Four Season GuidesReviews of fsguides.com

Another amazing trip with Four Seasons and our outstanding guide Bob. Will definitely go again!

I can't say enough about how good Four Season Guides is, from the office to the trail. My most recent trip was in Canyonlands and I've used this company numerous other times for trips in the Grand Canyon, Grand Gulch, and Yosemite. All were exceptional. Guides: Every guide has been excellent. They are experienced, emergency trained, great conversationalists (but only if you want them to be), wonderful cooks (see below), and know the ins and outs of the areas they guide in. They do not guide where they haven't been. Food: What can I say? These guides hand prepare your meals with fresh ingredients (other hikers passed us once eating lunch coming out of the Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail and remarked: "fresh tomatoes!") and keep your tummy happy and your body fueled. No packaged, freeze-dried meals here (well, maybe oatmeal for breakfast on your last day). Itineraries: Not just the same-old same-old. On my first trip, Coyote Gulch, our guide asked if we'd be interested in a swim. He proceeded to part the underbrush, snake us past rock out-crops, and deliver us to a hidden rock-pond. Not in any trail book I looked at. For my first Canyonlands, turns out our guide hadn't done the trip in awhile so he went in the week before, scouted old and new routes and modified the old itinerary that gave us a much more dramatic (and secure) trip. Equipment: Need all the gear? They will provide it as a part of your trip. And it's up-to-date, if not new. This isn't gear that's just been collected over the years. You can be confident and comfortable. Or you can bring your own and fill in from them items you might need or don't want to fly or otherwise travel with. History: Ruins, potsherds, pictographs, and petroglyphs, cowboy camps, some of which are off the usual routes. Office: Yes, they have standard itineraries. But chat awhile with the owner, Dave, or others in his office and you can come up with something different to fit your (or your group's) particular needs or interests. Diet restrictions? communicate them here and they are taken care of. I've hiked and backpacked with 7 other guide services in the Americas and in Europe so I feel I can offer a good perspective on relative quality. As the title of this review says: this is the best.

My wife and I just completed our third backpacking trip with Four Seasons (two in the Grand Canyon and this one in the Grand Staircase -Escalante). Once again, the trip was exceptional. Our guide, Scott, met us (and three of our friends) in St George, Utah the evening before for an orientation and then picked us up in the morning for the drive to Boulder, Utah. For four days we enjoyed the wonders of the Grand Staircase. Four Seasons gets the logistics right every time and the food is really good. Scott did a great job of dealing with allergies and a vegetarian and still made tasty meals for everyone. Four Season's guides are very knowledgeable about the places they take you and they are like a close family And once you start hiking with them, you become part of the family too. I can't recommend them enough. Three trips - three perfect experiences!