Just a short, five minute boat ride from the mainland, puts you at the edge of the dock of The Village Coconut Island. And once you hop off the boat, onto the pier, you treated to a view of the beautiful resort that lines the white sand beaches on the north side of Coconut Island. To the right are massive beachfront villas overlooking the sea, and to the left of the pier, are the beach lounge chairs, pool, and the resort restaurant right there on the beach. Some would say this is paradise! Unfortunately, over the next three days, we …
This past summer, I accomplished a bucket-list item of mine, going SCUBA diving sharks! It was a complete surprise to me, slightly terrifying, but overall peaceful! Swimming along side these creatures, I’ve never felt more sure of an animal’s place in this world. What I mean by that, is sharks do not swim anything like a typical fish. They are calm, collected, and at a moments notice can swim in any direction with complete ease and grace. And throughout that entire dive, I was fascinated by these grey creatures and couldn’t take my eyes off them. This was our second …
After spending a few days on a SCUBA diving boat out near the Similan Islands, we chose to spend the next few days relaxing at the beachside town of Kamala Beach. Though we had only been to a few other towns in Thailand up until this point of the trip, Kamala Beach was beautiful, and completely different than anything we had expected. And over the next few days, we fell in love with this small beach town and how memorable it was. Kamala Beach, located on the western coast of the Phuket island, is just one town north of the …
Living in Tollgate Canyon during the summer months is truly a dream! After such a harsh, seemingly endless, snowy winter, followed by a long, muddy spring, the summer weather was a saving grace. And with those warm summer days, comes endless opportunities to explore the mountain’s dirt roads, enjoy viewing the wildlife, and to live that true mountain lifestyle! My favorite part of living in Tollgate during the summer is the endless opportunities for mountain biking, gravel biking, and trail running. At the end of the day, the neighborhood is on the side (and top) of a mountain that has …
The Captain Ahab and HyMasa is another iconic mountain bike ride for the expert rider in Moab, Utah. If you’ve ridden the Mag7, Klondike Bluffs, and Moab Brand trails and found them too easy, then the HyMasa and Captain Ahab loop are surely going to test your skills! The climb up HyMasa is beyond technical, with countless step-ups that will test the best riders. The climb makes the descent down Captain Ahab completely worth it, that is, if you want to ride some of the most challenging features and rocky sections in Moab! All said, if you only have a …
Rarely, in my experience of traveling both abroad and throughout America, do the touristy, adventure tourism locations live up to the hype. Destinations in the US National Parks like Arches, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon are undeniably beautiful, but perpetually overcrowded, which tend to take away from the personal experience. The Phi Phi Islands, though similar in popularity, are some of the most beautiful, and unforgettable scenery that I’ve ever seen. Phi Phi Islands far exceeded my original thoughts of this place that I had previously only seen popularly on Instagram. The Phi Phi Islands are actually an island chain, made …
Grandaddy Lake, located in the Uinta Mountains, might be the perfect weekend backpacking trip. After a short hike over Hades Pass, the view of the basin below filled with alpine lakes is unforgettable. And once you reach the shoreline of Grandaddy Lake, you will get to choose from a nearly unlimited number of areas to camp for the weekend. And having gone up there on the Labor Day weekend, which I thought would be busy, turned out to be completely empty, making it the perfect weekend of backpacking.
The roundtrip hike to Grandaddy Lake, via the Grandview Trail, is a 7.2 mile hike with only 1,300 feet of vertical to climb. Not difficult by most hike or backpacking standards, but this trail starts at 9,730feet and goes up to 10,645feet in elevation. The air is thin and the trail is steep, making it shockingly more difficult than I expected, especially with a heavy backpack on. But the adventure starts long before the trailhead, because once you turn off main road, there is 6.2 miles of bumpy dirt road that has to climb up over 2,000 feet.
The plan for our backpacking trip was to head up Saturday morning, spend two nights, then return home on Monday morning. We brought with us our dog, fly fishing rods, and most importantly, our Kokopelli Packrafts! And as we left the trailhead, heading uphill, we felt ever ounce of weight we were bringing with us for a weekend of adventure and fun. Luckily, the approach hike was beautiful and went by rather quickly. We left the valley behind us, passing other backpackers and day-hikers using the trail. And once we climbed up to the top of Hades pass, we could see we were going to be in for one incredible weekend.
