Public lands have been in the news a lot this year. They much of the Mountain West, from around 30 percent of land in Montana and Colorado to more than 60 percent in Utah and Idaho. This summer, we鈥檙e taking you on a tour of some of our favorite public lands.
Utah鈥檚 Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has made headlines as the Trump administration announced it would whittle down by more than a million acres each.
As the public radio show 1A has , 鈥淚t鈥檚 not clear if the executive orders the president has signed will improve access to the land or jeopardize it.鈥�
Lots of people use public land for recreation, including those who practice an extreme sport called , which involves descending through narrow canyons using a variety of techniques from rappelling to scrambling to swimming.
We鈥檒l take you on an audio adventure with one group of canyoneers as they descend through public land that treads the line between Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah.
Getting there requires a bone-shaking ride down dubbed Hole-in-the-Rock Road, after an expedition of Mormon settlers that used blasting powder and picks to cut a path down the cliffs for their carriages back when this area was one of the last blank spots on the contiguous U.S. map.
A sign at one trailhead leading to a number of slot canyons warns: 鈥淵ou are about to descend into wilderness frontier, a place that demands dependence on self.鈥�
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
