Day 1: Welcome to Zion

Greetings from Zion National Park, Utah! One of the most visited parks in America, Zion is the gateway to Sol's Redrock Backpacker multi-day trip down the East Fork of the Virgin River. Our adventurers, not content to view the park from within crowded shuttles or walk 100 yards to take pictures with the masses, are about to leave the pavement, exit park boundaries, and venture deep into the Parunuweap Wilderness Study Area, a vast expanse of land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

During the next four days we will be unplugged: no cell phones, no internet. A terrifying thought for some. This is the backcountry, where fitness levels get tested and mental fortitude is trained. Wilderness is what we came for. We will hike approximately 20 miles of river with everything we need to survive on our backs. We will explore narrow slot canyons, sleep under the stars, and barely see another person.

We may be unplugged, but to track our scheduled progress you can check the blog daily for excerpts from Sol's guides and clients on previous trips. Then, stay tuned in the next few weeks for sentiments from our latest trip, as Amie, Bobby, Fritz, Kathleen, and me, Melanie, aka "River Prophet," go into the wild!