REGISTRATION OPENS SOON

The 2025 Arizona Mushroom Society Annual Foray is planned for the August 8-10, 2025  in Alpine, Arizona in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. This year has more activities for everyone including a Saturday evening Keynote Presentation by Dr. Gordon Walker. A workshop on mushroom dyeing by Elissa Callen and medicinal mushrooms with Christopher Hobbs. We will also be offering small group wild mushroom forays throughout the weekend with a focus on learning about, finding, talking about and even tasting wild Arizona fungi! 

Annual Foray Schedule

FRIDAY – August 8, 2025

9:00 AM – Noon
Friday Morning Group Forays

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Friday Afternoon Group Forays

6:30 PM @ Alpine Community Center
Fungi Social (Free)
Bring your finds, share stories, taste fungi delights prepared by Jess Starwood, shop vendors, and join in informal ID & collection!

SATURDAY – August 9, 2025

9:00 AM – Noon
Saturday Morning Group Forays

9:00 AM – Noon
Medicinal Mushrooms Workshop
With Christopher Hobbs — Registration Required

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Mushroom Dyeing Workshop
With Elissa Callen — Registration Required

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Saturday Afternoon Group Forays

️5:00 PM @ Alpine Community Center
Annual Foray Dinner

7:00 PM @ Alpine Community Center
Keynote Presentation (Free)
Dr. Gordon Walker 

SUNDAY – August 10, 2025

☕ 9:00 AM @ Alpine Community Center
Table Talk with Terri Clements (Free)
Casual conversation and Q&A on mushroom identification and classification

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Sunday Afternoon Group Forays

Presentations, Demos, and Workshops

There are free presentations and demos including the Friday evening happy hour and cooking demo, Saturday evening Keynote Presentation and Sunday morning Table Talk. Other workshops for mushroom dyeing and medicinal mushrooms require registration to attend the event.

We plan to kick-off the Annual Foray Friday evening with a Fungi Social at 6:30 m-pm for you to get to know your fellow fungi enthusiasts, buy some goods from a variety of vendors, and taste some of the local catch cooked up by Jess Starwood and with help from Michael Colosimo. This event is free to all.

We are excited to host fellow mycophile Dr. Gordon Walker, Author of the recently published Dr. Fun Guy's Passport to Kingdom Fungi, and also known on social media as the joyful, toadstool tapping Fascinated by Fungi! Dr. Walker will be giving the 2025 Annual Foray Keynote Presentation where he will share his super interesting and entertaining take on the fungi kingdom paired with hardcore science that you really want to know! This event will be held at the Alpine Community Center at 7:00 p.m. and is free to all.

We are also super thrilled to welcome new friends to join us and offer workshops to occur on Saturday morning and afternoon. 

Elissa Callen will be joining us from California where she works with native plants, invasive plants, and fungi to sustainably make natural dyes, inks, and pigments in her art practice. Elissa will be providing a workshop on using wild fungi as a natural dye. This is an exciting opportunity to get hands on experience and learn how to use local fungi got dyeing material. This workshop will be taking place Saturday Afternoon and will require registration to attend the event. Registration for the fungi dyeing workshop costs $30 and can be registered for HERE.

We are also eager to welcome Christopher Hobbs. Christopher Hobbs, PhD, is a mycologist, an herbal clinician, a botanist, and a research scientist with over 40 years of experience in herbal medicine. He has authored over 20 books and is willing to share some of his knowledge of medicinal mushrooms with us during a workshop. This workshop will occur on Saturday Morning and will require registration to attend the event. Registration for the medicinal mushroom workshop costs $20 and can be registered for HERE.

Don't forget to join us for the extremely enlightening Table Talk at Sunday morning at 9am at the Alpine Community Center.  This is a talk based on all of the fungi finds over the weekend where Arizona fungi researcher, Terri Clements, will be identifying and classifying the many specimens found during the foray. This is an unsurpassable opportunity to learn about our local funga from Terri's incredible knowledge.

Small Group Mushroom Forays

Group forays are your opportunity to go on a 1-2 mile hike with an Arizona Mushroom Society foray leader to find and identify wild mushrooms. We are planning for small group forays to occur morning and afternoon for all three days of the event (except for Sunday morning which is when we have the Table Talk).

The forays are located throughout the white mountains (See figure below for general foray location - note that they are spread throughout the mountains) and will require driving to meet-up at a pre-identified foray location.

You must register for a foray time-slot and detailed foray meet-up information will be emailed to you the Wednesday before the foray. Please read the description of foray details when registering for more information about the general area of the foray and who will be leading it. Detailed information about where to meet-up with a map will be emailed to you prior to the foray. 

You and any guest must be registered to attend forays.  You may register up to 3 guests. Anyone attending a foray must be registered except for children. Children under 15 years old can attend without registration, and must be under parental supervision at all times.

