Utah Adventure Journal

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Of the thousands of Native American rock art panels in the Southwest, none are older than Barrier Canyon pictographs found throughout the Colorado Plateau and concentrated along rivers, especially the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers. From tiny five-inch animal figures to stunning eight-foot tall human shapes with no arms or legs and alien-like […]

  The small desert town of Bluff, Utah is experiencing a canyon country renaissance. A dozen new tourist cabins are going up. A 54-unit resort is being built. A former trading post is a thriving restaurant, and the old Silver Dollar Bar built in 1955 has found new life as a forthcoming Bears Ears Education […]

  When we think of adventure, we normally do not think of war, of leaving home, of kissing a pretty girl perhaps for the last time. When we think of adventure we do not think of defending our country and taking a long lingering look at the Southwest and the canyons that we love. My […]

Ed Abbey and I traveled all over the Southwest. I was a college sophomore and Desert Solitare had been in print for only four years. I kept a cheap, dog-eared copy in my red Kelty external frame backpack and everywhere I hitchhiked across the Southwest, there was Ed. We had great conversations. We hitchhiked across […]

Katie Lee was 89 when I met her at her cottage in Jerome, Arizona and just as feisty as ever. A former singer songwriter and folksinger, Katie had spent her life stretching boundaries and living on her own terms whether it was hiking in Glen Canyon wearing only red Keds and a large straw hat, […]

  Everyone who climbs in Indian Creek, part of the new Bears Ears National Monument, drives a two-lane road off the paved highway south of Moab to get to the historic Dugout Ranch and the spires at Indian Creek. Along the way are old houses and cabins in a place called Dry Valley. Most climbers […]

A rock is a rock is a rock, unless it is in the middle of a fast flowing river and you are about to smash into it with the front of your boat. In which case you’re apt to give it a name. River runners have been christening rocks and rapids for more than a […]

  On previous raft trips down the Grand Canyon I have seen summer rains bring roiling muddy water from the Little Colorado into the deep green of the Colorado River and dramatically change it to a silt brown color. This June was different. We tied off our rafts at the confluence and walked upstream beside […]

As a benefit for the San Juan Mountains Association, we had organized a canoe trip on the Green River near Moab to paddle 60 miles from Geyser Springs to Mineral Bottom.  Colorado’s Centennial Canoe Outfitters claims this is “part of the longest stretch of quiet wilderness water in the western United States.” We had plans […]

  Why is it that the Republicans continue to ignore their own conservation heritage? The latest chest-pounding, finger pointing grandstanding has been by Utah Rep. Rob Bishop whose H.R. 1459 passed the House. His bill attempts to gut the 1906 Antiquities Act signed into law by my hero Republican President Theodore Roosevelt who used it […]

By Andrew Gulliford It had been 105 degrees in the sun, but luckily I was in the shade when the rocks rolled and I tumbled downslope with my right foot firmly wedged between a large boulder and a 50 lb. stone. My body upside down, my hat off, my left arm bleeding, I was getting […]

                                          In Utah, the Bureau of Land Management is seeking comments on what could be a precedent-setting mistake. In 2005, Blanding residents illegally constructed a seven-mile-long, 4-foot-wide, all-terrain-vehicle trail in Recapture Canyon, damaging archaeological sites. […]

  Adventure is not just what you do, but also what you observe. I love watching hawks, especially Red-tails in the Southwest and peregrines, ospreys and eagles wherever I can find them. Imagine scanning skies with binoculars looking for raptors and then catching the wild birds to tag and test them–even drawing blood samples! Utah […]

Vernal, Utah A perennial stream in the desert is a blessing, and across the Colorado Plateau there’s nothing quite like Jones Creek on the Utah/Colorado state line in Dinosaur National Monument. To raft the Green or Yampa Rivers and to come out of the glare of canyon walls into the cool lush shaded banks of […]

  My dog is the best dog in the world. Now, he hasn’t always been that way. He’s a Springer Spaniel/Labrador or a “Springador” and he was the puppy from hell. He chewed three pairs of reading glasses and the top off of one of my cowboy boots. He didn’t do too well in puppy […]