There are some things that only happen in the back country.  Pooping in cat holes, wearing a pair of underwear for an indefinite amount of time, and becoming master of

Our second day in the backcountry was our first day hiking in the bottom of Horseshoe Canyon.  Within the first hour of our trek, Ben stopped in his tracks and

The word ‘desert’ implies ‘deserted,’ ‘forsaken,’ ‘abandoned.’ Before coming to the desert of the Colorado Plateau, I imagined this place as an expanse of lifeless rocks, with a few tumbleweeds

It was day three in horseshoe canyon, after a grueling two miles the previous day, it was time for a layover… What exactly is a layover day? Well, the possibilities

I can see the craters of the moon from my sleeping bag. The gentle gray pockmarks cast shadows upon the otherwise iridescent crescent, as if river rock strewn across a

Deep within Horseshoe Canyon, as the Navajo sandstone gave way to the older rock of the Kayenta formation, our small group began to look for the Spot. Each day the

Inches below the murky water my toes are invisible. The Green Rivers’ flow is incomparable to the Mexican streams I bathed in days ago. My first encounter with the waters