Glen Canyon Backcountry Club offers private guided day hikes and custom multi-day backpacking trips in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
All routes are designed for an immersive experience in the Glen Canyon region’s diverse terrain and ecosystems.
We modify our hikes to the pulse of seasonal conditions which can include flash floods, high heat, snow, and variable water availability.
No prior experience is required. We make trip recommendations and customize routes to ensure the most enjoyable trip for your abilities.
Connect deeply with the desert alongside our guides who are deeply knowledgeable about the region’s natural and human history.
To schedule your trip, please email:
contact@glencanyonbackcountryclub.com
Experience Glen Canyon
For 186 miles, the Colorado River once gently flowed through a golden sandstone paradise teeming with sculpted grottos, lush side-canyons, and a rich human history. Paradise was altered in 1963, when Glen Canyon Dam drowned what many consider a lost Eden.
Those who experienced Glen Canyon before the Dam now look to the Escalante River canyons as its best relic. The 85-mile river begins among ponderosa pines near the town of Escalante, Utah, before winding through colorful sandstone canyons. The Escalante River supports a lush riparian habitat and abundant wildlife. These are reminders of what has made this landscape a sacred homeland to Indigenous people since time immemorial.
Flowing through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, the Escalante River and surrounding canyons are the heartbeat of the Colorado Plateau’s red rock country. A trek through 200-million-year-old Navajo Sandstone will transport you back in time, while bringing heightened awareness to new threats to this landscape. In 2026, the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument were reduced by 90%. Downstream, 26 years of drought and a century of overuse have shrunk Lake Powell to record lows.
Amid this drama, Glen Canyon’s tributaries are making a miraculous return, with low water levels revealing gorgeous sandstone formations and allowing native plant and wildlife to thrive once more. Experience this unique and ever-changing landscape with Glen Canyon Backcountry Club!
Morgan Sjogren
Co-Founder and Guide
Morgan Sjogren is a resident Glen Canyon explorer and the award winning author of Path of Light: A Walk Through Colliding Legacies of Glen Canyon. For the past decade she’s devoted herself to studying this landscape on foot, afloat, and in the archives.
Morgan designs our custom routes and is drawn to landscape-scale exploration to contextualize how the desert is put together and our very small place within it.
Aaron Crosby
Co-Founder and Guide
Aaron Crosby is an experienced outdoor educator and public lands steward. He previously worked with the Escalante River Watershed Project and as a Forest Service Backcountry Ranger in the Eastern Sierra's Inyo National Forest.
Aaron is our lead guide for day hikes and multi-day trips. He has a keen eye for detail, keeping a careful watch on weather and water conditions.
Backpacking is a way of life for Aaron and Morgan. The duo spend up to a third of each year in the backcountry throughout the Colorado River watershed. They consider the Escalante River and Glen Canyon home. Both are expert route finders and are highly skilled in adapting trips for current conditions. Even when pushing themselves in rugged terrain, they cherish slowing down to absorb the desert’s details.
Beyond Guidebooks
Morgan is the author of two hiking guidebooks, The Best Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Hikes and The Best Bears Ears National Monument Hikes. Morgan’s guidebooks cover popular routes while emphasizing information about threats to public lands alongside Visit with Respect and Leave No Trace Ethics.
You will not find Glen Canyon Backcountry Club routes in the guidebooks. Like the historic expedition routes Morgan traveled in Path of Light, our treks explore natural landscape passages and historic off-trail routes.
Like Morgan’s guidebooks, Glen Canyon Backcountry Club was created with an understanding that nurturing landscape relationships are critical to public lands protections that safeguard the desert for future generations.
Time Travel with Glen Canyon Backcountry Club
Contact Glen Canyon Backcountry Club
