Adventures In North America's Wildest Places

Wow—what an amazing journey it has been over the past ten years. Little did I know then that I would be leading a small, outdoor adventure company in the remote, tiny little town of Hanksville, Utah—population 260.

No, I didn’t choose Hanksville on purpose—it chose me. More on that later...

I had just been laid off from my job as a city Public Works Director following the economic downturn in 2009. While at the time I assumed I would continue on in my pursuit as an engineer, and NASA astronaut candidate, that was all about to change. Following an extensive three day interview process for the City Manager position in Leavenworth, WA--I came in second, and a job offer from the City of Laguna Beach, CA for their Publics Works Director position--I turned it down, something life changing came over me. I had spent the last thirty years of my life on a journey to achieve one of life’s greatest adventures and become a United States Astronaut. This was all I knew. It was the first time that I came to the realization that I probably wouldn’t achieve this goal in my life. After all, I had applied to NASA three times already—the last one of 8500 applicants, our country no longer had a spaceship, and I wasn’t getting any younger. As I look back today, I consider this awakening my “mid-life epiphany”. With this new awakening, and the freedom it realized, my first ever business—Get In The Wild—was born.

The idea of starting an outdoor adventure company was easy. After all, from as early as I could remember I always had a passion for exploration in the outdoors. Throughout my youth I was always the one organizing trips and trying to convince friends and family to join me on wild, remote expeditions. Equally apparent was the types of tours and classes I wanted to offer as well as their location. I had become an accomplished alpine mountaineer in the Pacific Northwest and could never get enough of climbing and crawling through southern Utah’s amazing canyon country.

The specific location of where to guide in southern Utah was initially a bit more daunting. Everywhere within this vast and otherworldly landscape seemed ideal. Developing Get In The Wild’s mission is what made the process easy. I pulled out my maps and decided “where not to go”. I quickly eliminated all of the most popular and overcrowded destinations that already had plenty of guide services. Just about center of the Colorado Plateau geographically was this equally beautiful and amazing wilderness area that had just as much to offer with one small difference—there weren’t any people. Very few had heard about the fascinating landscape that comprised the Dirty Devil/Robbers Roost Wilderness. At the time I didn’t even realize it had an extremely unique quality that even fewer people knew about—solitude is protected here. Yes, you heard that right, solitude, the essence of untouched wilderness had a federally designated protection here. How cool was that? ...and yes, the nearest town just happened to be Hanksville.

This past year I was looking to create GITW’s first professional, technical canyoneering video. As part of this process I looked at one of our wonderful partners—the Utah Office of Tourism (UOT). I knew the Visit Utah website was a treasure trove of wonderful travel information for the state of Utah. I recalled seeing a variety of professional, outdoor videos on the site and took another look. I quickly discovered that the state didn’t have a technical canyoneering video. This seemed to present a great win, win opportunity as the state of Utah is one of the best canyoneering destinations on the planet. I reached out to one of my contacts there, proposed a canyoneering video collaboration, and we were off and running. We spent five, long and very rewarding days filming at this incredible outdoor landscape that I am fortunate to call my office and my home. A requisite for filming was to keep specific filming locations private to protect this area’s unique and invaluable resources. Since the birth of GITW, it’s been our mission not to reveal specific locations that we travel in an effort to protect them for future generations of Americans. I hope you enjoy the new video as well as the new website pages that were created for the project. They do a great job of capturing this very special landscape as well as a few of the exciting activities we take in along the way.

