Adventure Tours for 30+

Can anyone recommend an adventure tour company for the 30+ age
bracket?
I have previously been on a TrekAmerica tour but I'm now looking for
something for the next age bracket. I still want the active style eg
walking, cycling, rafting etc. I'm primarily interested in the south
west USA.

Thanks,

Stuart Eastland

On 18 Jan 2004 09:22:09 -0800, (Stuart
Eastland) wrote:

Can anyone recommend an adventure tour company for the 30+ age
bracket?
I have previously been on a TrekAmerica tour but I'm now looking for
something for the next age bracket. I still want the active style eg
walking, cycling, rafting etc. I'm primarily interested in the south
west USA.

Thanks,

Stuart Eastland

Hi Stuart

Why not just take a tent and "do your own thing" - it is very easy to
do.

My wife and I visit the US Southwest regularly with our tent (see
previous posts by myself on this topic). A little research on the WWW
will find you any number of reputable cycle hire & rafting companies
etc. who take bookings over the Internet (or book on arrival). A
little more research will find you any number of hikes described - or
buy a hiking guide for the area you want to visit. As long as you
take necessary precautions and ensure that somebody sensible (Park
Ranger or Campground Warden usually) knows where you are going, it is
absolutely blissful walking alone in the canyons or the desert.

In twenty years of visiting the US Southwest non-organised, we have
walked many miles (Canyonlands - including an overnight hike round
"Upheaval Dome"), grade 5 white water rafting (Rio Grande), jeeped
(Colorado), been down mines, found ghost towns, explored canyons,
visited Anasazi ruins (Chaco Canyon is mind-blowing), driven hundreds
of miles on dirt roads (in a compact rental car - but, as a National
Park ranger said, "If you get stuck, just remember to phone us; NOT
Hertz"), spent many an interesting evening hanging drunkenly over
small-town bars chatting to the locals - and we have camped in some of
the most beautifully scenic places imaginable; the scenery being all
the more memorable due to the isolation and lack of "organised
adventure tour groups" milling about disturbing the peace.

Campgrounds are cheap (often free), food is cheap (99% of campgrounds
provide barbecue facilities), gasoline is cheap, weather is superb -
usually. The only real expenses are airfares and rental car. We
normally have an unforgettable month-long holiday costing us very
little compared to an "organised" trip. Last year we started in Las
Vegas, drove to Bryce Canyon and through Canyonlands to Great Basin
National Park, across Nevada on Highway 50 (it calls itself "the
loneliest road in America") to Lake Tahoe, down through Sequoia
National Park and flew back from Los Angeles a month later - having
camped all the way and doing lots of walking. That trip culminated in
an aerobatic flight over Los Angeles and you can't get much more
adventurous than that (err!! It was in a WW2 biplane, NOT a Boeing
777 I hasten to add). The whole trip would probably have cost a
fortune with an Adventure Tour Company - by ourselves, not very much
at all. Plus of course it had the added advantage that the whole
thing was flexible - we made several en-route changes to see things we
had just heard about and which "sounded intersting.


Regards
P.S By the way, we are both nearer 60 than 30!!!


KGB

(Stuart Eastland) wrote in
om:
Can anyone recommend an adventure tour company for the 30+ age
bracket?

http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/

"KGB (KGB)" wrote:


Stuart Eastland

Hi Stuart

Why not just take a tent and "do your own thing" - it is very easy to
do.

My wife and I visit


That's two people. Big difference between two and one.

I've tried vacationing alone ... it's not fun except for very short
trips.

I too would love to find adventure travel groups inside the
continental US. I used to go backpacking with the Sierra Club,
long ago ... but that was before they started to feed people
only vegetarian food!

Doug McDonald