Nature in Its Natural State: 10 Days Of Utah

Well, it's been a while since we last had a chat, eh?  I'd say that I am sorry for such things, but I just can't bring myself to do that, for I have been traveling to far off places and casting my eyes across some of the most beautious visions our country offers.  I have swam in some of the best areas that nature calls a swimming pool.  I have ridden endless miles on my noble geared steed, and I have cruised high above lush valleys attached to an airline cable with a rappeling harness.  I cannot apologize for such things, but i can offer you up some stunning images, and some wild tales from the trails!

My last journey took me and my old trail buddy Risha Red to one of the most surreal places in the country, Southern Utah.  What's in Utah you ask?  Well upon planning for our adventure, I found that many people were wondering the same exact thing.  And to be honest, I was too.  I knew nothing about this place that we were about to spend 10 days exploring.  Originally, the idea to go there was spawned from an image I saw on a random person's computer.  I saw this wavy ocean of sandstone that had hundreds of striated layers.  There were so many shades of tan and red that it stopped me in my tracks.  It was the trippiest looking place I'd ever seen.  I asked the girl where she took that pic.  She said it was a preloaded Windows image, kinda like those ones of bears catching salmon out of the air that come with your computer.

The girl got curious about it too, and dug into her folders to see if she could find out where it was taken.  She found the file.  Arches_NP.jpg.  Arches National Park?  From that moment on, it was in the books, I had to see it for myself.

So upon returning, I can tell you, it was every bit as trippy as I had imagined.  Southern Utah sits between three major geological zones and temperate climates that produce bizarre combintions of flora and fauna and earth.  You get elements of the mojave desert, the colorado plateau, and the great basin, all spun together to produce images that when you turn your head left looks like "A River Runs Through It" and when you turn right looks like "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas".  You can see a turantula on a maple tree.  You can see a canyon inside a canyon, which is in turn inside another canyon.  You can see for over a hundred miles for that matter.

Risha Red and I put our time in for sure.  We hiked 45 miles in 3 different National Parks, Zion, Arches, and Canyonlands.  We traversed 1200 miles of mountains and canyons by car.  We camped in 5 different locations.  We did thousands of feet of elevation gain. Utah tried to kick our butts but we fought back and conquered that state.  I ended up taking 4000 photos and 4 hours of video, which seems like a lot but isn't so bad since every ten feet you walk it looks like you're on a different planet. 

So that's what's in Utah. Lotsa nature.  Not lotsa people.

I am only including with this post 10 photos.  One for each day we were there.  If you can give me a bit of time to compile everything and gather my thoughts a bit more, I will have many awesome images to show everyone soon. I know that in my last post, I mentioned the sport of adventuring, which I think I wanna call adventioneering.  I will get into that in the future as well, but here is a quick description. 

Adventioneering is using multiple transportations and skills to create an adventure.  In our area, it is a way to create larger loops or out and back trips to see the best stuff around.  Its adventuring, orienteering, and inventing a journey all in one, and its really just about being creative to pull all available resiources together to make an awesome adventure. An example is maybe to ride a bike to a place to rent a kayak, then taking that kayak to an island to dock it and do a hike, then returning using the same methods.  Better than just a hike or bike ride sometimes. In Utah we kinda used adventioneering.  From the last canyons we gazed upon, we used three cars, two planes, two buses, and our feet to travel across thousands of miles to return home.  That is ultimate adventioneering.  But like I said, we will explore this concept later.

So until I get my head wrapped around everything we experienced, enjoy these few photos!

P.S. John Deike, editor of the Cuyahoga Falls Patch, and I are hosting a community hike in November.  More info to follow!