SWTI Wildtrack Weekends
February 6-8, Southern AZ
March 6-8, Anza Borrego desert, Southern CA
April 10-12, Deserts and mountains of San Diego County, CA
May 1-3, Deserts and mountains of San Diego County, CA
Custom Build Your Own Itinerary
Wildtrack Weekends are designed to fit YOUR schedule. Each weekend is a stand-alone field experience to sharpen observation skills while exploring fresh animal stories on ever-changing landscapes. Perfect for beginners or seasoned veterans who would like to score 100% on their next certification, each weekend builds expertise in foot morphology, gaits, life histories, clear and obscure track ID. With no two weekends alike, they’re an ideal way to deepen your tracking journey without the 5-month commitment.
Dig deep into animal behavior—Our weekend classes are designed to be stand-alone courses. Each one is a field-based tracking weekend—we might spend our morning interpreting a mountain lion kill site, looking at harvest mouse tracks by the wash, or discovering a quail roost up an oak-filled canyon. Our goal is to sharpen our observation skills, then identify and interpret the animal sign on the landscape, and we'll go wherever our curiosity takes us.
Never the same tracks twice—Because each class is a singular field experience, no two weekends will be the same. We'll be at different locations, and we never encounter the same stories on the landscape twice. So if you're hungering for more tracking skills, but don't have the time to commit to the 5-month Intensive, consider taking two or three of the weekend classes!
Something for everyone—Whether you're just starting out in your tracking journey, or you're a seasoned veteran of CyberTracker certifications, there's something for you in these weekends. Every story we encounter on the landscape presents a myriad of potential questions we can ask and answer, and these can be tailored to your skill level.
Topics may include:
- Observation Skills: How to eliminate the visual “noise” around track and sign, and hone your sensory skills.
- Foot Morphology: The shape of an animal's foot dictates the way its tracks look. We'll spend time understanding how animal feet are structured, and how this relates to their behavior, evolutionary history, and the tracks we see on the ground.
- Animal Life Histories: Learning the life histories of the animals we track deepens our understanding of their behavior, creates a more fulfilling relationship with them, and gives us insight into how they use the landscape.
- Animal Gaits and Movement: Animals all have different body plans, and they move in different ways. Understanding their gaits, and the tracks they leave behind, helps us identify to species, and also creates a framework for understanding behavior—a key component of reading their stories!
- Clear (and Not So Clear) Track ID: After observation skills, track ID is perhaps the most important part of your tracking toolkit. We'll learn how to identify clear tracks, and then work backwards from there, until we understand how to identify partial and obscure tracks referencing our clear track knowledge.
- Reading Alarm Calls to Interpret the Landscape: Bird and mammal alarms can tell us about the presence of predators, about how animals react to human presence, and allow us to interpret behavior and mindset.
2026 Weekend Class Dates
For 2026, we are offering four Immersive Weekend classes, in locations around the greater Southwest. Choose from the rivers and canyons of Southern AZ, the low deserts of San Diego County CA, and the peninsular mountain range just east of San Diego. The peninsular range is diverse, and has amazing animal activity, so we're offering two separate weekend classes there in order to more fully explore the area.
SWTI weekend classes are intended for trackers of all skill levels. If you're a beginner, you'll leave with a solid tracking process and a great foundation in observation skills, as well as knowledge of track ID and animal behavior. If you're a experienced tracker, you'll have a chance to find weaknesses in your process and knowledge, and come away with specific strategies to improve your skills.
Weekend Class: February 6-8, 2026
Sierra Vista, AZ—Desert, San Pedro River, and Sky Island mountains.
The basin and range mountains of Southeastern Arizona are big, wild, and full of diverse wildlife. We'll spend our days exploring the San Pedro River, the last major undimmed river of the Southwest, as well as the desert flats, and oak-filled canyons.
We will be in the field for the whole weekend, identifying and interpreting animal sign and behavior. Our locations will be based around the small city of Sierra Vista, where you'll find hotels, Air BnBs, restaurants, and grocery stores. There are also may free camping spots outside of town on BLM land. Click here for more info on accommodations.
By the end of this weekend, you will have created, or built upon, your tracking process, and gained new expertise in track and sign ID, and animal behavior interpretation. Additionally, you'll have spent some real dirt time in beautiful and wild places with expert instructors.
Weekend Class: March 6-8, 2026
Anza Borrego Desert—Southeast California
The Anza Borrego desert in San Diego County, CA, is over a million acres of desert wilderness—a tracker's paradise! Terrain varies from low sandy creosote flats, to rocky mountain canyons, and everything in between. This desert is truly wild, and we'll have the opportunity to get out into some extraordinary places with a ton of wildlife.
We'll spend our entire weekend out in the desert, observing and interpreting animal track and sign. There's plenty of free BLM camping, as well as a nice, shady campground with showers and bathrooms. The town of Borrego Springs is roughly 30 minutes away. Click here for more info on accommodations.
By the end of this weekend, you'll have some serious dirt time under your belt, and a host of new skills and knowledge to show for it.
