"This is what it's like being on a hike with me," said Jaylyn Gough, as she slowed her pace to record a short video of the swaying golden grasses that hedge the trail. "I get distracted by the foliage."
In addition to the name Jaylyn, Gough introduces herself by her Diné (Navajo) name, Yenabah, meaning "warrior woman who wanders the mountain". Her grandparents couldn't have picked a better name, she says, as she's always felt at home in the outdoors.
On a warm October afternoon, Gough led a hike on the South Mesa Loop and Towhee Trail in Boulder, Colorado. She was joined by her friends and colleagues, Raelene Whiteshield – who is Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho – and Danielle SeeWalker, who is Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta and a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux.
As the women ascended the trail's 500ft elevation and its multiple switchbacks quickly, they stopped to notice the red-tailed hawk that landed atop a nearby ponderosa pine, the dusty-silver sage that grew as groundcover near their feet, and the maroon berries that burst at the tip of some of the tall grasses. As the slanted, sandstone Boulder Flatirons came into clear view, SeeWalker pointed out Devil's Thumb, a rocky projection that resembles its namesake, and they gathered to snap a few shots of the dramatic rock formations crowning the golden meadows.
Gough started the nonprofit, Native Women's Wilderness (NWW), to bring Native women together in the outdoors, after finding herself frustrated with the lack of representation in outdoor publications and advertising and on the trails themselves.
"For Christmas one year, my family got me a subscription to National Geographic, because they knew I wanted to be an explorer," said Gough. But who, exactly, was depicted in those pages left a lasting impression. "For the longest time, I thought only white people were allowed out on the mountains, were allowed to be explorers, and be videographers and photographers."
Gough knew this wasn't right and vowed to make a change. "Who knows this land better than we do? This is the land of our ancestors," she said. After attending the Standing Rock protests in 2016 and appreciating the power of being with representatives from more than 200 tribes together in the outdoors, she knew she wanted to create an organisation that helped encourage more Native women to explore the outdoors, and see themselves reflected in outdoor spaces, both on and off the trail.