Patagonia, Others Threaten To Boycott Major Outdoor Show

An environmental conservation group and two dozen outdoor recreation companies, including Patagonia, REI and The North Face, announced Monday they would boycott the Outdoor Retailer trade show if it’s moved from Denver back to Salt Lake City, accusing Utah’s leaders of trying to chip away at protections for national monuments and public lands.

The Conservation Alliance, comprised of more than 270 companies, said in a news release that Emerald X, the publicly traded company that owns Outdoor Retailer, is considering moving the show despite widespread industry objections.

“Our position on the location of the Outdoor Retailer trade show remains clear and unchanged: The show belongs in a state whose top officials value and seek to protect public lands,” Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s office and Emerald X did not respond to emails seeking comment Monday.

But Cox asked the show last year to return to Salt Lake City, saying the location offered economic benefits for both Utah and outdoor retailers.

“We’ve missed you for the past several years, and we’ve made some improvements while you’ve been away,” he said in a video released in October in which he referenced airport renovations and an increase in hotel room capacity.

The outdoors industry took a stand after Utah lawmakers asked President Donald Trump in February 2017 to repeal the newly designated Bears Ears National Monument. Thirty outdoor companies objected, and the Outdoor Retailer show announced it would move from its longtime home in Salt Lake City to Denver.

The following December, Trump reduced the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. Patagonia sued and declared on its website, “The President Stole Your Land.”

Those protections have since been restored by President Joe Biden, but The Conservation Alliance says Utah’s leaders are still trying to undermine the monuments.

The biannual Outdoor Retailer show, which generates tens of millions of dollars in local economic impact, has dwindled in size in large part because of the pandemic, and Denver’s five-year contract with Emerald X expires after this summer’s show.

Emerald X sent a survey last year to the show’s attendees asking about a possible move to several cities, including Salt Lake City, Anaheim, California, Houston, Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, along with Colorado’s U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, said Monday the state is a natural home for the show because it is a leader in outdoor recreation and is home to many of the industry’s biggest brands.

“We take pride in caring for our public lands and supporting our tribes while taking bold climate action and remaining business friendly,” the three said in a joint statement. “Today’s announcement from the outdoor recreation industry and its top leaders underscores that the Outdoor Retailer Show belongs in Colorado.”

US Triples Daily Numbers Allowed At Southwest Hike The Wave

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Outdoor enthusiasts and landscape photographers hoping to land one of the elusive permits needed to explore the colorful, contoured landscape of a hike called The Wave in the U.S. Southwest will have a better chance under a federal plan announced Monday that allows more than three times the previous number of daily visitors.

The plan takes effect Feb. 1 and will allow 64 people per day to hike the popular rock formation near the Utah-Arizona border, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said in a news release. That is up from the previous limit of 20 people per day, which had been in place for two decades.

Conservation groups decried the decision as a mistake that will damage the fragile desert landscape and cut into the solitude of hikers’ experience.

Fueled by a rise in selfies and pictures shared on social media, requests to do the hike more than doubled over the last seven years, to 215,500 through November 2020, when less than 4% who applied were approved for permits through online and in-person lotteries, government figures show.

Bureau of Land Management officials called it a balance between providing more access to the iconic trail while preserving the landscape.

Officials heard a steady chorus of complaints from people about how difficult it was to get chosen, leading the Bureau of Land Management to reexamine the limit, said Michael Herder, the bureau’s district manager in the Arizona strip. Their analysis determined more people may mean more trash but won’t notably accelerate erosion of the sandstone, Herder said.

The plan allows the agency to increase the daily number up to 96 if they determine the trail can handle it or decrease it below 64 if the new rule leads to negative effects, he said. Herder, who called the figure they chose a good place to start, and other government officials are excited more people will be able to experience the geological wonder.

The Wave’s wide, sloping basin of searing reds, oranges and yellows in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is one of the most photographed landscapes in North America. Visitors must make a 6-mile (9.5-kilometer) round-trip hike through tall sandstone buttes and sagebrush to get to the red rock formation.

“It is absolutely amazing,” Herder said. “It is absolutely gorgeous red rock formations. It is really incredible geologic formations. It’s all sculpted by erosive elements in the environment.”

