Our First Airbnb Experience: Utah Slot Canyons
Over the last few months we have been obsessed with looking at Airbnb Experiences all over the world. The travel site cites more than 30,000 activities globally—from authentic cooking classes to hands-on beekeeping and hiking mountains and 3-day excursions into the wilderness. There’s something for everyone regardless of fitness level and interest. If you haven’t checked them out yet, we highly recommend it.
Airbnb Experiences in Southern Utah
While planning for our trip to Utah, we quickly became overwhelmed by all of the parks and hikes we wanted to do and we were struggling to figure out the best ways to experience some of these hot spots so we turned to Airbnb Experiences.
We found a lot of interesting Experiences including:
Knowing we were looking for a physical activity, preferably in Zion, we ended up booking a four hour East Zion Slot Canyon ATV Tour.
East Zion Slot Canyon Hike
The twisting, serpentine sandstone canyons have been carved into the landscape by countless flood waters through the centuries. Wandering through them is one of the joys of exploring the region. Some require a series of rope rappels as you descend deeper and deeper into the canyons while moving downstream.
Just looking at pictures of slot canyons is enough to make you want to head right in. However, slot canyons are actually pretty dangerous. Slot canyons are susceptible to flash flooding because much of the surrounding area is bare rock that does not absorb water. During storms, runoff is funneled rapidly into the the canyons and water level rises almost instantly—within seconds or minutes. Flash floods are common in Zion and hikers have been stranded, injured, and even killed by venturing into narrow, flood prone canyons so it is best to hike with a guide who is familiar with the area.
Our Airbnb Experience was operated by the very knowledgeable (and licenced) East Zion Experiences—a decision we made based on their expertise, familiarity of the area, and high ratings on Airbnb.
To get our small group away from the crowds, the guides of EZE took us into the east side of Zion in ATVs where we hiked a small bit to the top of the canyon.
Once at the top of the canyon, we rappeled into the canyon, which was a pretty large drop. EZE teaches you the basic skills of canyoneering and patiently coaches you along the way, however we would recommend this trip to people who are higher on the fitness level and are comfortable with heights and rappeling. Just understanding the mechanics from a quick rock climbing class at any climbing gym would be helpful!
Once inside, you traverse the tight canyon pathways and from time to time, you’ll do smaller rappels down a drop off as you continue on.
The nice part about this trip is regardless of how hot it is outside, it says very cool and comfortable inside the canyons. Plus you’re out of the sun for the most part which makes it for a very enjoyable day.
In all, we spent about four hours total on this trip and (according to my tracker) about three miles of walking so not too bad!
Overall, it was the highlight of our Utah trip… and the photos don’t even do it justice!
A big thanks to our guide Ted Peterson and everyone at East Zion Experiences for such an unforgettable day!
