Top 10 Life-List Adventures

Sunset Magazine

Make this the year you check one of these iconic experiences off your bucket list.


Raft the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
The raft floats beneath towering rock walls apparently colored using the largest box of crayons in the universe: all ochres and umbers and corals. You trail your arm in the cool river, and the water is heaven-literally, you are sure this is what heaven feels like. The current speeds up and your guide shouts, "Hold on!" because you're approaching one of the rapids that would make the World River Rapids Hall of Fame if there were such a thing.
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Hike hut to hut in Yosemite
Two days into the six-day, nearly 50-mile High Sierra Camps loop, you feel like you're free-floating. You're roaming the granite bowls of Yosemite National Park's backcountry, surrounded by only wind and sky and the occasional marmot. At night, there's a hearty family-style dinner and a real bed in a tent cabin.
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Ride the Continental Divide
Stand on the nation's spine at Hagerman Pass, having pedaled your mountain bike up to 11,925 feet. Over five days-covering far more ground than if hiking-you see sapphire lakes, tousled meadows, and aspen forest after aspen forest, their leaves making soft applause as you breeze by.
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Immerse yourself in a yoga retreat
Imagine a weekend of eating nothing but healthy food, sweating (a lot), no driving or phone calls, not a computer in sight. In the mountains above Santa Barbara, the White Lotus Foundation hosts three-day yoga retreats for people at any level. When you aren't working on your breathing or pigeon, you can visit the year-round waterfall, hike the miles of trails on the 40-acre property, book an on-site massage, or just stare at the ocean, hills, and sky.
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Backpack the Pacific Crest Trail
It would take you five months to walk the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. But for a long weekend that's high on thrills per mile, try the 17-mile stretch through Oregon's Three Sisters Wilderness. It offers a sampler of the fir forests, waterfalls, jagged peaks, and serene alpine lakes for which the PCT is famous.
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Surf Waikiki
When it comes to surfer snob appeal, Waikiki sucks. The Kelly Slaters, the Alana Blanchards, they're shredding monster waves in Bali, Tahiti, across Oahu on the North Shore. But for beginners? Waikiki is utter bliss. Start with the water, a caressing 72°. Add a break that generates the world's most gentle, evenly spaced 3- to 6-foot swells. Finally, benefit from the wealth of instructors.
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See Yellowstone--by bike
Nearly a million people visit Yellowstone in July. By September, half that number are back to the daily grind, leaving you, the bugling elk, and whoever else may be roaming. A bike trip led by Western Spirit Cycling covers 30 to 50 miles per day, a surprisingly doable distance when you stop often for bubbling mudpots, sulfuric geysers, and cascading falls.
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Explore a slot canyon in Utah
The San Rafael Swell, a 2,000-square-mile sandstone slab west of Moab, looks like, well, a lot of rock. But descend into its labyrinth of slot canyons, carved by rain and runoff and polished by wind, and you're in a whole new world. You'll twist your way through bacon-striped stone passages, and scramble, squeeze, or even swim through unforgettable narrows.
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Kayak the San Juans
It's easy to be dazzled by talk of spotting breaching orcas, playful harbor seals, and colorful seastars. But once you're bobbing serenely in 3-inch wavelets in the San Juan archipelago, you'll understand the deeper seduction: the kayaking life, in which you're no mere observer of the weather, the tides, and the marine life but a full participant among them. And there is just no better place to spend the night than camping on these serene islands.
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Climb a cliff in Joshua Tree
The bulbous granite of Joshua Tree is spectacular from the ground. But when you get on the rocks, you go to a higher plane with views both vast (you can see forever) and minute (there are entire ecosystems in crevices no bigger than your palm). The best part: Even the noodle-armed among us can do it.
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