Spring Break: Utah!!

OVERVIEW

When you get back from spring break this year, you can tell your friends that you flew halfway across the country to see some rocks. Cool. Or, maybe, you should tell them that you saw some of the world’s craziest geological formations when you visited Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Yeah, now that’s COOL. Rock on.

We’ll spend the week exploring Zion and Bryce Canyon. You can find some great information about these parks at www.nps.gov and at http://www.utah.com/nationalparks. This trip will focus on backpacking, although we can certainly do some bouldering while we’re there. If the group is interested, we can also look into renting mountain bikes for a day. What we do in Utah will hinge on the weather, so we’ll have to be extremely flexible. The parks can still get snow in early March, and some of the trails/roads may be closed.

I recommend that you have some backpacking experience for this trip because we’ll be covering 7-12 miles per day. You should understand that it’s still going to be cold (65 during the day and 36 at night, 15 degrees colder in the canyons) and that snow and ice may limit our travel plans. You will have to bring your own broken-in hiking boots and NON-COTTON warm layers, but the club will provide backpacks, headlamps, sleeping pads, etc. if you don’t have them.

To get to Utah, we will fly into Las Vegas, NV. To keep things simple, I would like to purchase plane tickets on the same flight. Right now the best price I can find is $235. We’ll also be renting a sweet ride (a minivan), which will be around $350 for the week. (This is assuming that one of the attendees is over 25. If not, the rental will rate higher.)

Here’s the breakdown so far, but keep in mind that it’s subject to change. From a ROUGH estimate, it looks like it’ll be around $300 per person.

CLUB PAYS FOR:
– up to $8/person/day for food
– some camping fees
– park entrance fees
– gas
– $150 of the rental car

YOU PAY FOR:
– your plane ticket ($235)
– part of the rental car ($35)
– any food and camping expenses that exceed the club’s limit ($25)
– unforeseen costs (like tire chains)

The add/drop deadline for this trip is Friday, February 9th. The deadline may seem early, but we need to secure plane tickets and back country permits pretty far in advance. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

This is gonna be super fun, and it’s a great deal! UTAH here we come!