Weekend Class: April 10-12, 2026
Eastern San Diego Desert and Mountains
Anza Borrego Desert State Park and if the weather is warm, up into the foothills and higher elevation plateaus with pine forests and riparian areas along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) just 30-45 minutes west of Borrego Springs,
The peninsular mountain range that separates the city San Diego from the low deserts of the Sonoran Desert provides us with a multitude of outstanding tracking locations depending on the weather. San Diego County offers a wide array of diverse and fascinating habitats. We can explore desert hot springs, cougar filled high desert canyons and cool forests along the PCT. We'll go where the tracking AND weather are best, along with input from the class. With huge tracts of preserved land, the tracking both "up and down the hill" is always excellent, and we'll have a plethora of wonderful field locations to choose from.
Mountain lions are found in our desert canyons as well as our higher elevation riparian areas. Wherever there are mule deer or big horn sheep, we'll find mountain lions. A female mountain lion who is pregnant or raising cubs needs to take at least a big horn or deer each week. Other animals on our radar, both high and low, will be:
- Badger
- Raccoon
- Coyote
- Bobcat
- Opossum
- Ringtail
- Black-tailed jackrabbit
- Desert cottontail
- Gray fox
- Kit Fox
- Striped skunk
- Western Gray squirrel
- California ground squirrel
- Western spotted skunk
- Long-tailed weasel
- Antelope ground squirrel
- Botta's pocket gopher
- Merriam's chipmunk
- Kangaroo rats - 3 species
- Wood rats - 3 species
- Black Rat
- Vole
- Pocket mouse
- Deer mice
- Harvest mouse
- Broad-footed mole
- Shrew -
- Salamander
- Lizards
- Toads
- Frogs
- Turtles
- Crayfish
- Scorpion
- Spiders
- Beetles
- Owls
This weekend will be fully field-based! Come prepared to spend long, satisfying days out in wild places, sharpening your senses. There's free camping near our field locations, and several mountain towns with amenities a short drive away. Find more details about accommodations here.
After completing this weekend, you will have had the opportunity to apply a host of new observation skills, and will come away with deep knowledge of this mountain ecosystem and the animals that call it home.
Weekend Class: May 1-3, 2026
Eastern San Diego Desert and Mountains
Anza Borrego Desert State Park and if the weather is warm, up into the foothills and higher elevation plateaus with pine forests and riparian areas along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) just 30-45 minutes west of Borrego Springs,
The peninsular mountain range that separates the city San Diego from the low deserts of the Sonoran Desert provides us with a multitude of outstanding tracking locations depending on the weather. San Diego County offers a wide array of diverse and fascinating habitats. We can explore desert hot springs, cougar filled high desert canyons and cool forests along the PCT. We'll go where the tracking AND weather are best, along with input from the class. With huge tracts of preserved land, the tracking both "up and down the hill" is always excellent, and we'll have a plethora of wonderful field locations to choose from.
Mountain lions are found in our desert canyons as well as our higher elevation riparian areas. Wherever there are mule deer or big horn sheep, we'll find mountain lions. A female mountain lion who is pregnant or raising cubs needs to take at least a big horn or deer each week.
There are a multitude of amazing tracking spots in our deserts and mountains and we'll head to a different set of locations than our April 10-12 class. Come ready to explore the deserts. foothills and mountains of Julian and the surrounding areas, and dig deep into the track and sign of diverse species that inhabit the area. There's free camping near our field sites, and several mountain towns with amenities a short drive away—more details on our accommodations page here.
This weekend course will reinforce your existing tracking knowledge, create structure if you're a beginner, and give you 2 full days of dirt time to bolster your skills and confidence to keep tracking after our class is over.
Sample Weekend Class Itinerary
Curious what a typical SWTI Wildtrack weekend class looks like? Here's a sample itinerary to get a feel for how we spend our time.
Friday activities are optional, as some people may not be able arrive until later in the evening due.
3:00pm Arrive and set up camp.
4:00pm Optional tracking show and tell—bring your track casts, photos, cool stuff you found in the field, and mysteries you've found. We'll have a chance to share our experiences and learn something in the process. Instructors will provide show and tell if nobody else does, so there will always be something to do.
6:00pm Optional group dinner at the social campsite
Saturday is our long day in the field. Expect this day to be tiring, satisfying, and full of awesome animal track and sign.
8:30am Meet at our field location, usually a short drive from where we've camped. We may head directly out into the field, or we may spend some time by the trailhead—there's usually a lot of interesting animal sign at the beginning of a trail or forest service road! We'll spend the next several hours finding stories on the land, talking about what we've found, reviewing our learning objectives from previous weekends, or perhaps journaling tracks.
12:00pm Lunch in the field. We'll find a comfortable spot, with some shade, relax for a bit, and eat.
12:45pm Keep tracking! If our first field location is productive, we'll continue exploring there. If not, we'll head somewhere else close by and continue with our day's lesson.
5:00pm Head back to camp. Clean up and get some dinner started.
6:00pm Optional group dinner and social time around the campfire. How the evening goes will depend on the group atmosphere—some students are very social, while others prefer to grab some down time in the evenings.
Sunday is shorter, and we'll end our day mid-afternoon.
8:30am Meet at our field location. Usually we'll visit a different site, unless our previous day's location was highly productive, and still had a lot left to explore.
11:30am Lunch in the field
2:00pm Review, wrap-up, and go over optional homework for our next weekend together.
3:00pm Class concludes