Best American Adventures: Canyoneer Grand Staircase-Escalante

We've just updated our popular America's
Best Adventures feature with 50 new trips, bringing our grand total to 100 iconic escapes (see the map, state-by-state list, and photo gallery, too). So no matter what your pleasure—hiking,
heli-skiing, surfing, climbing, biking, or paddling—we've got the perfect adventure
for you. Check in each day for a new, out-the-backdoor adventure highlighted here on our blog.

By Kate Siber; Photograph by Howie Garber, Mira

The deep, tangled canyons of southern Utah are a
remote and unforgiving country with the ever present danger of flash
floods, extreme temperatures, lightning storms, and waist-high
quicksand. In other words, perfect habitat for canyoneers, who know
that the area’s unbroken wildness and otherworldly wind- and
water-sculpted chasms are precisely what make it so appealing. Many
canyons still remain unnamed, making true exploration a possibility.

A
little know-how, however, can go a long way in mitigating the risks,
which is why the American Canyoneering Association and outfitter
Excursions of Escalante teamed up to offer three-day canyoneering
courses. Students learn how to evaluate the weather, assess risks, tie
basic knots, set up anchors, rappel up to 300 feet (91 meters), and
squeeze through tight canyon walls. The classroom is arguably some of
the best canyoneering territory in the country: Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Some of the last lands to be
mapped in the continental U.S., this high, remote desert is pocked with
sinewy, red-sandstone canyons that twist and turn into Gaudí-like
spaces.

Need to Know: A basic course is $500. Contact Excursions of Escalante for dates (www.excursionsofescalante.com).