This year Outdoor Pursuits has two spring break trips that both take place in Utah. The trips are a backpacking trip to Canyonlands National Park and a whitewater rafting trip to the Green River through Desolation canyon.
“This is at least our fourth consecutive year running the backpacking trip, but it had been ran before as well,” Tailor Dolgin, program coordinator for Outdoor Pursuits said.
Dolgin has participated twice in the backpacking trip and will return this year as a leader.
“It’s very satisfying to know you have everything you need with you in a beautiful place because you carried it,” Dolgin said.
Utah offers a unique experience because of the rock and elevation that is so unlike the Pacific Northwest according to Dolgin.
This is the second year the whitewater rafting trip will be held in Green River through Desolation canyon, but “Years ago, a canoeing trip on the green river was offered,” Dolgin said.
Junior Hannah Reulbach went on last year’s rafting trip.
“Last year, the original trip was planned to be on a river in Oregon,” Ruelbach said. “The water levels were too high, washing the rapids out. The group decided to go to Desolation Canyon.”
The experience was incredible she said.
“The whitewater rafting trip is in a very remote low trafficked area,” Tyler Ashmore, an Outdoor Pursuits leader, said.
Ashmore was an assistant leader last year’s spring break rafting trip and has been a commercial whitewater rafting guide for three years.
Both trips spend two days driving to and from the destination and five days, four nights actually backpacking or rafting.
“The trips are a great way to reconnect with the outdoors and find some time to relax and a great way to meet other students that you possibly would never interacted with,” Ashmore said.
“The trips are a great way to spend time and meet people with the same interest as I do. Plus, Utah is a cool place,” Reulbach said. “If I could go again, I definitely would.”
The whitewater rafting trip is completely full this year, but the backpacking trip has one more opening.
Outdoor Pursuits offers unique outdoor experiences for a fraction of what commercial companies would charge.
For students looking to take advantage of this, Outdoor Pursuits are also offering spring day trips, including rating in April and May. These trips still have openings.
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