The GearJunkie crew returns from Utah this week after attending Outdoor Retailer. It’s the trade show’s last hurrah here. We could not have asked for a better host.
“Whatever you do, don’t swim in the lake.” The old man piloting a groaning airport shuttle to the Salt Lake City Holiday Inn chuckled at me after imparting this lone nugget of local wisdom.
His cryptic response followed my asking what a first-timer in Utah should do. What he didn’t need to say was that Utah is among the wildest, quietly beautiful states in the country.
The GearJunkie team has spent countless days in the Beehive State over the past decades. And we love it. The people and landscapes of this outdoors wonderland have captivated us. We will miss our bi-annual Outdoor Retailer pilgrimage.
Utah Adventures, Not Lacking
Though our treks to Utah have helped us publish stories, they’ve also helped us become better adventurers and happier people.
There was the time we visited a “private tropical-fish preserve” off an empty road at 4,293 feet in a valley about 10 miles south of the Great Salt Lake.
Primal Quest Utah, in 2006, brought us across the state. For 10 days, we trekked across hard-packed deserts, kayaked long legs on the Green and Colorado Rivers, climbed peaks, navigated wilderness, and tried our hand at the strange sport of river-boarding.
Canyoneering Grand Staircase-Escalante. House-boat excursions on Lake Mead. Climbing Maple Canyon. We even took aim at (and won) a trap-shooting competition at the Ma ‘n Pa, Magna Gun Club.
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