Exploring the unknown with Cliffs and Canyons in Moab, Utah
By Otto Rodríguez
OneTravelGuru.com
Mark Bowling is a regular guy, and by all appearances, if you walk by him out in the street he won’t stand out, unless one day you embark with him on a canyoneering adventure inside Utah’s most stunning canyons, and without a doubt, elevate Mark to a special place in your heart and soul.
This is exactly what has happened to me the four times I’ve had the incredible opportunity, guided by Mark, to rappel down to the incredible landscapes you get to see in the countless canyons that surround Moab, the outdoor capital of the world.
How about hooking you up to a rope and descend, just like in an action movie, to the slot canyons of the San Rafael Swell and making a splash in a hidden lagoon about 100 feet to the bottom? Check.
How about traversing over the top of one of the largest and most beautiful natural bridges in the world, the Morning Glory Bridge, and then rappelling down and hiking the historic Grandstaff Canyon where you can walk over streams and admire the unique national beauty of capricious forms sculpted in red rock over millennia? Check.
How about spending a full day exploring almost every little corner of the majestic Hypatia Canyon and rappeling several times into the most unimaginable places after having hiked a few hours to what seemed like the top of the world? Check.
And in every turn, you had Mark guiding the expedition, highlighting the most notable places of Utah’s natural paradise, knowledgeably talking about the flora and the fauna, and most of all, giving you the needed confidence to achieve “extreme” when you thought you could barely do “the basics.”
Canyoneering in Moab
My very first encounter with canyoneering was as real as it could get. Back in 2009, my family and I were hiking inside Fiery Furnace, one of the most incredible places on Earth, located in Arches National Park, and while we were standing at the bottom of the canyon listening to a Park Ranger, two youngsters came down from nowhere rappeling like experts, just to land right in front of us.
I remember telling my kids: “I gotta do that someday.” A few years later, in 2016, when I did my first significant rappel down from the Morning Glory Bridge, not only had I achieved a dream, but I was totally hooked. Pun intended.
If you want to experience canyoneering someday in the Moab area, there is no better place to start your adventure than Cliffs and Canyons, a leading company that organizes all kinds of canyoneering, rockaneering, climbing and hiking adventures. And Mark is one of the guides.
Located at 253 North Main, in Moab, Cliffs and Canyons has offered these kinds of excursions for many years and has a full staff of highly experienced guides. One of the most notable things about Cliffs and Canyons is that they have a full menu of adventures, from full-day and overnight advanced excursions such as Cedar Mesa and North Wash, to family canyoneering, where kids and youngsters can have fun rappeling at Chamisa Canyon, which I had the chance to explore on a beautiful Summer morning, guided by Heather Gallagher, an Oregon native who began climbing when she was a teenager.
As I continue pursuing my love for the outdoors, my mind is set on climbing Ancient Art, a four summitted tower in the Fisher Towers area, located between Moab and Cisco, in Utah.
At my age, that could be my Kilimanjaro, or even better… my Mount Everest.
