This summer we organized our Supertrip to be an 11 day exploration of several amazing areas in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The first day, we started with a 164 ft rappel in Moaning Caverns, where we completely controlled our own descend and speed, while traveling through rock chimneys and open caverns: a terrifying yet incredible experience.
After a lesson on modern American institutional security, we elected to skip the Hover Dam tour and continued to Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course, an amazing opportunity to push our physical limits and conquer our fears while dangling perilously by our fingertips high above the ground. Then arriving at the Sedona natural waterslide on a hot day, we tested our teamwork abilities by sliding down as a human centipede and our bravery by cliff jumping.
The next day we went to the Grand Canyon and enjoyed Oh Ah! Point, then walked to the fantastic view at Horseshoe Bend. After the Grand Canyon, we traversed Lower Antelope Canyon in Navajo Nation (officially outside of the US), and our terrific guide Ken Jo, aided us in taking stunning photos of the unique formations. At our next location, we explored naturally formed arches, and then visited Burger King, where we were educated about the Native Code Talkers that served in WWII.
One of our favorite activities was a half-day inflatable kayaking trip we took down the rapids of the Colorado River. We began water wars betweens the kayaks of our own group, but soon came together to battle other rafts and succeeded in pulling two people into the river. Then at Goblin Valley, we were thrown into a SciFi movie (Galaxy Quest), and saw goblin-shaped rocks all around us.
We also visited the beautiful tall spires of Bryce Canyon, and then hiked through parts of Zion National Park. We hiked to the Weeping Rock, where water is pushed out of the rock wall, forming a refreshing and fascinating waterfall appearing out of a wall, and then to the Narrows, where we hiked several miles through a shallow river at the bottom of a tall canyon. It became a fantastic combination of hiking, swimming, and floating.
Later we visited a speakeasy, though one that is no longer used, located inside Lehman Cave. Learning about the history of the cave and the science behind the amazing formations, it was a fascinating tour of an incredible structure that took hundreds of thousands of years to be created.
By Ali, Mattie, Percy, Ryan, Peter, Diarmuid, Mayeul, and Samir