In just eight weeks our 2023 guided trip season gets underway in southern Utah!
We’re running 12 trips, and I have a few spots still available that I’d like to fill. For current availability refer to the online schedule; as of today, these spots are on:
- Adventure 1C (5 days/4 nights): Monday, April 17 through Friday, April 21
- Adventure 2A (7 days/6 nights): Sunday, April 23 through Saturday, April 29
- Adventure 2B + WFA (7 days/6 nights): Sunday, April 23 through Saturday, April 29
In all cases, it’s 2-3 vacancies per trip. So if you’re a couple or threesome, today there would be room for you (and a 10% discount for groups of 2+).
The fitness level for all three open trips is Median, which is generally appropriate for younger applicants who are physically active and for older applicants who are fitter than most of their peers.
Adventure 2B has an integrated Wilderness First Aid module. Emily Wheelis, MD, will be one of your guides, and you will receive a WFA certificate from the University of New Mexico.
These trips are run specifically in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Expect lots of sandstone (red, pink, and white; some sloping, some vertical), deep canyons, and endless views.
Why Utah?
Many of the guides on the team like our Utah location more than any other — yes, including better known locations like Alaska’s Brooks Range or California’s High Sierra. Here’s why:
1. Time of year. For most of the country, it’s a long, cold, and dark winter. Then we descend on Escalante, where by late-April the temperatures are mild, the trees are leafing out, and the sun has lovely warmth. It’s like a seasonal rebirth for us.
2. Off-trail travel. There is only one established trail in the area, the Boulder Mail Trail, which is a primitive trail by most standards. Otherwise it’s 100 percent off-trail travel over sandy benches, across petrified sand dunes, atop slickrock ledges, down vertical-walled canyons, and occasionally along use trails that have no signage or assured destination.
3. Wilderness. This area was among the last to be mapped by the USGS, and Highway 12 was not fully paved until the 1980’s. Escalante is a well established recreation destination, but it thankfully has not (yet?) attracted the crowds associates with nearby National Parks like Zion or Arches or other destinations like Moab. Our groups only occasionally see other parties, and I’ve never heard of a group needing to share a campsite.
Interested
Go here to read more about our guided trips.
And if you like what you see, go here to apply.
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