The Adventurer’s Dream: A Day with Dreamland Safari Tours
If you haven’t been to Kanab before, here’s one more reason to go: Dreamland Safari Tours. Dreamland is one of Southwest Utah’s premier outdoor guiding businesses, and it truly is one of a kind.
“I have visited more than eighty countries, yet my days with Dreamland stand out as some of the most magical experiences that my family and I have had while traveling – that should tell you something,” says Jeri Newton, a repeat Dreamland guest who has taken multiple trips with the Kanab-based company since 2015.
Dreamland Safari Tours specializes in off-the-beaten-path, hard-to-reach desert adventures that include elusive destinations such as the Wave, the Great Chamber, and Buckskin Gulch – which is commonly considered the longest, deepest slot canyon in the world. As a matter of fact, Dreamland just launched a new backpacking adventure which will allow guests to enjoy the splendor and magic of Buckskin Gulch as part of a 3-day, 2-night canyon backpacking trip.
Dreamland’s Buckskin Gulch backpacking trip is unique: few other guide outfits offer overnight trips through Buckskin Gulch due to the logistical difficulty of managing hard-to-obtain permits, trailhead shuttles, and flash flood risks along this 23-mile long challenging hike.
For Dreamland owners Sunny Stroeer and Paul Gagner, the challenge of orchestrating a safe and well-managed Buckskin Gulch thru-hike is what makes desert guiding fun. Paul has decades of experience organizing and executing expeditions to some of the most remote spots on this planet — say Baffin Island or the high peaks of the Karakoram — and he spent seven years serving as a climbing ranger in Grand Teton National Park. Sunny in her spare time runs AWExpeditions, a women’s high altitude mountaineering organization, where she routinely leads teams into some of the most challenging and consequential terrain in the world.
If a multi-day adventure through the world’s longest and most dangerous slot canyon sounds like a bit more than what you would consider fun, Dreamland also offers day and half-day tours — many of which are a lot less strenuous than Buckskin Gulch. You might enjoy a three hours visit to Peekaboo Slot Canyon, a stunning red rock gorge that requires barely a mile of walking… or a day at White Pocket, which is the ultimate photographer’s dream destination out on the Paria Plateau. Find out more about Dreamland’s tour offerings at www.dreamlandtours.net or call 435-644-5506 to speak to Paul or Sunny directly, and make sure to put Kanab on your list as a must-see destination for your next road trip!