Christopher Hagedorn
Owner, Lead Guide
Get In The Wild

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Home       Trips      Courses      Reservations      Blog     Why Go Wild      Contact Us Exciting New Adventures Beginning Spring 2017! Great news!  Beginning in March 2017, Get In The Wild was granted a Commercial Use Permit to operate in the magnificent, remote and awe-inspiring San Rafael Swell adjacent to Robber's Roost Country.  The "Swell" is a 75 mile long by 40 mile wide anticline, or uplift in the Earth's surface that have eroded the surrounding terrain into a spectacular labyrinth of colorful valleys, canyons, mesas and buttes.  A myriad of new places to explore are located in this wild, undiscovered landscape.  New tours for spring 2017 include The Occulus, Zero Gravity, Five-Window Arch and a new Outlaw Tour to Bill Tibbett's Cave--the last of the Robber's Roost outlaws. The Occulus Popular spring Canyoneering Adventures: Half-Day Tours Goblin's Lair/Chamber of the Basilisk Full-Day Tours Hogwarts Canyon Stairway to Heaven Multi-Day Tours Bluejohn Mindbender Photography Workshop with Bill Church May 5-7, 2017 Due to the great success of our 2016 Photography Workshop with Bill Church Photography, we have scheduled another 3-day photography workshop at the Robber's Roost/Dirty Devil Wilderness.  During this workshop, we will cover camera functions, depth of field, night photography, light painting, digital editing, and image composition.  All experience levels are welcome. Spectacular Sunrise Over Robber's Roost Accommodations will be Basecamp-style.  We will set-up camp in a remote, wilderness location and explore from there.  It is the best of both worlds - you get to experience solitude at it's finest, but don't have to worry about fitting all of your camping and photography gear into a single backpack. Book your reservation now and save your spot for this exciting and informative adventure! Introduction to Technical Canyoneering April 28-30, 2017 Want to explore some of the North America’s most spectacular and awe-inspiring technical canyons with names such as Leprechaun, Larry, Bluejohn, Chambers and Mindbender? Looking to have fun in the canyons, learn essential safety skills, and experience the unique camaraderie and power of the “team”?  This course will provide you a well-rounded base of technical canyoneering and canyon leadership skills that are essential for achieving these goals. Have We Mentioned That Canyoneering Is Fun!   Unlike many courses which are taught at climbing walls, this course is taught in actual technical slot canyons.  Matter of fact, the areas we teach in have some of the best technical slot canyons on the planet.  We believe there is no substitute for learning canyoneering in actual canyons.  We're confident that once you see our incredible outdoor, wilderness classroom, you too will agree.  We only have a few spots remaining for our April 28-30 course.  Register today to reserve your spot! Yoga In The Wild Retreat May 17-21, 2017 ~Taking your practice out of the studio and into the Wild Experience yoga in a beautiful & transformative setting Explore the dramatic landscape of the Greater Canyonlands Wilderness Discover hidden slot canyons and Native American cultural sites Enjoy solitude in one of the most the beautiful and unexplored regions of the Colorado Plateau Relax in great company and camp under the stars Adventure, joy, relaxation--these are a few words that describe the unique experience awaiting you on a Yoga in the Wild outdoor adventure retreat.  Yoga In The Wild - Goblin Valley State Park Combine yoga practice with hiking and exploration in a transformational setting that encourages attendees to cultivate mindfulness in the present moment.  Take a break from the daily barrage of information and discover yourself anew in the spectacular redrock canyons. Reservations are available for all of our most popular programs including half, single and multi-day canyoneering adventures; technical canyoneering courses, wilderness backpacking, vehicle basecamp safaris and Yoga In The Wild trips and retreats. Drop us an email at and start planning your next adventure! Plan your adventure today!   Send us an email at , or call us at (818) 381-WILD for more information. Extraordinary Adventure Vacations In North America's Wildest Places! Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Pinterest Email Register Now! Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences  *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

Join Get In The Wild on one of our exciting redrock tours during the months of October and November.  We operate in some of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring wilderness areas in the Southwest--most of which are unaffected by the current governement shutdown.  From exciting slickrock hiking, canyoneering, backpacking and photography tours to natural history tours, Yoga In The Wild trips and family adventure vacations, we've got a trip for you!

Great news for fans of the beautiful and awe-inspiring red-rock canyons of Southern Utah.  We just received our 2012 Commercial Use Permit for Capitol Reef National Park.  We have a variety of exciting canyoneering trips planned which include some of the best slot-canyons in the Southwest.   

For those unfamiliar with the park, it is characterized by colorful sandstone formations, cliffs, canyons, ridges, buttes and monoliths.  It’s most stunning geologic feature is a 100 mile long warp in the Earth’s crust known as the Waterpocket Fold.  This 65 million year old fold is the largest exposed monocline in the North America.  It is comprised of younger and older layers of the Earth’s crust which were folded over each other in an S-shape.  This striking geologic feature was probably caused by the same collision of continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains.  It has weathered and eroded over melinnea to expose a fascinating amalgam of brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs and canyons, gleaming white domes and contrasting layers of intricately shaped rock and sand.