History

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Travis Puglisi, the Owner/Operator and Lead Guide for Wandering Mojave Hiking Services, is a 20 year resident of the Mojave Desert and logs nearly 200 miles annually on foot within the boundaries of Joshua Tree National Park.  Over the years and miles, Travis has cultivated an awareness of landscape, ecological systems, and local culture that when contextualized by the trail becomes a story he is committed to sharing with new and returning park visitors.

His love of the Mojave became a love of places both remote and wide open.  Between 2004 and 2008 Travis spent 27 months working on the Antarctic continent.  From 2011-2014 Travis would travel annually to the Black Rock Desert of Nevada to spend up to a month building and managing camps at the Burning Man Festival.  In 2015 Travis worked as a steward, trail builder, and handyman at UC Riverside's remote Sweeney Granite Mountain Desert Research Center which is part of the University of California’s Natural Reserve System.

Travis is currently a Community Ranger for the Mojave Desert Land Trust, where he monitors and gathers data on formerly private lands that are now protected in perpetuity as wildlife linkages.  Travis has acted as volunteer crew and organizer during the last two Government Shutdowns that impacted Joshua Tree National Park.  In 2010 Travis helped found the still active Transition Joshua Tree, which aims to foster community resilience in the aim of climate change.