Papago Park - Beginner's Clinic

On Saturday, January 10, 2026, from 9:00 to 10:30 AM, members of the Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club and the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department will present a clinic teaching basic navigation concepts used in orienteering. The clinic is offered outdoors at Papago Park, just west of the Hole-in-Rock parking area. Participants will learn important techniques to navigate with a map and compass. While GPS receivers provide an easy way for people to navigate, conditions sometimes make the GPS units unreliable or unusable (navigating in deep canyons, dead batteries, etc.) Navigation techniques used in orienteering are an invaluable complement to navigating with a GPS receiver.

NOTE: See this link here for directions. Please pay special attention to the directions. You need to drive about 100 meters past the parking area at Hole-in-Rock, to the ranger station/rest room building. We won't arrive until around 8:30 AM, so you're unlikely to find us if you arrive at 8:00 AM.

Additional information concerning our Beginner's Orienteering Training is found here.

NOTE: Only people who have already registered via the link below may attend. Just hitting 'Attend' on this Meetup page doesn't register you for this class.

NOTE: PRE-REGISTRATION/PRE-PAYMENT is REQUIRED.
Pre-Registration is open until Thursday, January 8th at 11:59 PM. The City of Phoenix and the City of Tempe do not allow us to conduct on-site registration. Pre-registration for this event is required to control the size of our clinics and allow us to plan the number of copies of our training materials to print.

To pre-register click here: https://eventreg.orienteeringusa.org/eventregister/register/start/papago2026-01-10

Cost
The fee for the Beginner's training is $5 per participant.

Schedule
Beginner's class starts promptly................................................9:00am
Beginner's class ends................................................................10:30am

What to Bring

• Whistle. Participants at orienteering events are required to carry a whistle. Since orienteering involves navigating off-trail, participants can sometimes travel to areas that are rarely visited by other users of the area. The whistle is a safety precaution which allows orienteering participants to signal their presence to others in case of an emergency.
• Compass. We prefer that participants bring their own compass. This will allow them to learn techniques during the training, then practice the techniques further at home. We will provide compasses to those who are not able to bring their own.
• Sun Screen. Even though we are starting fairly early in the morning, we suggest you apply sunscreen to avoid burning.
• Water. There won't be water at the beginner's clinic. For the sprint courses Sunday there will be water at the start/finish. You may also want to bring your own water bottles or a camelback.
• Sturdy hiking shoes and long pants. The sprint courses involve hiking off trail, sometimes in areas with thick brush.

For more information and directions visit the Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club's event page: https://gphxo.org/Events/2026/20260110_PapagoPark.htm