Awed by the dramatic beauty of the Sawtooths and with absolutely no plans to leave anytime soon, the week quickly passed with another handful of hikes in central Idaho’s mountain paradise. This just might be the highlight of our entire trip! What we've been up to this week We started off th[...]
After spending the better part of 5 weeks in Utah, we left our little southwest paradise behind and ventured north into Idaho, where we’ll be spending the remainder of the month hiking and climbing everything in sight. I spent an awesome few days in the Sawtooths last winter and Dan spent a coupl[...]
Finally heading north and leaving the desert behind, we spent the week exploring Utah's Wasatch Mountains on long day hikes and then checked out Salt Lake City when temps soared into triple digits. We were both incredibly impressed by our time in central Utah and can't wait to come back! What we[...]
Canyoneering is the quintessential Utah experience, an intriguing blend of hiking, scrambling, climbing, and rappelling that takes you deep inside narrow desert canyons and demands just as much mental energy as it does physical exertion. And for a sport pioneered right here, you truly haven't exper[...]
After some much-needed rest and relaxation at the start of the week, we ended up enjoying another string of busy days, joining several awesome canyoneering tours around Zion, then hanging out on the shores of Lake Powell, and finally squeezing in a few hikes in Bryce Canyon National Park. [...]
Located in the vibrant desert of southern Utah, Zion National Park protects an extensive network of slot canyons, dramatic sandstone towers, lush riparian ecosystems, and wildflower-encrusted forests, each diverse square of the park more spectacular than the last. A whopping 84% of Zion is further[...]
The towering canyon walls of Zion National Park boast what are arguably southern Utah’s most spectacular trad and multi-pitch climbing routes, drawing experts from around the world to its red sandstone towers. You can often watch the microscopic progress of these rock climbers all the way from th[...]
An adventure sport pioneered in Southern Utah, canyoneering involves rappelling deep into desert canyons and then making your way through by means of scrambling, hiking, down-climbing, sliding, and still more rappelling. It’s no easy task, but it’s also one of the most incredible, adrenaline-in[...]
Of all the incredible hikes within Zion National Park, the Subway, a hollowed-out sandstone gorge resembling an underground tunnel, is one of the most spectacular— and also one of the most highly sought-after. Elusive wilderness permits greatly restrict visitors to the canyon, and techni[...]
After several zigzagging border crossings last week, we finally left Arizona behind and crossed into Utah to continue exploring Zion National Park. This is one of our absolute favourite places in the southwest, but it’s also everyone else’s, so the week was largely dictated by permit availabili[...]
If you read my previous weekly update, you might remember that we were headed to the Grand Canyon last Sunday, hoping to spend the next several days hiking around the North Rim. As it turned out, the North Rim didn’t actually open until THIS weekend (a pretty substantial oversight, oops), and the[...]
As the most photographed slot canyon in the world and one of the premier natural attractions in the American Southwest, Antelope Canyon requires little introduction— no doubt you’ve seen photos of its narrow orange walls dancing like ribbons above dappled sand, illuminated as light streams in t[...]
Saguaro National Park flanks downtown Tucson, Arizona and provides access to dozens of hiking trails, each showcasing the nation's largest cactus, the giant saguaro, as well as 25 other species of cactus— making this the most diverse natural cactus garden in the entire country and an amazing pla[...]
We hit the ground running this week, spending our first few days exploring a national park neither of us had visited before and the next several days revisiting one of the most scenic spots in the southwest, jam-packing our afternoons full of hiking. Between the insane rainbow of colours at Petrifi[...]
With Dan sick during the first half of the week, we spent several days holed up in Tucson, giving him time to recover and me an excellent opportunity to spend time with my sister, Kim. Thankfully, he was feeling (and looking) much better by Wednesday, and we were able to make it over to Saguaro Eas[...]
Named for its impossibly vibrant Aztec sandstone that seems to blaze under the midday sun, Valley of Fire State Park is home to some of Nevada's most awe-inspiring landscapes, a wild contrast to the city lights of Las Vegas less than an hour to the west. It's the kind of place that hardly feels rea[...]
Between deep cleaning the van, catching up on some work, visiting family, and adjusting to the blistering heat in southern Arizona, we still managed to get out on the trail most days this week and even explore a new national park. And for all the complaining about the weather, neither of us would t[...]
Holding the undesirable title of hottest place on earth (and with a name that conjures up, well... death), Death Valley seems an unlikely place to find natural beauty in the California desert— and yet, it's one of the most striking landscapes in the country, a wild place of extremes whose su[...]
Protecting more than 200,000 acres of canyons, mountains, and unique desert wildlife, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is one of Nevada’s most spectacular outdoor playgrounds, attracting rock climbers and hikers from around the country to its vibrant Aztec sandstone cliffs and world-cla[...]
Something of a rising star in central California thanks to burgeoning online popularity amongst photographers and instagrammers, Alabama Hills National Scenic Area is an unlikely meeting point between the sunburnt desert and the High Sierras, a spot where orange granite warps into long arches that[...]