Join Wander Women Midwest and the Des Moines Art Center for a three-part guided hiking series that invites you to experience the same landscape across changing seasons. Centered on connection, reflection, and time outdoors, each hike offers space to notice how the environment—and your relationship to it—shifts over time. Inspired by the Art Center’s Topographies exhibition, the series considers how movement through place shapes memory and meaning, with a simple, optional creative reflection following each walk.

For each hike, we'll gather as a group at Jester Park in Polk County to wander the park's trails and discuss the different art pieces featured in the park's prairie, before wandering individually for an independent phenology practice meant to encourage reflection and observation. The practice of phenology—returning to a place at different times of year to notice the changes in the landscape—is a grounding exercise meant to connect yourself to the landscape and hone your skills of observation. You'll find a special-to-you location and have time for whichever form of reflection you prefer—drawing, journaling, photography or sensory intake.

$12 registration per session, attendance at all sessions not required; need-based scholarships available. All genders are welcome.