News & Events

March 3, 2026

GCY collaborates with Grand Canyon Trust’s Rising Leaders Program on an annual all-Indigenous youth expedition. Read more in the Navajo Hopi Observer article Calling Native Youth: Free Colorado River trip through Grand Canyon Homelands.

August 11, 2025

Article in Flagstaff Business News, “A Real ‘Gneiss’ Guy”, spotlights GCY guide Santo Manone’s custom pack business: GneissPacks (Instagram: @gneisspacks).

April 2, 2025

“Mother Road Brewing Company hosts Building Community Awards”: GCY honored to be donation recipients

March 18, 2025

Grand Canyon Trust and Native News Online are spreading the word about Grand Canyon Youth’s 2025 collaborative Intertribal All-Indigenous youth expedition through Grand Canyon

January 17, 2025

Board Member Spotlight: Ian Austin is featured in the NPS “Employee Spotlight” of Grand Canyon National Park’s Weekly Wrap-Up January 13-17

December 9, 2024

Board Member Spotlight: Helen Ranney is interviewed by Flagstaff Business News in the biopic “A Passion for the Outdoors, Adventure, Travel“

November 12, 2024

Listen to Illumine Collect and Actual Outdoor’s podcast Life in Motion episode #225: “Rivers, Canyons, and the Power of Adventure with Emma Wharton of Grand Canyon Youth”

August 18, 2024

Listen to a 2.5 minute short on Water News podcast that highlights GCY’s role in inclusive conservation efforts “Empowering Indigenous Voices in Grand Canyon Conservation: USGS and GCY’s Groundbreaking Expedition“

August 16, 2024

The US Geological Survey recently posted an article on their website by the Southwest Biological Science Center featuring a collaborative GCY expedition: “Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps joins USGS for Grand Canyon Research Expedition: A Partners in Science Highlight”

August 8, 2024

GCY’s outfitter on the Verde River, Clarkdale Kayak Company, celebrated in an article by Flagstaff Business News, quoting Emma Wharton, “Clarkdale Kayak has been an incredible partner…”

July 3, 2024

GCY’s Partners in Science expeditions and links to all the published science that GCY participants have participated in have been added to the US Geological Survey website.

May 8, 2024

The essay “A Classroom with a View” features Grand Canyon Youth in Michael Engelhard’s new book No Walk in the Park. Read a review of the book here.

December 23, 2023

Late Navajo artist Baje Whitethorne Sr. the recipient of Platt Cline Humanitarian Award. This article honors and celebrates the legacy of the late Diné artist and GCY youth mentor,  Baje Whitethorn Sr.

December 21, 2023

“Watershed moments: GCY Celebrates 25 years of community and evolution“– read interviews with GCY alum and guide, Haile Nelson; founder, Carol “Fritz” Fritzinger; and Executive Director, Emma Wharton, in this AZ Daily Sun article by Matthew Hayden.

November 4, 2023

Want to learn more about one of GCY’s long-time community supporters? Emma Wharton, our Executive Director, is quoted in the article “Mountain Sports Flagstaff: Nurturing a Legacy of Community and Conservation”

October 30, 2023

Read about youth participation in community science with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in this article, “3 Cool ways USGS is Studying Bats in National Parks”

Summer 2023

“Safeguarding the Colorado River Ecosystem” about a summer 2023 GCY expedition through Grand Canyon that fisheries biologist Craig Ellsworth and ecologist Larry Stevens participated in, facilitating hands-on science with youth participants.

Spring 2023

“Walking In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors: Young Indigenous leaders and knowledge holders raft the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon” by Amber Benally, published in Grand Canyon Trust’s Advocate magazine.

February 10, 2023

Emma Wharton, GCY’s Executive Director of 20 years, nominated for a Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce ATHENA Award!

August 25, 2022

“How You Can Contribute to Scientific Discoveries From Your Couch,” written by Bella Isaacs-Thomas and published by PBS Newshour, about how NASA, NOAA, and USGS are asking the public to support a wide range of scientific projects, features Grand Canyon Youth’s science data collection in Grand Canyon.

June 22, 2022

“Parks Look for Ways to Alleviate Glen Canyon Dam’s Downstream Impacts,” published by the U.S. National Park Service, about how vegetation experiments are helping restore Colorado River sites in Grand Canyon and Glen Canyon

May 31, 2022

“Grand Canyon among sites chosen as outdoor classroom for Indigenous youth” article by Joe Giddens in the Navajo-Hopi Observer

May 23, 2022

“Grand Canyon National Park and Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps receive National Park Foundation grant for Native Conservation Corps” press release from Grand Canyon Office of Communications.

April 20, 2022

GCY alum, Molly Ryan, named 2022 Wyss Scholar, a program that supports the graduate-level education of a new generation of leaders in U.S. land conservation.

March 7, 2022

“Native Youth Invited to Apply for Free Grand Canyon River Trip” KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny speaks with Amber Benally who manages the Rising Leaders program at the Grand Canyon Trust in Flagstaff.

November 23, 2021

Beyond the Pines’ podcast called #BeyondFLG

Episode 012: Emma Wharton (Grand Canyon Youth)

August 8, 2021

“From a Raft in the Grand Canyon, the West’s Shifting Water Woes Come Into View” by Judy Fahys at Inside Climate News

June 21, 2021

Listen to an interview with GCY alum Kate Aitchison on podcast Eddie Out with Natali Zollinger
CW: Language
“Kate Aitchison- Grand Canyon River Guide, Designer/Owner of Terra Flags, Artist and Professor at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) & Colorado College”

March 12, 2021 – Press Release

Grand Canyon Youth Launches 2021 Season

The Latest News from GCY!

Stay up to date with Grand Canyon Youth program highlights, reports, and alumni.