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Equinox Wilderness Quest: Ritual and Ecology

September 19 - September 27
$2550

This nine-day Wilderness Quest will be held in the Inyo Mountains, a remote high desert range that is a place of silence, beauty, and wildness. This is a drive-in base camp, requiring a high clearance vehicle, preferably 4 wheel drive.

Occurring over the autumnal equinox, this Wilderness Quest offers a chance to slow down and experience the changing of the seasons within and around you. We will explore what becomes possible when we deepen our relationship with place and allow the land itself to guide our process of transition and renewal.

About The Ritual & Ecology Quest

While ecology refers to the study of relationships between living things, this quest is an opportunity to immerse ourselves in a spiritual ecology; to rediscover ourselves as part of a living web of relationships with place. We could also call this remembering.

Alongside the traditional Wilderness Quest structure, this program invites us to experience the wilderness more intimately through practices of observation, attention, tracking, inquiry, and ritual. These practices are forms of reciprocity and deepen our relationship with the land, help us mark and make meaning of transitions in our lives, and uncover insights into our unique gifts, questions, and longings.

Opening to deeper relationship with place reminds us that we are connected to all of life and a larger web of belonging. This is an opportunity to turn our awareness, care, and attention toward the plants, animals, and other beings around us. By returning to what is so often neglected in our human-centric culture, we rediscover that we truly belong, and that cultivating our relationship with the more-than-human world is both a gift to ourselves and an offering to the communities and places we inhabit.

Rites of Passage has offered the Wilderness Quest, with its roots in pan-cultural ceremonies and teachings, for over 45 years. With a focus on reconnecting with nature, finding authentic depth and meaning, healing old wounds, and  marking significant life changes, the program will appeal to men and women in any life stage.

DAYS 1-3: Preparation

The first 3 days are Severance or preparation time for the solo.  Meeting in Council sessions, the group will explore a range of subjects related to the Wilderness Quest solo, including safety-related issues: flora/fauna, weather-related concerns (heat, cold, lightning), essential first aid, our buddy system, and tarp-tying.  The group will also explore eco-spiritual tools that can be of great value in preparing, such as the Medicine Wheel teachings, exploration of Intent and purpose, self-generated ceremonial practices, and teachings from the Death Lodge. Group members will have several hours to follow their calling to find a solo site to hold them in the wilderness for days and nights.

DAYS 4-6: Solo

You will have three days of time in the liminal world or Spirit world, held by the land and the wider community of life around you.  This is time to let go, heal, reflect, write in your journal, sing, dance, laugh, weep, call in the life awaiting you, mark your passage with ceremony.

DAYS 7-9: Return

The final 3 days, following the return from the solo, will be devoted to taking the necessary steps of return or Incorporation in a fully conscious way. This process begins with a Council session where each participant has the opportunity to tell the story of their Wilderness Quest solo and to receive essential feedback and confirmation from staff regarding what has been achieved.

Wilderness Quest: September 19-27, 2026

Program Fee*

To make this quest more accessible, we’re offering it on a sliding scale of $1,200–$2,550.

When you register, you’ll be asked to indicate the total program fee you intend to pay within that range. We invite you to consider both your financial circumstances and the value of this experience to you. If you are able to pay the full fee, we encourage you to do so, helping us extend this opportunity to participants for whom cost would otherwise be a barrier.

We warmly encourage anyone who has felt called to quest but held back by finances to choose an amount that makes it possible to answer that call.

To reserve your place, please submit a $600 non-refundable deposit at registration. The remaining balance is due 30 days before the program begins. Please see our Policies page for information about deposits, refunds, and payment options.

Scholarships

Rather than offering a limited number of scholarships for this program, we’ve chosen to make the quest available on a sliding scale so that greater financial accessibility is built into the registration process.

Meals

All backcountry dinners are included in the program fee.

Participants are responsible for their own breakfasts and lunches, as well as up to two restaurant dinners during the program.

Transportation

Transportation to and from the program is the responsibility of each participant and is not included in the program fee.

The quest location requires a high-clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicle. For those flying, Reno, Nevada (approximately a three-hour drive from our meeting location) is the most convenient airport. We encourage participants to coordinate rides or share rental vehicles whenever possible.

Please read The Rites of Passage Wilderness Quest for a detailed description of the elements and stages of the journey.

Dates and Logistics

The program will begin on Saturday, September 19 at 1 pm.  We’ll be spending the first night at a campground along the Owens Valley, California. The next day, we’ll move to the back country for 6 nights, returning to spend one last night in the Owen’s Valley before the program ends by noon on Sunday, September 27.  We’ll schedule an online pre-trip meeting about a month before the quest begins to review gear, logistics, and transportation and a follow-up online meeting about a month after it ends, to support participants on their journeys.

Staff

Dashielle Vawter is a coach, singer/songwriter, minister, wilderness quest and mountain guide.

Daniel Francis is a regenerative designer, educator, rites-of-passage guide, culture-repair coyote, storyteller, fly fisherman, musician and tracker.

I was ready. And still, I was astonished, awed, and humbled by the way I was cracked open, made fuller still, and given a bigger life to go home to.
–Jonathon B., Fall 2021

It was a sacred experience, all that I hoped for and more than I could have asked for or imagined.
–Gretchen V., Fall 2018

The quest echoed so much of my life, in ways that allowed me to see it and understand it in new ways.  I will always cherish it and I believe it will enrich and deepen my world for many years to come.
–Bob E., Fall 2018

The experience has been amazing.  I came for clarity on some life issues around relationships and my career. I found progress there, but at a deeper level  I found a sense of lightness in my soul I have not felt in many years, as well as a new famly with my fellow questers.
–Jimi C., Summer 2022

This was a life changing experience.  I will carry what I learned and experienced, and the people I quested with, into my new life.
–Linda H., Summer 2022

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