herbalism, botany, and ancestral skills. We’ll be crafting and learning on the landscape by day, gathering around the fire by night, sharing songs and stories, and soaking up the quiet while soaking in the hot springs in between.
Course costs include camping, all course materials, and 3 nights of soaking at a beautiful private hot springs
Botany, Plant Identification, & Wildcrafting
Learn how to identify medicinal plants of the Rocky Mountain Bioregion. This course is a hands-on intensive with emphasis on plant identification, learning plant family similarities, and gaining awareness of local ecology. Designed to give you confidence in your future foraging endeavors with skillful instruction on how to avoid poisonous look-alikes, and how to feel comfortable knowing common edible and medicinal plants. This course is designed around cultivating relationship with plants - learning how to steward and tend the landscape as part of a wildcrafting practice.
Herbalism and Medicine Making
Delve into the materia medica of the rocky mountain bioregion.
We’ll cover indications, herbal actions, safety, and energetics of each herb, while covering Western Herbalism principles and practices. You’ll learn to create medicinal teas, infuse medicinal oils and create salves, as well as create tinctures from the landscape.
Participants will go home with teas, tincture, and salve that they crafted during the weekend
Ancestral Skills
This weekend will focus on basketry skills, with an emphasis on splint basketry. You’ll craft your own harvesting basket, and go home with the knowledge of how to gather and process your own basket making supplies for the future.
IMPORTANT DETAILS:
Please come self-sufficient for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day.
Class is 9am - 5:30pm each day, with occasional night time activities - be prepared to go all day, but with lots of time for breaks and a long lunch.
Be prepared for hot days and cold nights. Class is rain or shine!
There will be some moderately strenuous activity, mostly in the form of plant walks over uneven terrain
Participants must arrange for their own transportation to and from the course
No dogs or pets
Car camping, small RV, or tent camping available. Vehicle clearance of 8 inches or more recommended, though not not required
Our class site is located about 40 minutes outside the town of Gunnison, CO.
Camping is remote, dispersed and without running water.Resupply will be limited for the duration of the intensive. Bring enough food and water for the trip (participants need to supply their own food and water).
Non-flush toilet available onsite
Course Cost: $750
Payment Plans Available
Early Bird: Use the code HOTSPRINGS to get $100 off the full course price when you sign up before July 31st, 2026.
Course costs include camping, all course materials, and 3 nights of soaking at a beautiful private hot springs