If our previous biking suggestion didn't get your tires spinning, maybe something more challenging is in order? Canyonlands National Park is chopped up into a number of different sections, the least accessible of which is The Maze. A bike tour here is way more edgy than a ride around Paris.
But don't try it alone. If you're headed into The Maze, go with Escape Adventures. Their tour takes riders down Flint Trail and curves along the canyons to The Maze Overlook. You'll then hop off your bike for a bit as you and the group hike through the heart of this deserted outback. The journey ends at Lake Powell, where your tour guides will get you back to base with a flight over the country you just crossed.
Last year, Escape Adventures started using vegetable oil-powered support vehicles, but we don't think the flight back is powered by Crisco. The tour will set you back about $1,200 and includes just about everything.
We've always been curious about bobsledding and the Olympians who make up the US team. The entire sport seems to be shrouded in mystery: Who are these people that become Olympic-level bobsledders? Seems like a serious boarding school sport, up there with fencing, badminton and sneering.
For us non-blue bloods, the Park City Mountain Resort offers a moderately daring and inexpensive alternative with the summertime Alpine Slide. For $11, you can select one of four different courses to race down on your own sled. Unlike bobsledding no helmets are required and if it gets too scary, you can pull the brake.
The 3,000 foot course down the banked concrete track is not exactly like racing 90 degrees up an ice wall at 60 mph, but for a casual summer afternoon, it does the trick. As long as you're over four feet tall, you can be the captain of your alpine slide ship.
We recommend arranging a four-person race with your friends, adding a fifth to stand on the side mid-course somewhere and wildly ring a cowbell for that Olympic rush. After about 27 of those 3.2 Utah beers, you'll be raising the stars and stripes and belting out the national anthem in no time.
A new viral marketing campaign is asking "What Happened in Piedmont?" And since we love geography and going places, we tried to find Piedmont, Utah. Trouble is, and time for a spoiler alert, it doesn't exist.
That casts some serious credibility shadows on the new blog by "Andrew Tobler," who's trying to figure out exactly what happened in his hometown. But, wait a minute, where have we heard about a troubled small town named Piedmont before? Oh, that's right, in Michael Crichton's book The Andromeda Strain.
Tony and Ridley Scott's new take on the story is set to premiere on A&E on Memorial Day. And despite the setting of the book and Tobler's blog, the new miniseries was shot in British Columbia.
OMG! Guess who popped up on "Idol Gives Back" last night? Our old "High School Musical" buddies Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale, who sent their charitable best from--oh boy--the Utah set of "High School Musical 3: Senior Year."
We've already tracked the location of the fictional East High School, home of the Wildcats and Zac Efron's spray tan. It figures that the squeaky-clean Utah would be the site of Disney's mega-franchise. We're heading out there right now to get the chance to carry Lucas Grabeel's Uggs.
The International Olympic Committee claims women's ski jumping doesn't merit admission into the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver because the sport wouldn't be competitive enough. That has former Salt Lake City mayor Deedee Corradini protesting the decision, along with her Women's Ski Jumping USA Foundation.
Maybe if more ladies strapped on skis and started jumping, they'd join the cause. The facilities used for the 2002 Olympics are open to the public year-round, and a few local clubs offer lessons and camps to learn the sport.
An all-day personal lesson from Axis Freeride costs $500. Yeah, it sounds steep, but if you want to learn how to rocket down a big icy ramp and fling yourself through the air, you can't skimp. (A half-day intro class will run you $85, but you'll need to bring your own gear.)
By the end of the day, you'll be flying 30 feet off the K10 jump--and if you're especially talented, your instructor might let you try the K20 or K40, which send you soaring up to 100 feet. In addition to ski jumping, you can also learn bobsled, skeleton and luge. Try 'em all before deciding what kind Olympics protest to join.
On the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" is a huge earth and rock sculpture created in 1970. And as it turns out, it's sitting next to a big stash of oil at Rozel Point.
Art and nature lovers are up in arms about the possible damage to the shoreline that could result if bits go into the ground--even though the work site will be five miles from the sculpture. But others believe the natural (or unnatural) evolution of the site is part of Smithson's artistic vision.
After all, the Spiral Jetty was submerged for decades after its creation thanks to a rise in the lake's water level. Only recently re-revealed, its interaction with the environment is a critical part of the project. Would that make any nearby oil rigs art too?
We were flying home from our trip out to Sundance when we stumbled upon these rental offices at Salt Lake City International. From Regus Express, they're basically short-term cubicles that you can rent to avoid the prying eyes and the pricked up ears of your fellow passengers. Office time goes for a steep $9 for 15 minutes (or $16 for 30 minutes), but if you're expensing it, who cares, right?
Each one of these little business niches has high-speed wired Internet with VPN capability, a fax, a land line phone and even a computer. You're of course free to use your own laptop instead.
The SLC location is between concourses C and D. (It's conveniently near a bar for toasting the newly made deal or drowning your business sorrows!) Regus has locations in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Oakland, Philly and Seattle, too.
Hope you had a chance to follow our adventure on Twitter, in the Jaunted Flickr Pool and on our Sundance 2008 Map. And just 'cause we're done with the 'dance doesn't mean you shouldn't stick around: We've got lots more fun field trips planned this year.
0 Comments - Add Yours
by kjb
