SUP Review: 10’6″ Ride SUP, by Red Paddle Co. ($1,300, redpaddleco.com) But first…a story, of course When I was eleven, my family went on its first real vacation. At least that’s what it felt like. As a 5th grader in Jenks, Oklahoma, just about anywhere outside of a two-state area felt like a real vacation. We flew to California, went to Disneyland, and while my dad attended meetings in LA, my mom drove us kids to Reno to visit my grandparents. Where am I going with this, you ask? Well… My aunt worked at a department store in downtown Reno. She was finalizing a…
Author: Aaron Lovell
Aaron Lovell
Aaron Lovell lives in Tooele, Utah, and studied journalism at the University of Oklahoma. He hates fishing, loves ballet, and spends his free time helping his wife coax their four children along on hikes they're not old enough for. Twitter: @aarontlovell
[Note: These reviews are my own observations after having tried each of these items on several trips over a period of anywhere up to 8 months.] Versatility is a virtue, and that’s as true for travelers as it is for the gear we carry. It’s especially true if you want to travel light and/or have room for souvenirs in your carry-on. To that end, allow me to introduce to you a bevy of versatile items for your travel arsenal. Whether you’re traveling for work or pleasure, these travel-tested champions will lighten your load and leave plenty of room for whatever you like to…
A Family Journey Through Utah’s Color Country Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Part 3: A Tropical Setting This is the third in a three-part series about Highway 12 in Utah. Click the links above to access the other installments. At 15 I committed one of the seven deadly sins of the National Park System by feeding the wildlife. Tucked away somewhere in a family photo album is a record of the transgression. I lie supine among rooty pine trees lining the park’s rim. Legs crossed at the ankles and hands behind my head, I crane my neck forward to watch chipmunks stuffing their cheek pouches with peanuts…
A Family Journey Through Utah’s Color Country Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Part 2: Enchanting Escalante This is the second in a three-part series about Highway 12 in Utah. Click the links above to access the other installments. After visiting Capitol Reef, head south on Highway 12 from Torrey. (That is, if you didn’t take the Burr Trail option mentioned in Part I of this series.) You’ll wind over the eastern shoulder of Boulder Mountain and through the town that shares its name. Soon after passing through Boulder, you’ll be on The Hogsback. Steep cliffs cling to this narrow, winding…
A Family Journey Through Utah’s Color Country Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 “That bird just pooped in my ice cream!” I lifted my gaze and half muttered, “Huh?” as a tiny shadow flitted up and out of sight. My daughter’s face was a contortion of horror and extreme delight. Both arms in the air, she stared disbelieving into the small plastic cup nearly empty of its half-frozen contents. And then she laughed the kind of laugh that lives only in the souls of little girls. The kind that makes rainbows seem to crack open in mid-air as the sound bounces from sunbeam to…
The Apollo 6 Mobility Package by Endless Sun Solar is a convenient, lightweight, and flexible solution to portable outdoor power for small devices. Admit it. You feel a little naked without your smartphone and a little panicked when the battery meter gets below about 15%. In the US most people carry a smartphone, and we take them everywhere. The little 6-ounce hunk of plastic, metal, and glass creating rectangular wear lines in your pants pocket has replaced a lot of the stuff you used to carry there, like lip balm. And for most of us, outdoor junkies, weekend warriors, and posers alike, our phones have…
A Spring Training Skin Care Primer Board shorts and a ball cap, the perfect attire for a mid–morning jog along Rio de Janeiro’s perfectly arcing beaches of mellow golden sand. I normally don’t run shirtless, but since this particular outing would include forays into the surf, I stood in front of the hotel mirror and slathered sunblock on every square inch of exposed skin. Or so I thought. Most short runs take under an hour to finish, but the conditions here were just right to extend it to a few hours. Swimming, watching surfers, playing a few pick–up beach volleyball…
4 Utah Peaks to Bag this Fall [dropcap style=”square”]I[/dropcap] was fresh out of grad school and newly transplanted to Utah when a friend invited me on a rim-to-rim dayhike through the Grand Canyon. With a couple of days’ notice and no prep, I did what any sensible, long-haired, red-eyed recent grad would do. I hemmed and hawed for an excuse, found none worthy, and accepted. What does the Grand Canyon have to do with Utah peak hiking? The hikes in this article are the opposite of canyons after all, each leading to a summit, not a river. But walking through…
Rock Climbing with Kids “Dad, I am going to die in two seconds!” she screams. “GET ME DOWN!” Quinn’s wail of hyperbolic doom echoes off the cobbled walls of Maple Canyon. Even the birds stop singing momentarily, as if waiting to hear what would happen next.
Why Helmets Matter This Winter, and Why You Should Care Dazed, but still able to move, I stood clutching my left arm and wincing from the pain in my ribs with each breath while waiting for my friend to come back up the trail or for the other riders behind me to catch up. I took off my helmet. The foam was cracked like glass in all directions. I couldn’t stop staring at it.