The decision will mar the unique landscape for future generations as hikers damage the delicate sandstone, said Taylor McKinnon, a senior campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity. Visitors also won’t enjoy the same solitude that the previous daily limit provided, he said.

“It is going to damage the unique geology there. There are going to be bigger crowds. It is going to be harder to get a picture without somebody else in it,” McKinnon said. “It really reflects the Trump administration’s general disdain for preserving the quality and ecological health of America’s public lands.”

President Donald Trump’s administration has removed protections for millions of miles of waterways and wetlands, narrowed protections for wildlife facing extinction and opened more of the hundreds of millions of acres of public land to oil and gas drilling.

The Center for Biological Diversity plans to consider a lawsuit to challenge the decision, McKinnon said. He is also hopeful President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will reverse course.

said solitude can still be found in surrounding areas near the hike and contended that many visitors feel more comfortable and safer with more people on the trail.

There was a trio of deaths at the Wave in 2013, after which the agency posted new trailhead signs and safety warnings. In 2019, a Belgian man died from heat exhaustion after getting lost on the trail.
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This story has been corrected to show that the federal government says there were 215,500 requests made through November 2020, not 191,000 in 2020 as it originally reported.

Top Travel Hot Spots And 15 Most Affordable Destinations For 2015

As the New Year rolls around, priceline latest data reveals that the majority of travelers will be heading to warm-weathered cities, which dominated its annual list of top 2015 destinations, based on advanced hotel reservations. From Orlando to Oahu, Costa Rica and Barcelona, travelers are in favor of ditching the snow for sandy beaches and enjoying a relaxing getaway.

“Within the U.S., Las Vegas continues to be a hot spot in the New Year, followed by New Orleans, Miami and Fort Lauderdale – all three cities flew to the top of this year’s list of places to visit,” said priceline.com travel editor Brian Ek. “If interested in traveling abroad, must-visit international destinations include Cancun, Cozumel, Costa Rica and Los Cabos, demonstrating that Latin America is a trendy travel hot spot for 2015.”

For the most bang for your buck, travelers should consider taking a vacation in either Dallas, TX or Salt Lake City, UT, both of which showed the lowest average daily hotel room rates on priceline.com in 2014. Dallas boasts many attractions, including a lakeside Botanical Garden and an indoor ice rink in the Galleria shopping complex connected to a major hotel that’s convenient for travelers. Salt Lake City claims to be the Genealogy Capital of the World where travelers can check out the Family History Library, all while enjoying sweeping, mountainous views.

Other value destinations with the lowest average daily room rates include:

Priceline.com’s 15 Most Affordable Destinations for 2015
Destinations

Dallas, TX
Salt Lake City, UT
Orlando, FL
Charlotte, NC
Phoenix, AZ
Tampa, FL
Las Vegas, NV
Atlanta, GA
Louisville, KY
San Antonio, TX
Houston, TX
Orange County, CA
Minneapolis/ St. Paul, MN
Denver, CO
Portland, OR
$109.30

Those looking to get the best hotel and airfare deals in 2015, in addition to the list above, can also try priceline.com’s Name Your Own Price® offering for up to 60 percent off hotel retail rates and up to 40 percent off airfare by bidding on the room and tickets. Last-minute travelers can grab great deals on priceline.com’s mobile app, which offers Tonight-Only hotel deals for savings up to 50 percent or more, and Air Express Deals® for an average of 20 percent additional savings off of the lowest retail prices.

Priceline.com’s Top 2015 Travel Hot Spots
(Based on advance hotel reservations made on priceline.com)

Orlando, FL
Puerto Rico*
Las Vegas, NV
Cancun/ Cozumel, Mexico*
New Orleans, LA
London, England*
Miami, FL
Rome, Italy*
Ft Lauderdale, FL
Costa Rica*
New York City, NY
Paris, France*
Orange County, CA
Toronto, Canada
Boston, MA
Los Cabos, Mexico*
Atlanta, GA

Sydney, Australia*

Oahu, HI*

Barcelona, Spain*

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Western River Expeditions Rafting Guru Shares 10 Curious Grand Canyon Factoids

 The lure of a Grand Canyon raft vacation on the Colorado River has lots to do with the lore.

