WHITEWATER RAFTING

Holiday's Mission

It is the goal of Holiday Expeditions to preserve our nation's wild lands. Holiday will provide our guests a safe and enjoyable wilderness experience with an opportunity to learn about the natural world, and through this awareness encourage the preservation of wild places and cultural treasures. We will accomplish this through: Diligent Training; Meaningful Interpretation; Innovative Equipment & Facilities; Responsible Stewardship of the Land; and Environmentally Sound Business Practice.

The Holidays

First and foremost, Holiday Expeditions does what is beneficial to the natural resources, not necessarily what is profitable for business. This commitment to the environment and providing guests with the finest wilderness experience has helped Holiday grow into one of the most popular and respected outfitters in the West.

The Holladays have built one of the finest whitewater rafting companies in the nation - one known for its seasoned guides, strong environmental tenets and innovative solutions to common problems. And, one that is now becoming equally well-known for its mountain bike treks through Utah's famed slick-rock country and excursions to a century-old working cattle ranch.

AMERICA'S FINEST WILDERNESS VACATIONS

Guides need at least three river trips just to gain an apprenticeship and then must pass a state-licensing test. On top of those requirements, Dee has adopted his own stringent training program that stresses wilderness first aid, river safety and rescue, food handling and interpretation skills.

TAKING CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Once on the river or trail, guides go out of their way to protect the environment in manners pioneered or perfected by the Holladays. Engines that could foul the water with gasoline or oil, and which reverberate noisily through the river canyons, aren't allowed. Campfires are built on metal fire pans elevated over ceramic fire blankets that keep the sand and vegetation from being scorched or baked. All garbage and human waste is packed off the river or trail. On some trips, Holiday even packs firewood down the river for campfires.

"If we haul it away," Dee says of driftwood that many other boaters feed their fires with, "it takes the home of some lizard or frog or other critter."

Such practices have long been the standard for Holiday Expeditions. And the company's guides are just as environmentally sensitive away from the river. They know you have to tread carefully on hikes as many of the soils along the Southwest's rivers have cryptobiotic crusts - nitrogen-rich soils that are home to bacteria and lichen, and take 50 years to establish, yet can be destroyed by one footstep.

"It's literally the glue that holds all the sand in place and provides nitrogen for the vegetation in the desert to grow," says Dee. "With more and more people out there, it's more and more critical that they become aware of the damage they create. Once we destroy this stuff, we'll be left with nothing but a mound of sand. It will be like the Sahara Desert."