Celebrating 20 Years of Impact

Twenty years ago, Sierra Nevada Journeys started with a simple premise: that kids learn best when the classroom has no walls. Since then, more than 363,000 students have hiked trails with us, tested the health of our local watersheds, and slept under the Sierra Nevada skies, many for the first time. In 2025 alone, more than 33,000 of them found their way to our camp and programs.

This year we also did something we’ll be talking about for the next twenty. Through a landmark partnership with the Feather River Land Trust, Sierra Nevada Journeys received 1,025 acres of protected forest and meadow, more than doubling our Outdoor Education Camp and permanently securing one of the largest youth-centered learning landscapes in the Northern Sierra. It’s the kind of opportunity that comes around once in an organization’s lifetime, and it landed in ours.

None of it happened because of one person, or even one organization. It happened because donors kept believing, volunteers kept showing up, staff kept teaching with the same fire they had on day one, and a community across Nevada and California decided that every kid deserves a chance to stand in a forest and feel small in the best way. That’s still the whole job. Bigger camp, same mission.

Twenty years in, we’re not done. We’re just getting started on the next 1,025 acres of possibility.

Thank you for believing in this mission, and for walking this path with us.

With gratitude,

Sean Hill
President and CEO

Joe Schofield
Board Chair