I've been doing a "bucket list" trip with my dad each spring, for the last 4-5 years. Last year we got rained out of a planned trip to Montana's Sweetgrass Hills, and instead wandered closer to home, in the Alberta Rockies. Over the years, we've canoed the Badlands of the South Saskatchewan, paddled through storms and climbed mountains on Murtle Lake, camped and hiked in Joshua Tree and Yosemite, and trekked old maroon trails in Jamaica's highlands.
This year, my dad decided for Southern Utah, which I was psyched for, because I'm currently fascinated with Pueblo/Anasazi culture, thanks to Craig Childs' "House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest" - a gorgeous book. We're narrowing in on SW Utah - Zion, Bryce, and Grand Staircase. I'm all about crowdsourcing - any advice from DK?
My dad's in his 60's, and I'm in my 30's, but we do like to go deep into the wilderness. He grew up hiking the Alps, and passed that wilderness aesthetic on to me and my sister. We've both slowed down a bit, but still share a full appreciation for immersive experiences in nature - snowshoeing a few miles in to hear wolves howl on a -30 night, spending a few days wandering in the desert, hiking in the Andes, the Appalachians, the Rockies, the Himalayas, and the Alps, wandering beaches and snorkeling reefs around the world.
I know that I've been absurdly privileged to have had these experiences, but am most grateful to have had the father I do. This is the man who in my childhood showed me the wonder of snowflakes and benthic macroinvertebrates under a microscope, who helped me climb Jamaica's Blue Mountain with him at age 5, who taught me rock climbing and snorkeling and swimming and waves and hiking and running. He still has the same wonder and awe of nature that I remember inspiring me in my childhood, and is still always willing to keep going to see what's around the next curve of the trail.
We've camped and built fires on beaches, lakes, forests, and mountains around the world, hung out with the locals, gotten terribly lost and then found, eaten and drank various unexpected things, followed tracks and trails and rivers and maps, have experienced GPS failures so consistently that I no longer take GPS seriously as a navigational mode, howled with coyotes and cawed with crows, been bitten by snakes and watched countless starscapes and sunsets and sunrises.
I'm looking forward to Utah! Any suggestions for good wild areas to explore?