Last fall my friend Brian and I went on a short backpacking trip in the San Rafael Swell. We left SLC early, drove to Ferron Utah, and then followed a high-clearance dirt road to the rim of North Salt Wash, a wide canyon that feeds the San Rafael River. We dropped into this open canyon…

My brother Eric does a great job in the cool uncle role, whereas I’ve been typecast as the nerdy dad — so my kids were super excited when he decided to join us on a spring break camping trip. As I usually do, I obsessively searched Google Earth for a perfect campsite and ended up…

My family, along with some friends, visited Kanab UT over Presidents’ Day weekend. One day we visited the White Pocket, a few miles south of the Utah/Arizona border. This area had been on my bucket list for a while now, but organizing a visit took time due to the long and punishing drive. An interesting…

When Josh, my older son’s best friend’s dad, suggested that we take our combined kids through the Left Fork of North Creek in Zion National Park (more commonly called The Subway), I wasn’t immediately excited. For one thing, it’s a somewhat technical canyon, and for another the permit that we got was for mid-May, towards…

The hills above Salt Lake City are finally turning green. Earlier in the year my family took a short trip to southeast Utah but it rained so much one day that I didn’t think the dirt roads would be passable, so we visited Ratio, a land art installation near Green River UT. The next day…

I wanted to share a few pictures from a long, very cold snowshoe/hike I did in January. The goal was to reach a natural arch that I had previously spotted in upper City Creek Canyon. This was fun to find: I hadn’t realized there was an arch large enough to stand inside within walking distance…

One of my boys and I spent Sunday exploring Nine Mile Canyon, in the remote Book Cliffs a few hours drive from Salt Lake City. This canyon is known for its dense collection of rock art and ruins, a lot of which can be seen from the paved road that follows the canyon bottom. This…

As we enter faculty and grad recruiting season, I’d like to present a bit of Utah propaganda. No heroics are required to see this stuff: just a few hours driving from Salt Lake City (on pavement) and some mild day hiking. I’ll provide detailed instructions for visiting any of these locations upon request.

Classes start next week so I sneaked out for a quick hike on Tuesday, climbing a minor local peak that is informally called The Obelisk. This one had eluded me for years so it felt nice to finally stand on top. Summitpost says “Obelisk is rarely climbed during the summer and provides ample solitude,” and…