There’s something powerful about the connections formed in the outdoors. For members of Conservation Corps New Mexico, Caroline and Lily, that connection began with a leap of faith and grew into a shared commitment to a life shaped by public lands and purpose. What started as a chance meeting on an Outward Bound course in Joshua Tree National Park eventually led them both to New Mexico, where their paths crossed again through conservation work.
Their story is one of serendipity and the pull of wild places. And like many stories rooted in the outdoors, it begins somewhere in between uncertainty and possibility.
A Chance Meeting in the Desert
In January 2025, Caroline and Lily met for the first time at the Palm Springs Airport, both preparing to embark on a month-long Outward Bound backpacking and rock climbing course.
“Sitting atop giant suitcases full of camping gear, cotton swabs fresh out of our noses, we waited for the results of our mandatory COVID tests and struck up a conversation,” Caroline recalls.
That first conversation quickly revealed shared interests and an immediate sense of ease.
“We discovered that we both loved the TV show Silo, and had a strong desire to be ensconced in the outdoors,” she writes.
For Lily, the decision to be there carried even more weight.
“After coming out of a months-long health battle that left me unsure at every turn, I was looking to find my strength and my spirit again,” she shares. “The idea of a month in the outdoors, no phones, and everything you needed on your back was exhilarating and wildly daunting. But I was committed to the challenge, to myself.”
What followed was a month shaped by the landscape and by each other.
“Maneuvering through boulders, canyons, and group dynamics, Joshua Tree did not disappoint,” Caroline writes. “The deserts sustained us, and we left wanting more.”
“As soon as Caroline and I started chatting, I knew we would have each other’s back,” Lily adds. “This girl was game for an adventure, and I was excited to take this first step into the desert with her.”
By the end of the course, what began as a conversation had turned into something lasting.
“On that trip we became each other’s rock,” Caroline reflects. “We pledged that someday, somehow, we would camp together again.”
Finding a Way Back Outside
After returning home, both Caroline and Lily found themselves pulled back toward the outdoors, searching for ways to make that connection a more permanent part of their lives.
“I spent the next few months cluelessly scouring Google for trail crew jobs as a means to be paid to be outside,” Caroline writes.
At the same time, Lily was finding her own path.
“I started applying to jobs where I might again feel the immensity of the earth,” she says. “Soon, I heard back from Conservation New Mexico about an Archaeological Individual Placement internship. Yes.”
Through different routes, both found their way to Conservation Corps New Mexico.
“In a serendipitous turn of events, I landed a position on a trail crew as well,” Caroline shares. “One step closer to fulfilling the pledge to camp with Lily again, not even a year later.”
For Lily, the work itself deepened her connection to place.
“I have loved getting to know New Mexico through the lens of its history,” she writes. “Finding a sherd or a worked stone, I am brought closer to the immensity of time and complexity of place. It is evidence that someone else had a relationship with the land you are standing on now.”
Returning to the Landscape, Together
With just a few hours between them in New Mexico, the promise they made in the desert began to take shape again.
“I drove across multiple states to Las Cruces, where I would continue developing my purpose as a conservationist,” Caroline writes. “Only three hours away from where Lily was based, we made a couple visits and organized that camping trip.”
That trip came together over Thanksgiving, taking them to Big Bend National Park and nearby Big Bend Ranch State Park.
“We ate instant mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce and turkey spam,” Caroline recalls. “We marveled in that sense of arrival, taking in the vast landscape.”
“It was beautiful,” Lily adds. “We slept on white soft sand right next to the Rio Grande.”
In a quiet moment during the trip, the significance of their journey came into focus.
“One night, Caroline sat back and said, ‘Lily, this is big,’” Lily remembers. “There was a time when we only knew each other in the context of the landscape, and now we’re back.”
A Shared Sense of Purpose
What makes Caroline and Lily’s story so compelling is not just the friendship they built, but the way it continues to be shaped by the landscapes they move through and the work they’ve chosen to do.
From a chance meeting in an airport to conservation work in New Mexico, their journey reflects something larger. The outdoors does not just connect us to place. It connects us to each other, to purpose, and to the possibility of finding our way back.