In years past we’ve always tried to tack on a longer (think plane flight, not road trip) destination to our climbing plans at least once or twice a year. We are pretty enterprising (or cheap, depending on how you look at it) when it comes to turning pre-set plans into climbing trips – a business trip to Las Vegas can easily become a long weekend in Red Rock Canyon, just like a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park can quickly extend into an extra week of climbing in Utah! For today’s Sentimental Snapshot, I decided to use a video from a couple of climbing days spent in Big Cottonwood Canyon. (Beware – amateur cinematographer alert…) Our time there was sandwiched in between two sport destinations – Logan Canyon and Maple Canyon. We wanted to maximize our time in Utah, so we didn’t want a full on rest day. We were looking for some long, casual multi-pitch with a picturesque backdrop. Although our day ended up being a little more exciting than we’d planned, it was definitely a spectacular setting to climb in, and we were lucky that our friends climbed across the canyon from us the whole day, so they were able to get some awesome far-away shots of our progress!

This fall my husband gets to attend a Sharepoint conference in October in California…so Cragbaby and I are thinking of flying up at the end of the week so we can tack on a family weekend at Joshua Tree! (On a related note – anyone in the vicinity wanna give us a tour?)  Ok now its your turn – what are some ways you’ve been able to get more bang for your buck on an already planned trip? (Oh, and if you are interested in the trip reports from our time in Utah, click here.)