Foray participants can only register for one foray between August 8-10. We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to get to attend a foray. There will be opportunities to sign-up for additional forays on Saturday and Sunday at the event. Additional foray opportunities will be posted on a first come, first service basis at the Alpine Community Center the Friday and Saturday evenings prior to the next days' forays.

After you register for a foray, you will receive a registration confirmation email. Foray meet-up locations will be emailed to registrants by Wednesday, August 6h before the event. No refunds available for cancellations.

The REGISTRATION button on the left side at the top of page is how you register for a group foray. Registration is expected to open in late June 2025.

Saturday Evening Dinner

The Annual Foray Dinner will be served at 5:00 p.m. at the Alpine Community Center and catered by Foxfire at Alpine for $22/person. There will be an option to buy pizza for children. To join us and eat at the dinner, you need to register and pay for the meal ahead of time. For more information about the menu and to sign-up for the meal, please register here.

Annual Foray T-shirts!

To commemorate this special event, we have made a limited number of Arizona Mushroom Society 2025 Annual Foray T-shirts designed by our very own board member Jess Starwood! T-shirts are limited and to get in on these, you can order here.

We've also just refilled out stock of AMS hats, which will be sold at the Alpine Community Center on the evenings of Friday and Saturday for $20/hat, cash preferred.

LODGING OPTIONS

The Arizona Mushroom Society will not be hosting a group campsite this year, however, you can reserve your own campsite near the lake. For more information on Forest Service Luna Lake group campsites, please visit here.

There are a number of small lodges, inns and other lodging options in and around Alpine. There is a comprehensive list of motels, cabins, restaurants, and other local businesses at www.alpinearizona.com.

For those who want slightly more developed facilities than a campsite or a spot for your RV with hook ups, we encourage you to rent a place at the Aspen Lodge! They have a number of accommodations including a bunkhouse for a group, chalets, and small cabins at very affordable prices.

The "Maine" cabin at Aspen Lodge

They also have awesome owners who are eager to learn more about mushrooms since it turns out the lodge is in a prime location for summer fungi.

You can also look for other lodging in the towns of Greer and Alpine, AZ - the heart of the White Mountains. You can find lodging options in Greer here, for Alpine lodging click here. There are several small cabins for rent, but options are limited due to the small size of the town. Another several miles away are the larger communities of Springerville and Eager, which have a larger selection, but may be further from foray locations. 

Other nearby options to the west include Pinetop-Lakeside area, which has several blocks of small tourist-oriented restaurants and hotels. If nothing is available in Pinetop-Lakeside, a little farther out you can find more options in Show Low, AZ.

There are also ample camping opportunities!  There are a number of developed campgrounds you can camp at throughout the area. Some of the developed campgrounds can be reserved at www.recreation.gov, others are first come, first serve. We will be foraying near developed campgrounds including Hoyer, Winn, Rainbow, Cutthroat, Grayling, Brookchar, and Apache Trout campgrounds. To find out more about the nearby campgrounds and if they are available, go to www.recreation.gov.

Another option is dispersed camping on the national forest. The foray areas and much of the surrounding landscape is part of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. You are allowed to camp without a permit on much of the national forest in the area.

Please put your fire pits DEAD-OUT.

FOOD SERVICE OPTIONS

Food service may be limited during the foray weekend. Please come prepared with lunches and snacks during forays because there is no location to buy food for several miles at most foray locations. 

Local towns including Alpine, Pinetop-Lakeside, Show Low, and Springerville-Eager have restaurants and grocery stores for purchasing supplies or meal service. Alpine has a small gas station with snacks and gas.

In Alpine, AZ the Foxfire restaurant is a great place to have a meal. They serve continental breakfast. If you are looking for something a little more to start the day, the Bear Wallow Café has an early bird full breakfast.

We are doing a special Saturday night event meal, which you can sign up for in June or July 2025.

VOLUNTEERING

We need help from folks during Saturday to help out with the workshops and room set-up and from those willing to help with sign-in/sign-out responsibilities at small group forays. We love volunteers and are looking for volunteers who would be interested in helping setup and assist at the event. If interested, please contact us at azmushroomsociety@gmail.com

VENDORS

KIDS AND PETS

Kids and pets are allowed to attend AMS events, and must be under your supervision at all times. Most forays including walking 1-2 miles on uneven terrain often with downed logs and steep slopes, which is difficult for toddlers and small dogs. Most forays are within the abilities of children 5-6 years old. Very young children will need to be carried, as most forays would not accommodate a stroller or other such mobile device. Children above 15 years old should be registered. Dogs that are friendly and can get over logs in the woods generally do well on forays but must be kept on a leash at all times.

STUDY GUIDE

Are you wondering what fungi you may find on the foray? Check out our iNaturalist project from last year's foray to see all of the fungi that other participants found!