Photo: Wolfgang Staudt
2010 is here, and so are plenty of opportunities for adventure. Here are five of the best in the US:
1. Paddling West Virginia’s New River
This is one you can do right away: the Class IV rapids on the New River run year-round, right through the heart of West Virginia. If your traveling companions don’t paddle, the New River Gorge area offers plenty of other activities, including zip-lining and rock climbing.
Photo: jl_2
2. Rock Climbing in Zion National Park, Utah
Zion is the land of big walls, and its sandstone cliffs have routes for climbers of every level, from modest, well-bolted sport walls to inaccessible, multi-day lines thousands of feet high.
If you’re planning to hit up Zion, be prepared: climbing sandstone presents challenges you won’t see on granite. Wait to climb after rains, and make sure to back up any protection you place.
3. Wreck Diving in the Great Lakes
Divers who keep to warm-water destinations like the Caribbean are missing out: there’s world-class diving in the Great Lakes. The main attractions in the Lakes are thousands of perfectly preserved shipwrecks, some of them hundreds of years old.
Beginners looking to get their feet wet can get started at the Wells Burt, a 19th-century wooden schooner that sits in about 30 feet of water off of Chicago’s near north suburbs.
Photo: Jed Sundwall
4. Trekking Colorado’s Fourteeners
Colorado has 55 peaks with altitudes of 14,000 feet or more. Some of them, like Mt. Elbert, are fairly straightforward trail hikes; others, like Pyramid Peak, involve difficult scrambling or technical climbing.
Matador Trips co-editor Hal Amen recommends Quandary Peak as a good first fourteener for aspiring mountaineers.
5. Big Wave Surfing in Waimea Bay, Hawaii
Waimea Bay is one of the world’s hottest spots for big wave chasers, with swells topping off at over 30 feet during the winter surf season. The break is famous as the site of the Quicksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau. Held only in years when when waves reach a height of 20 feet or more, the tournament has only occurred seven times since being founded in 1984.
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What adventures are you planning for 2010? Let us know in the comments.
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15 Comments... join the discussion!
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Of these four things, the only one I’ve done is rafted down the New River. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a sense of adventure. Great for beginners and skilled rafters.
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I’d loved to try the wreck diving, so cool.
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oh wow great post
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In the next 3 months:
*Watch the best US skaters in the finals before the Olympics
*Track endangered trumpeter swans on their migration to Alaska
* Drive a NASCAR style vehicle @ a local racing school (it was a Christmas gift for my Jimmy Johnson obsessed friend)
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Propelling into the Narrows slot canyon in the morning right when the sun was igniting the redstone was hands-down the coolest experience I’ve been a part of to this day! I never thought about wreck-diving in the Great Lakes; I’ll absolutly be looking into some ship-wreck spalunking if Im stateside this summer, thanks for the article!
~TimmyJ
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Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. The only one of these I’ve ever done myself is shipwreck diving (hell of a trip, but if you’re planning on doing wreck penetration, please: MAKE SURE YOU’RE FORMALLY TRAINED AND PROPERLY EQUIPPED.)
I’ve always wanted to climb in Zion – I’ve heard the walls there are gorgeous. same with the fourteeners – like catnip to a Midwestern boy like me.
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I may not want to climb in Zion, but I definitely want to be there just to take in the beauty and use my Nikon. Always wanted to go there.
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Cool ideas, although I’m bummed there’s nothing listed for New England!
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Heather -
The best adventure I’ve ever had in New England was diving off of Portland, Maine. There’s all sorts of interesting sea life, like lobsters, flounders, the occasional shark, and all sorts of fun anemones and critters like those.
If you don’t dive, Mt. Chocorua in NH is an interesting hike. It’s not on the scale of the fourteeners, obviously, but it has a bald rock dome on top that’s quite interesting and gives you a great view. Just watch the trail signs – they’re not always as well-marked as they could be.
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Inspiring list! My must see’s keep growing!
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I did my open water certification for NAUI in Grand Traverse Bay in Northwest Michigan. Northern waters can be chilly, but the diving is still fun. The bottom of Traverse Bay, at least the area were I was, is littered with pieces of wood from the mills that operated on the shore around 1900 or so. The wood is perfectly preserved and in places so plentiful that you have the feeling you are hovering over a boardwalk or a gym floor.
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This is a great, short article. Diving is indeed great in the Great Lakes if you don’t mind being quite cold and Colorado has some of the best Climbing in the world.
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Word up. Get yourself into a 7 mil or a drysuit and you barely feel the cold.
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