Utah Red Rocks

You’ll spend your first morning as a group preparing for your first big adventure, rafting down Desolation Canyon of the Green River on a four-day journey! Desolation Canyon is one of the most remote areas in the lower 48. This will be an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime wilderness experience for you and your group! As you paddle down the Green River, you will wind through red rock mesas, pass abandoned cabins, and stop to find petroglyphs on the canyon walls. In the afternoons and evenings, there will be ample time to explore this outlandish landscape before you fall asleep on the river’s sandy shores. After your last day of paddling, you will restock on food, take showers, and travel to the beautiful canyon city of Moab, UT.

Once you are off the river, your group will take the time to de-rig your boats, organize your gear, take showers and do laundry, before heading to the red desert landscape of Moab. Once in Moab, you will learn the basic skills of canyoneering. Working with expert local guides, you’ll have the thrilling opportunity to explore remote, cool ravines that not even the sun can touch. Once you are ready and confident in your newfound skills, you will head out for a day of adventure. You’ll start out in a little drainage high above Moab and wind your way deeper and deeper into the slot canyon until sandstone walls tower on either side of you. You’ll rappel down waterfalls, discover natural waterslides, and peer into deep sandstone caves. After your adventure in the depths of the canyon, you will emerge back out into the open and head to camp for your last night in Moab and a day of prep for your next adventure, backpacking the Boulder Mail Trail.

After a day of travel and preparation, you will venture into one of Utah’s most esteemed wild spaces, Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument. Prior to the construction of Highway 12 in the 1930s, travel between the towns of Escalante and Boulder was through a winding, cross-country route over plateaus, slick rock slopes and several deep canyons. Today, this route is the Boulder Mail Trail, the longest hiking trail within the National Monument. For three days and two nights, you will explore Death Hollow, Sand Wash, and Mamie Creek and see natural bridges, remnants of an old telegraph wire, and beautiful slick rock gorges and watering holes.

During your time in the backcountry, you will learn to work together as a group, practice using a map and compass for navigation, learn Leave No Trace Principles, and observe nature in a unique alpine ecosystem. At night you will cook delicious backcountry meals, play games, and tell stories surrounded by new friends.

After an unforgettable adventure deep into the slot canyons of slick rock country, you’ll journey back to Park City for your celebratory final group banquet. You’ll share laughs and memories of the last two weeks together before climbing into your tents one final time. The morning will bring your final farewell in Salt Lake City, where you’ll say goodbye and board your flights home.