Junior Leaders get a chance to cool off by the waterfall after a long morning hiking Rock Bridge Canyon.

Team building is a crucial part of the Junior Leadership experience in Franklin County, and this year’s team building day took place, as it has for the past several years, in Rock Bridge Canyon in Hodges.

Many of this year’s Junior Leaders had never visited the canyon before Wednesday’s team-building excursion – which is part of the reason chamber director Cassie Medley chooses that location for the kick-off event of Junior Leadership. “It shows them part of the county they might not have known existed,” Medley said. “This is good for them. They learn other Junior Leaders and have to work together. It’s a good experience.”

The intrepid rising high school juniors trekked through the canyon for most of the morning, discovering the rock bridge for which the park is named as well as awe-inspiring rock formations and waterfalls.

“It made us bond together and get to know each other by being in a nature – in a beautiful place,” said Brianna Wood.