To signup for the De Anza College Outdoor Club between summer and fall quarter trip
to Grand Teton National Park
any or all days, August 12 – 30 2026 +/- (each student chooses which days they will attend)
there are things you must do before you come to sign up.
You always need to bring a valid government-issued photo ID.
(which could be a drivers license or a clear photo on your cell phone of your passport)
and proof you are a De Anza student to be able to sign up for an event.
(For proof of enrollment you can show us, on your smart-enough phone, your enrollment at the Portal.)
Students attending De Anza for the first time summer quarter 2026 can sign up after they are enrolled in a class.
Students who attended spring quarter 2026 do not have to also take a summer quarter class, and do not have to be enrolled for fall 2026.
You can’t just show up for an off-campus event and expect to participate without having signed up in advance in person and having paid in advance, in part because the college has a release everyone who goes off campus must sign before they go off-campus.
The college release needs to be completed for each person for every off-campus event. It covers what should be done in a medical emergency, Rules of Conduct, and an acknowledgement that the college is not providing transportation. You sign, for example, “it is my responsibility to arrange for transportation to and from the activity.” It has to be signed by the student (or by the parent/guardian of a student under 18 years old), then the faculty or staff member leading the trip is responsible for getting it turned in to the administration before the trip.
You will need to write in your eight-digit De Anza College student identification number Campuswide ID (CWID),
(and we have found that some people coming to sign up for events
do not remember their ID Number).
In the release you will give info about your health coverage and in the event of a medical emergency, who to notify.
(And we have found that some people coming to sign up for events
do not know their type / brand of health insurance).
Take a look at a sample of the required-by-the-college release.
You can’t sign up on-line, by email or at this website, each student must appear in person to sign trip agreements/releases.
Your friend or even your spouse can’t sign the required paperwork.
There are no waitlists for club events.
Step One
All De Anza Outdoor Club events require an in-person, on campus signup.
There were Covid vaccination and booster requirements in effect before the 2023 trip, and they could come back again.
IF THE VACCINATION RULE CHANGES again, new info will be at:
https://www.deanza.edu/return-to-campus/students.html
Step Two
If you read the Grand Teton trip webpage
and the Grand Teton sample trip agreement
before you come to sign up, it will go much faster and you will better be able to pass the trip pre-test.
(The first people who took the test in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 got perfect or near-perfect scores.)
Step Three
To sign up for the trip you must show us your waterproof hooded rain jacket and pants.
We will not accept a rain poncho.
We will not accept thin, easily torn temporary rain gear like they sell at airports for emergencies.
(If you do not have the rain gear with you when we are going kayaking, you will not kayak that day.)
Buy your waterproof outer layer a size larger than normal to have room for warm things under it. On a budget? Get a set (pants and jacket with a hood)
of construction worker raingear at a hardware store ($30 to $60+ in 2026).
Yes, it could be bright yellow, but you won’t be the only one.
Be sure you get a set with a hood, some rain jackets do not have one.
If you can sew, you can Improve your inexpensive rain gear and turn a less expensive set into one with more features.
Read more details about the right gear/tent and more at snow or rain camp must-haves
Step Four
If you choose to camp, we would also like to see your tent, to be sure it will be adequate. You can pitch it wherever we meet at.
There are crucial things wrong with each of these tents.
If you do not recognize why they are bad tents (or why the tents were set up poorly)
please read Don’t buy a cheap tent.
It can be difficult to coordinate timing of activities if we don’t all stay in the same area, so we’ve all stayed at Colter Bay for at least part of the time, if not most of the time, on previous trips.
The “Outdoor Club” does not get campsites (or any overnight accommodations),
students on the trip get them and share them as they want to.
People who went on the 2025 trip and are sure they are going on the 2026 trip got five campsites in the Colter Bay campground they intend to share with students / faculty who sign up for the trip. The campsites are in a tents-only loop (no motorhome generator noise). The loop also is at a slightly higher elevation that we have found has better cell phone reception (we drove around and checked). It is a short walk to the pay showers, laundromat with reliable free wifi, store, restaurants. The campsites are around the outside edge of the loop, with forest behind and fewer nearby neighbors, (certainly not in the center of the loop next to the restroom and dumpster noise, or with a road and traffic noise right behind a site). People have camped in these previous years and liked them the best. Close to the start of the adventure, some of the days and some of the campsites will be cancelled if they are not needed.