One Grand Canyon guru guided on the river for some 700 days before leaving the rapids to join Western River Expeditions (http://www.westernriver.com/) as website and online marketing director.

But Kamron Wixom can’t leave the lore alone. Here are 10 of his favorite facts and trivia about the world’s grandest canyon:

1. The first known exploration of the Grand Canyon by boat was in 1869, the John Wesley Powell Expedition. He was the first to use the name “Grand Canyon”. By 1969, fewer than 100 people had his followed by boat through the remote gorge.
2. Outside of the occasional dust storms and forest fires, the Grand Canyon is home of the some of the cleanest air in the United States.
3. The Kaibab Tree Squirrel, a unique species that lives only on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, was separated from its South Rim cousins millennia ago.
4. An estimated five million people view the Grand Canyon annually from the North and South rims. Only 20,000 see it by river raft or dory. (Western River Expeditions is the leading outfitter, putting some 4,000 guests through the Canyon each year.)
5. Grand Canyon was named America’s 17^th National Park in 1919, following in the footsteps of, among others, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Glacier and Denali.
6. Senator Bobby Kennedy took a highly publicized Grand Canyon rafting trip in 1972 and the popularity of rafting in the Grand Canyon suddenly skyrocketed.
7. Grand Canyon still uses a scale of rapids from 1-10, a system that was grandfathered in before an international system scaled rapids from 1 to 6. A 10 is like a 5 on the international scale; a 6 on international scale cannot be navigated.
8. Because they couldn't afford a boat, two swimmers in 1955 swam the entire length of the Grand Canyon, a distance of 288 miles.  (see: http://www.amazon.com/We-Swam-Grand-Canyon-Vacation/dp/0963405594)
9. The Grand Canyon National Park has recorded more than 4,800 archeological sites and has surveyed just 5 percent of the park’s 1.2 million acres.
10. On June 30, 1956, two planes flying from Los Angeles to Chicago, a United Airlines DC-7 and a TWA Constellation, had a mid-air collision over the Canyon and all on board perished. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was created in 1958 as a result of this accident. 

“There’s a synergy between a human being and a canyon. We get possessive of it; it’s our canyon. It’s so huge on one scale but so intimate on the other scale that it becomes our own. When people talk about their experiences in the canyon you have an instant bond with each other but at the same time you’re possessive of it. This contrast is indicative of nearly every experience you have in the Grand Canyon,” says Wixom.

After some 700 days in the Grand Canyon, what was his most satisfying moment?

“As a guide, it was the last night of the trip. I walked down the beach and saw a guest staring at the sunset with the canyon walls and river flowing through the foreground. I asked how she was doing. She turned and it took a few seconds for her to say something. Her Zen moment was happening. I was privileged to be the guide who helped her get to that moment,” he says.

Western River Expeditions has guided more guests through the famous gorge over the last 53 years than any other outfitter - and the word has gotten out.  “It’s an absolutely inspiring adventure,” says Brandon Lake, CMO of Western River Expeditions.



Western River Expeditions
Western River Expeditions (http://www.westernriver.com/) is an adventure travel company headquartered in Salt Lake City, with operations and offices in Moab, Utah and Fredonia, Arizona. Annually from March through October it escorts more people down rivers on professionally guided rafting trips in Utah, Idaho and Arizona than any other company. It is the largest licensed outfitter in the Grand Canyon and the largest single tour provider in Moab, UT, through its division Moab Adventure Center (http://www.moabadventurecenter.com/).

Western River Expeditions, providing Grand Canyon rafting, Utah rafting, and Idaho rafting trips, was founded in 1961 by Colorado River rafting pioneer Jack Currey. It has been named one of the “Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth” by the editors ofNational Geographic Adventure magazine. The company is the proud recipient of the "Best of State" award through Utah’s Premier Recognition and Awards Program for nine consecutive years.

Follow Western River Expeditions:
On Facebook:             http://www.facebook.com/WesternRiverExpeditions
On Twitter:                  https://twitter.com/WesternRiver
On You Tube:                         http://www.youtube.com/user/bestraftingvacations?feature=mhee
On Pinterest:               http://pinterest.com/westernriver/