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Outdoor and Inner Adventure in UtahBy Sharon McDonnell"Adventure" and "spa" don't sound like two words that belong in the same sentence, in my opinion. Since being pampered, pounded and perfumed relentlessly make me feel not relaxed, but antsy, I was wary of Red Mountain Resort & Spa in southwest Utah, which specializes in outdoor adventure programs. Not to worry. This spa in Utah's gorgeous red-rock country near Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, near St. George, offers enough hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, geology and archeology walks to satisfy the most Type A among us. There are enough Native American rituals, yoga and meditation to satisfy spiritual adventure seekers as well. "Some people try to kamikaze it -- they sign up for everything," said Deborah Evans, Red Mountain's general manager, on how guests try to pack their stays like their Filofaxes back home. "But by the time Wednesday comes, they're so tired they decide to take it easy."
After we ascended stone staircase-like formations to a spot with vast open views, Hanson asked us to be seated for a Native American ceremony to cleanse and raise consciousness. She smoked sage in front of each of us, to draw out our negative energy. Then she shook a rattle, to break up that energy. We stood to perform the "prayer of the seven directions," facing each direction to acknowledge its qualities, and invite them in. For example, west represents introspection and female energy; the bear, and the color black. Later, a "talking stick" was passed around, and we were asked to share a truth with our fellow hikers. "The worst thing to Native Americans was not being true to yourself, so this was a reminder to speak the truth," said Hanson. Truth hurts, it seems -- three women in our group of 10 wept as they shared painful personal memories. Snow Canyon's sensational landscape consists of Jurassic Navajo sandstone, formed 200 million years ago when sand was blown by wind into immense dunes when the climate was much drier. Since the Jurassic era, the dunes were sculpted by wind and water and compacted into cross-bedded patterns, geologist Ken Puchlik explained during a two-mile geology hike. The amount of impurities and the combination of minerals, like calcium and magnesium, adds to the different colors. Later in the Jurassic era, dinosaurs like the Allosaurus -- a meat-eater up to 40 feet long, the ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Utah's state fossil -- ruled the earth in nearby inland seas. "Snow Canyon is a true Jurassic Park," said Puchlik, who had led geology expeditions from Chile's Patagonia to the Arctic Circle. The popular movie featured dinosaurs from a later era, he explained. "It should have been called `Cretaceous Park.'" Very recently, geologically speaking, volcanoes erupted in the north end of Snow Canyon, and left rivers of black lava. The most recent was less than 2,000 years ago, roughly the same Pompeii was destroyed in 79 AD when the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted near Naples. On another hike in Snow Canyon's Red Cliffs Deserve Preserve, we covered about 4 1/2 miles. Greenish brush presented a sharp contrast to red rocks, and watching the changing play of light and shadow on the stone made me feel like Georgia O'Keefe discovering her passion for the desert. While Red Mountain offers over 60 hikes on 40 different trails, I chose a "Discovery" hike, the easiest of all, since I wanted to enjoy my setting at a leisurely pace, instead of the breakneck speed and vertical ascents I heard about on more advanced hikes.
All this exertion was making me hungry. Thankfully, food at Red Mountain was spicier, more flavorful and more imaginative than I expected from a spa. Who knew? Some of my dinner favorites were flank steak with port wine glaze, drizzled with Neufchatel cheese, adobo-rubbed Chilean sea bass, and pinon-crusted rack of lamb with a spicy anchiote glaze. Tasty sweet potato and pumpkin seed griddle cakes, curry-roasted calamari, and shrimp and scallop provencale were served at lunch. Our breakfast surprises featured blue corn griddle cakes doused with prickly pear sauce, banana pancakes with pineapple coconut compote, and bread pudding with ground turkey topped by red bell pepper tomato sauce. "The challenge here is to make spa food tasty and satisying, since spa cuisine often means sacrificing texture and flavor," said executive chef Jim Gallivan, who holds daily cooking classes here. Trained in Florence, Italy, he is a former chef at Arizona's Doubletree Sedona Resort. "We put recipes on a spreadsheet and figure out what substitutions we can make to reduce fat and calories. It's playtime." After a hard day hiking magnificent scenery, it was time for a hot stone massage, one of Red Mountain's signature treatments. Warmed rounded stones were placed on my body, and I was massaged with juniper oil and later with the stones, I'm told, though they were so smooth I assumed they were my masseur's hands. A delightful coffeehouse, Xetava Gardens, located about five miles away in Kayenta, just west of the town of St. George, is a destination for bike trips (or a short drive). Rounded inside in the style of a Navajo "hogan" dwelling with stools of rough-hewn wood, it was built by artist/designer Daniel Pettegrew in 1999, and houses a collection of books on the Southwest and spiritiuality, home and garden furnishings, and cactus plants. The cafe hosts monthly art and cultural events. S galley which sold a variety of quality local crafts and pottery studio were next door.
Over 50 fitness classes are offered weekly at Red Mountain, from cardiovascular workouts to muscle strengthening. But I can't see spending time inside when magnificent scenery beckons, I gave them short shrift. When I wasn't hiking, I strolled the grounds landscaped with waterfalls, cacti and roses, where our terra cotta-colored lodgings blended with our desert surroundings. Las Vegas is the closest big-city airport near Red Mountain, which is a little over two hours northeast of Sin City. The surreal skyline -- a faux Eiffel Tower, Egyptian pyramid, and New York skyline -- and crass commercialism couldn't be a more startling contrast to the awe-inspiring natural wonders further north. "It's detox, retox," Evans noted. But Vegas does have one thing Red Mountain lacks -- liquor -- so if a glass of wine with dinner is crucial to your quality of life, you're out of luck unless you stock up beforehand. Note to Red Mountain management: get that liquor license pronto. IF YOU GO:Red Mountain Resort & Spa |
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One activity that blends outdoor physical exercise with
getting in touch with your inner shaman that I enjoyed is the "Spirit Hike."
We hiked in the Petrified Dunes area of Snow Canyon State Park in silence,
reflecting on, and drawing strength from, our majestic surroundings --
jagged red peaks, white peaks, and red rocks striped with white. As clouds
nuzzled some peaks in the bright blue October sky, our guide, Andrea Hanson,
whose background is in cultural anthropology, explained the Chinese believe
that when clouds touch earth, male energy is connecting with female energy,
a common theme in Chinese art.
Longer hiking trips to the colorful spires and
pinnacles of Zion National Park (about one hour away), Bryce Canyon National
Park (about 2 1/2 hours away), Grand Canyon National Park (a two-day trip)
and Valley of Fire (near Nevada's Lake Mead) are also offered. 
One night, I joined a drumming circle. We played a
multicultural array of instrumemts, from a gourd drum made by Taos Pueblo
Indians, bells from Tibet, and rattles, including a long one filled with
tiny seeds that sounded like the sea when you tilted it. Our group of mostly
middle-aged women began with a steady rhythmic "heartbeat" sound, and soon
was whooping it up in a Dionysian din.