They reserved two campsites for August 14 to 28, one campsite for August 15 – 29 and two campsites for August 16-29. Some of these are next to each other. Close to the start of the adventure, some of the days and some of the campsites will be cancelled if they are not needed.
The campsites cost $61 per night. They can accommodate up to 6 people and up to two vehicles each.
IF six people (and maximum 2 vehicles) share a site, that will be $10.17 per person, per night.
IF four people share a site, that will be $15.25 per person, per night.
IF only two people share a site, that will be $30.50 per person, per night.
(If you want to have space in one of these campsites, make arrangements when you come to sign up for the trip.)
Some people are already saying they want to stay for the entire 14 nights, and maybe even get another campsite after that stay. Others may come for only a long weekend. (If you want to have space in one of these campsites, make arrangements when you come to sign up and fully pay for the trip.)
See info at: Colter Bay campground,
Some people on the trip will share cabins, see: Colter Bay Cabins
and people on previous trips have also shared a
(The bear dining on watermelon above was NOT from one of our trips.)
Step FIVE
You must bring a valid government-issued photo ID and your money order payment when you come to sign up.
(You can come to one of the early signups meetings and get questions answered
and/or take the pretest
and show us your waterproof rain gear,
but you can’t sign up unless you have your trip payment with you.)
De Anza College Student Accounts, where students previously went to pay for an event, has either not been open, or not open enough hours, so people can’t go into the on-campus Student Accounts office and pay with cash or a credit card as easily as they used to,
and the club has had to pay toooooo many check bouncing fees, so we have not accepted personal checks for years.
see: how to get a money order to pay for an Outdoor Club trip
Step Six
The sign ups for the 2026 Grand Teton trip will be:
The college has decided that all releases for anyone going off-campus trips for all clubs must be turned in 14 days before the trip. That will be a deadline of July 29 for our kayaking trip (Aug. 12-30) in Grand Teton National Park
This means we should get them done even sooner.
We will meet, and get your questions answered, and do the releases (even if you can not pay yet) and even do all the trip signup paperwork Friday, June 5, 4:30 until 5 or 6:30 as needed in classroom S56. I have the room booked for us and we can use the computer to put webpages up on the big screen. To find S56, go to De Anza Map
Click on printable map, Look for the S5 building. S56 is in the bottom left hand corner of the S5 building.
We hope to make progress or final decisions on plans for sharing the overnight accommodations,
like the campsites and cabins people already have reservations for.
To find S56, go to the De Anza College Map
Look for the S5 building. S56 is in the bottom left hand corner of the S5 building.
Or look at the map with room numbers of buildings at the S Quad map
You should bring the tent you want to use, pitch it and get it looked at (or do that later when you finally find that tent).
It would be best if people attend who have read all the trip details and if they email the club advisor at donahuemary@fhda.edu to tell her they are ready or almost ready to sign up.
Include in the email how sure you are that you are going,
what days do you want to go on the trip. (You could answer this by saying that any or all days between Aug. 13 and Aug. 31 are okay for you, or some other range of dates. Or you could tell me specific dates.)
how you will get to Wyoming,
and where you will stay overnight, (camp or cabin or some other location you have reservations for)
or just let me know that you are not sure yet about travel arrangements,
or that you need a ride/someone to share the cost of a cabin with, etc.
Besides the July 29 deadline for getting trip releases in,
the last chance to sign up needs to be weeks before the official trip first day.
Because:
The people who got campsite and cabin reservations in advance of the trip have a
deadline to get their deposits refunded
if people do not use all the extra campsites and cabins.
Once we know for sure how many people are going, we have lots of prep work to do, including a detailed cleaning of each kayak and canoe we bring so they can pass the required inspections in Idaho on the way there and in Grand Teton National Park before they can be permitted and used there.
Cleaning and loading kayaks, and fitting people for lifejackets will happen
Sunday, August 2, 10 a.m. until done, possibly taking hours of time. We might also loan out some tents, insulating sleeping pads and hiking staffs then. Maybe even a backpack. (But it would be good to tell us in advance what you want to borrow, club officers have first choice.) Driving directions to where we will do these chores will be given to people actually signed up and paid for the trip by August 2.
People who wait until the last minute to sign up for Outdoor Club adventures
are sometimes left out.
