Supporting Local Farmers

Crenshaw, Canary, Ogen, Israeli and Rocky Sweet are a few of the more obscure melons you’ll find in the Melon capital of the world….Green River, Utah. Holiday Expeditions supports and buys local from Dunham Melons and Green River Produce from the time the annual harvest begins. Last weekend locals celebrated Melon Days, a small town cultural event, complete with the crowning the 2008 Melon Days Queen. A parade, square dancing, softball, live music and all you can eat melon.

“Going on one of your trips is like taking Melon 101” – Garret Rose, SLC UT

At Holiday Expeditions we’ve had the fortune to have Kelly Dunham of the Dunham Melon Farm working for us for almost 25 years. Love of the land runs deep in the Dunham family blood. Kelly and her husband Rick have now branched off and started Green River Produce, a local organic farm. Several of our Colorado River rafting trips meet at our Green River, Utah headquarters and our guests reap the benefit of this local, delicious gift from the earth and waters of the Green River. Anyone who has had a Green River melon will tell you there is nothing else like it. Believers in buying local whenever we can, we also purchase our coffee from the Green River Coffee company. By Karen Johnson

Wild Places & Renewal to the Human Spirit

A recent comment we've had on our rafting trips came from a guest from England. His comment reinforced my commitment to staying green, promoting the preservation of wild places, keeping our staff well trained and the equipment in perfect condition.

'We came from the UK to spend 2 weeks in Utah. We spent a week in Zion and then headed East for our rafting trip. It was a highlight of the holiday, especially as we lay in our sleeping bags on the first night, in a long line, counting shooting stars. Totally memorable. Thank you for a really brilliant rafting trip. I would love to think we will be back sometime and we would definitely recommend you to our friends.' John Denham, United Kingdom

If we weren't able to keep our pristine natural attractions the way they are, what kind of economy would Utah have? And with the advent of computers and the internet, we can promote ourselves without traditional media, and our impact on the natural resources of the state are kept to a minimum.

Meditations of a Bike Commuter

It started as a way to NOT SUPPORT our oil and war based economy. I committed to ride my bike or take the bus one-two times a week and leave the car in the garage collecting dust. In the doing of the thing the twelve mile commute has evolved into much more. It reminds me of taking a wilderness river trip or mountain biking trip in that pedaling the bike forces a change of environment and pace. Yea, I could drive it three times faster but I’d lose the mind time. A mind free to meditate and work out the day’s challenges, free of the frenetic pace our culture keeps, free to ponder the human cost of war, or how warm it is outside away from conditioned air, and then damn that little Jack Russell Terrier is about to BITE my sandal-clad foot,,, flash-back to reality. by FastWoody

Waste Reduction by Kashmir the Pig

One of the most difficult jobs of any trip leader is determining how much food to pack and cook on our expeditions. Too little and riots will likely ensue. Too much and food is wasted. The idea came to us on an early season rafting trip in the depths of Cataract Canyon. Searching for ways to recycle or reuse the food scraps, we settled on the idea of Kashmir the Pig. Within hours of the plan’s approval, all available guides were helping to construct a small slice of pig heaven. Several shade trees, a watering hole, mud, shelter, and a hand-cut trough full of more leftover pancakes, pasta salad and lasagna than a toddler pig could dream of. As well as we fed her, and despite a few moments of tender hesitation among the crew, she returned the favor at our Late Summer Luau. For a week in August the staff filled its collective stomach with ribs, tenderloin and a healthy helping of contentment at the thought of keeping possibly a ton of food waste out of our already bloated landfills. by Brin Finnigan

Whitewater to GreyWater - Lifeblood of the Desert

Water. On river trips, we spend our days surrounded by it. We swim in it, bathe in it, and take it for granted. But upon leaving the river corridor, we are greeted with a vast, arid landscape. Reminder: we live in the desert, where water is a scarcity. Our Green River base only receives 8 inches of rainfall a year. The mighty Yampa River recedes to a mere trickle in the summer. In nature, plants and animals have adapted to live in extreme aridity, and yet humans move around from region to region with their love of golf courses and swimming pools, regardless of the environment. Fortunately, as the green movement takes hold, we are doing our part to look at our relationship with nature and question our actions. How can we reduce water consumption? Do garden plants really need drinking-quality water that has been through an expensive purification process? In a world where bottled water is becoming more expensive than gas, the concept of reusing grey water--that is, wastewater from sinks, showers and washing machines--is becoming more accepted. At our Green River warehouse, we've put this idea into practice by capturing grey water from the laundry machine rinse cycle into a 100-gallon storage tank, where it is then used as needed for watering the trees. This easy and inexpensive set-up is great for the environment because it not only diverts the hundreds of gallons of water annually that would flow straight from the washing machine into the sewer system, but also redistributes it among the garden sands and soils, which act as a natural filter as the water seeps back into the water table. by Amy Christeson

Our Committment to the Environment

Holiday Expeditions from the beginning has been active in promoting environmentally sensitive business practices. We are constantly striving to raise the bar on what we expect from ourselves as expedition operators in the wilderness as well as in our operations at the office and in the warehouse. Our commitment to the environment has been noticed by groups like the The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, Cloud Ridge Naturalists and Audubon. Every year we take these groups' members and supporters down the rivers of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho to truly understand the precious resources that are cradled in the river ecosystems.