From the pass, we could see the entire basin below, filled with alpine lakes surrounded by 10,000foot mountain peaks. The most stunning of these, of course, would be the largest lake in the Uintas, Grandaddy Lake. And we cruised on down to the water’s edge to see it up close and personal, and of course to find a campsite for the weekend. The lake was bigger, and more stunning than we could have ever imagined, and the best part was it was completely empty! So after we found a flat spot, with a fire ring, 200feet away from the water, we setup our camp! Starting with getting our heavy packs off our shoulders, followed by setting up our 10 year old 2-person backpacking tent. To which, we broke the zipper in the progress.
We didn’t let that slow our weekend down! The rest of that evening and the following day were spent perfectly slow. We inflated the packrafts and paddled out onto that empty lake with the dog in tow. We explored a few of the island on the lake, paddling from one to the other, getting off to hike around and imagine camping on one of them one day. The water was calm, soothing, and blue! Contrasting perfectly with the green pines that surrounded the lake’s edge and below the tan and white rocky ridge lines above.
We took our shot at fly fishing at the bank of the lake, with not much luck. Because even when we don’t catch anything, we still love to cast the fly into the water. Courtney had at least some luck with her choices of flies, getting the fish to hit, but not much luck getting them to bite anything. Maybe we’ll have to switch over to bait casting, because other fishermen we passed on the trail in had caught. A ton of fish they sustained on for the entire weekend. It didn’t matter, we still had fun.
Each night ended the same way, with a mountain house meal, cooked with our JetBoil camp stove. We ate them sitting on rocks at the lakeside, as we watched the setting sun crest over the mountains to the West. The orange and red light beamed off the mountains above, reflecting off the water below. And with the setting sun, came the dropping of temperatures, plummeting from the warm 70s of the day, down to the cold, upper 30s throughout the night. I was not packed for those temps, foolishly I had only brought shorts and didn’t pack anything warmer than a mid-layer! Regretting that decision when I awoke with frozen toes, but at least Gregor seemed to get a great night’s sleep between us in that small 2-person tent.
The last morning, we woke to the view of a glassy lake surface, almost as reflective as a mirror. It almost made us forget how heavy the backpacks were when we put them back on for our hike out. But luckily, the hike uphill was short to the top of the pass, then it was all downhill back to the trailhead. On the way down, we reminisced about drinking the beers at camp that we had chilled by sitting in the stream that ran through camp. We talked about how the stars shined bright in the cloudless night’s sky. And how perfect of the Labor Day Weekend hiking to Grandaddy Lake was. And like every beautiful, destination in Utah we’ve been to, I can’t wait to go back.
Hi there, my name is Zachary Kenney and I’m an adventure filmmaker & photographer. My passion is to tell stories that will hopefully motivate you to go live a more adventurous life. Whether that is to experience the view from the summit of a mountain, or wandering through a new town on a road trip. Currently based out of Park City, UT.
For years I’ve starred up at the canyon wall that surround the town of Moab, wondering what exactly is up there any how could I get there. Well, a few weekends ago, I found out exactly how, and it was followed by one of the best days on a mountain bike I’ve ever had. I’m talking about the classic trail link-up of Mag7 to Gold Bar to Portal. Each of these three trails is unique and incredibly challenging for drastically different reasons. And 5 1/2 hours later, my two friends and I were back at the truck, exhausted, and ready for a beer to cap off an incredible day on the bikes.
Hi there, my name is Zachary Kenney and I’m an adventure filmmaker & photographer. My passion is to tell stories that will hopefully motivate you to go live a more adventurous life. Whether that is to experience the view from the summit of a mountain, or wandering through a new town on a road trip. Currently based out of Park City, UT.
The other week, before the first October snow fell, I was out on a run at my local trail system that I can hit on my lunch break. The area is called Round Valley, and it sits right in the center of Park City and boasts panoramic views of the Wasatch mountains. And on this casual run, I began to grow more and more of an appreciate of this time a year. In ski towns, we call it the Shoulder Season, which is the time between our popular tourism seasons of Winter and Summer. And the longer I live here, …
We’ve lived in our log cabin for a year now, and have learned so much. As a little background, we live in a place called Tollgate Canyon which sits just above Park City, Utah at 8,000 feet in elevation. Our winters are very harsh, averaging about 300-600 inches of snow a year. This means you really do need the right tools for the job to not only get you through the long winters, but also to utilize the summer months to get all your projects done. Here are just few of the tools that I’d recommend having if you want …
