I rediscovered the great American road trip in the 1980s after returning from graduate school in Alabama. I had just started up Provo Canyon in my car when I saw the turnoff to the Squaw Peak Road (FS Road 27) on the right leading to the Rock Canyon area above downtown Provo. The Rock Canyon “Gorge” is easily visible from I-15, immediately above the Provo LDS Temple, and … [Read more...]
Strum Your Way to a Sunny Day: It’s Easy to Learn the Ukulele
So you have run out of videos to watch, books to read, friends to text and new recipes to cook. May I suggest discovering the ukulele? Learning how to play this simple stringed instrument may make the corona lockdown all seem worthwhile. You can actually learn the necessary chords and play your first song within 30 minutes. Yep, I'm not kidding. What makes the uke so … [Read more...]
Starry Starry Night: Dark Sky Parks and Research Flourish in Utah
One of the great delights of a camping trip, or better yet, living in one of Utah’s remote places away from the lights of the larger cities, is looking up on a clear night to see the sky filled with stars. Staring into the dark sky, punctured with points of light and maybe the glowing brushstroke of the Milky Way, can be inspiring, humbling and exhilarating. It is … [Read more...]
Discovering Moab, Again
Bikes, Jeeps, and rafts, oh my! There are hundreds if not thousands of different things to do in Moab, such as 4x4ing, rafting, hiking, biking, rock climbing, rock hunting, finding dinosaur tracks & fossils, skydiving, kayaking, paddleboarding, UTV riding, zip-lining, and mountaineering. The things you can do are only limited to your imagination. A person could spend a … [Read more...]
St. Patrick’s Day SLC: Everyone can “go green” on March 17
While enjoying a beer with a few of his friends 43 years ago on St. Patrick’s Day, John Welsh and the crew started wondering why Utah didn’t have a St. Patrick’s Day parade. A quick barroom decision was made, and moments later they marched down the street in honor of the holiday. The following year, Welsh, himself an Irish-American, formed The Hibernian Society, and an … [Read more...]
Jann Haworth: Salt Lake City Murals
Thousands of people a year pass by a mural to what closely resembles the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover and never know why it’s in downtown (250 S. 400 W.) Salt Lake City or who created it. If they only knew that it was Jann Haworth―one of the most accomplished pop artists since the 1960s, who lives and works in Utah and is helping to shine a … [Read more...]
Rollin’ Down the River: Living in Moab on a River Guide’s Salary
What does it take to become a river guide in Moab? Most guides are Millennials in their early twenties, so a willingness to disconnect from the world of iPhones, and forfeiting social media one-upmanship and material pursuits is essential. River guides trade material comfort for a spiritual connection. Many are curious souls who quote prose and dabble in mysticism and Carl … [Read more...]
Striving to Elevate Escalante Cuisine: Devil’s Garden Grill
Just six months before the opening of Devil’s Garden Grill in Escalante, President Trump slashed Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument’s protected lands in half with the stroke of a pen. Conservative lawmakers and some Westerners cheered the move as retribution from decades of federal overreach, but many local business owners were fearful of what this could mean for their … [Read more...]
Greenhouse Effect Celebrates 20 Years of Salt Lake Food and Culture
If you’re cruising down 9th East in Millcreek, you may inadvertently pass right on by one of the coziest coffee shops in Salt Lake City, Greenhouse Effect. You want slow-living and the nourishment of local art and culture? Come on in. The Greenhouse Effect Cafe (locally known as “Greenhouse”) stands in warm opposition to the sterile and imperialistic encroach of other … [Read more...]
Your Summer Vacation on Ice in Escalante and Boulder Utah
Utah has so much natural splendor, it’s a shame we feel so strongly that it can only be enjoyed in the spring and summer, the same time the rest of the state—and the rest of the world, for that matter—also decides to enjoy the canyon country. Consequently, those wide-open spaces can sometimes feel a little cramped when you’re elbowing way your past German tourists in … [Read more...]