canyonlands

Listen to us talk about time slipping, knowing people, hamburger helper, a pizza detour, a bunch of National Parks, Landon’s new job, furniture shopping, generational nudity, the Depp-Heard trial, recasting characters, completing Far Cry 6, Day’s Gone, new controllers, and odd shower habits. Starring David Parker, Landon Browning, and Mick Parker.

Recorded April 23^rd, 2022.

Is it a reservoir in crisis or a river recovering?   In October of 2021 a crew of river scientist and river runners and this podcast traveled down Cataract Canyon to examine a retreating reservoir and a recovering river.  As Lake Powell dips below 30% of full, the Colorado River is cutting through the decades of reservoir sediment.  What is in the sediment?  On top of it?  What is next?

SPONSORED ORGANIZATION
RiversEdge West

GUESTS
Pete Lefebvre
Dr Brenda Bowen
Dr Scott Hynek
Dr Cari Johnson
Dr Sasha Reed
Dr Jack Schmidt
 

LINKS
Returning Rapids
Cataract Canyon
Colorado River
Lake Powell
Center for Colorado River Studies
 

MEDIA
Salt Lake Tribune:  As Lake Powell shrinks, the Colorado River is coming back to life
New Yorker:  The Lost Canyon Under Lake Powell
Book:  Under White Sky
 

RIVER RADIUS PODCAST EPISODES
The Returning Rapids of Cataract Canyon 2021
The silty byproduct of Lake Powell
Recycling (river) water in Southern California
Southern California's Water, Yesterday & Tomorrow

THE RIVER RADIUS

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Paddle the Colorado River for six days through Canyonlands National Park's famous Cataract Canyon.  

On this relaxing vacation, you can paddle or simply ride along in the dory as you choose each day!  Plus, in calm waters, you can SUP and others, kayak the smaller rapids!  Stretch your legs on the many optional day hikes through this impressive canyon along the Colorado River before it hits Lake Powell.  This trip isn't hard to book, like the Grand Canyon's trip, plus it takes less than a week instead over over two weeks!

Kit interviews popular travel blogger Sherry Ott of Ottsworld.com about her recent paddling adventure with O.A.R.S.

We'll hear what it was like and what to expect to see if this holiday should be added to your travel list.

COMPLETE SHOW NOTES  See important links to boondocking sites, photos and more cool info

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Train For Your Adventure  Ask Becki at Trailblazer Wellness to customize an at home, online personal training program for your upcoming adventure using whatever equipment you already have!  You’ll get phone consultations, instruction videos and a plan to give you the best chance of success.  Becki offers a FREE initial phone consultation to see if you are a good fit.  AND she offers ATA listeners a 10% discount!

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The ongoing drought in the West has underscored how precious water is in that arid landscape. Photographer Colleen Miniuk explores the dilemma along the rivers that feed the Colorado watershed in a new book that is both a celebration and warning about water in the West.

Michael Kang of The String Cheese Incident joins The Nature of Music for an insightful and fun interview brimming with stories of outdoor adventure. In a fascinating conversation, he reveals the origins of his musical career in Alaska - and in a chance encounter in Crested Butte, Colorado. Kang shares tales from the rainforests of Costa Rica, to the beaches of New Zealand, to the mountains of British Columbia. He reflects on his work converting wastewater to algae biofuels and talks about his partnership with a company advancing a new carbon capture technology (coming soon to businesses that utilize CO2 - from restaurants and bars, to greenhouses, to industrial facilities). Along the way, he tells the nature-inspired backstory to String Cheese songs such as Desert Dawn, Water, and Round the Wheel.

Please click here to make a concert ticket-level donation that supports The Nature of Music’s work providing you with something positive to enjoy during these crazy times.

Frederick Swanson is a Salt Lake City writer who long has studied public lands issues in Utah, and his latest book delves into the history of the state's national parks and monuments. In our show he discusses the motivation that spurred "Wonders of Sand and Stone, A History of Utah’s National Parks and Monuments."

We take a look at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s move to offer more than 110,000 acres in Utah for oil and gas development. How might that proposal impact Arches, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands national parks?

Erika Pollard from the National Parks Conservation Association joins us to explain some of the issues in play. After listing to our conversation, take a look at this story that looks at the issue in more detail.

Finally, we leave you with a rationale for instituting a reservation system for visiting some units of the National Park System.

This week we have a wide-ranging discussion about visiting the parks with Jason Epperson from the America’s National Parks podcast and David and Kay Scott, authors of The Complete Guide To the National Park Lodges. We preview upcoming podcasts on the missions of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, and recap our series on the Colorado River and its impacts on Canyonlands National Park and Glen National Recreation Area.

In recent years there has been a movement of sorts to rebrand units of the National Park System as “national parks,” a movement motivated in large part by the economic boost such a redesignation is hoped to have. In New Mexico there’s a group that’s opposed to turning Bandelier National Monument into Bandelier National Park. We discuss that issue with Tom Ribe, executive director of Caldera Action, a nonprofit advocacy group in New Mexico.

And we continue our series on how the health of the Colorado River impacts Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah. To get a better understanding of the river economics in play, we talk with Megan Lawson, an economist with Headwaters Economics.

This week’s show kicks off our coverage of the Colorado River and how its health, or lack of health, impacts Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah. We also take a peek at Grand Portage National Monument in Minnesota and what awaits intrepid park travelers who put it on their to-do list.

Kevin Poe, the original "Dark Ranger" of the National Park Service, talks dark night skies in the National Park System in this week's episode. Traveler contributing writer Kim O'Connell discusses what she's learned while researching a story on the state of Venezuela's national parks during the current social and political turmoil in that country, and host Kurt Repanshek concludes with a look at some of the "devilish" places in the park system.

Hear about travel to the National Parks in Utah as the Amateur Traveler talks to Scot and Emily McKay from wingitworldwide.com about their travels in the Beehive State.