A Southwest Adventure!

To borrow a few words (and pictures) from Tom Jones' website: "Utah is a land of Wild Beauty - Vast expanses of sculpted red rock punctuated with lush desert life."

Ever since I read some of Edward Abbey's books a few years ago, I've had an urge to go for an adventure in the Southwest. A few of the Adventure Family gang have now expressed enough interest that I'm ready to make this adventure happen. Let the dreaming and planning begin!!

I've gathered some images and links to information on the web for others to enjoy. I'll add more to the site as our plans get formalized. Click on any image to go to the website where it was found. The text links should be pretty self-explanatory.

Our initial idea is to head into the canyon country on foot. The possibilities for exploration will be amazing. This landscape will be fantastically different from the green tunnel of the AT, or the laurel-covered slopes of Wilburn Ridge, or the salty sweep of Shackleford Banks, or ... you get the idea. All we need is some good food and a few members of the family and we'll have another Grand Adventure on our hands!!

Right now, I'm thinking that a series of 2-4 day trips out into the backcountry would be the best approach. We could keep our loads lighter, see several different areas, and hopefully enjoy the trip more. Having a brief visit to "civilization" in between couldn't be all bad, right?

There are several national parks and BLM areas that stand out when you start looking at southern Utah. Here are links to the official agency websites for a few of the ones that stand out for me (west to east):
Zion NP
Bryce Canyon NP
Grand Staircase-Escalante NM
Glen Canyon NRA
Canyonlands NP
Arches NP
More to come!
Utahcanyons is a commercial site with lots of nice pictures and interesting info.
Tom Jones' "Utah Photo Wild" site. Great pictures!
Utah BLM photo gallery