Introduction To Owners Sunny and Paul

While Dreamland Safari Tours is going on 22 years in business in SW Utah, Sunny and Paul bought the business from the previous owner at the start of the COVID pandemic.  In fact, 10 days after closing on the business they suspended operations as the responsible thing to do to discourage travel.  Two months later they reopened.
 
Sunny is an outdoor endurance athlete with many speed records around the world to her name.  She is best known for her high-altitude records on Aconcagua in the Argentinian Andes, and in Nepal on the Annapurna Circuit. Besides co-leading Dreamland, she has two other businesses that take up her time:  AWExpeditions and the Summit Scholarship Foundation.  Both organizations aim to empower women through adventure, and to create gender equity on and off the mountain.  Besides being an endurance athlete Sunny is also obviously a climber, canyoneer, backpacker, and most recently fat bike enthusiast.  Sunny earned two degrees from Harvard, including an MBA in Business Administration.  At Dreamland she is responsible for finance, HR, programming, and marketing.
 
Paul is a lifelong climber.  For the past 45 years he has traveled the world, from the Himalaya, to Patagonia, to Baffin Island and Alaska climbing and establishing difficult big wall climbs.  Paul started his career as a climbing ranger at Grand Teton National Park before transitioning into the outdoor apparel and equipment world.  He worked as the President of Sierra Designs, SportsOneSource (Outdoor market research firm), Granite Marketing Group, and Ultimate Direction, and was the VP of Sales and Marketing for Gregory Mountain Products.  At Dreamland Paul is responsible for sales, guest services, and operations.

Your Guide to Wave Permits and Dreamland’s Conditional Tour

The Wave in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is one of the most sought-after hiking locations in the lower 48.  It’s curving striations and vibrant colors captivate the imagination and are known worldwide.  Getting a permit to visit is an extremely challenging proposition as the BLM has strict limits for how many visitors can access it daily, and you don’t want to get caught trying to poach it as there’s a hefty fine.

Before applying for a permit realize that the 6 ½ mile roundtrip hike is considered moderately difficult to difficult, depending on the time of year.  Half the hike is in sand, half is on slickrock and there’s about 500 feet of elevation gain in both directions – also, there is no trail, this is all cross country.

The BLM issues 16 groups (a group is a maximum of 6 visitors), or 64 visitors permits for any one day.  This is a bit misleading because the # of groups is always reached first, so typically there are 30-40 permits actually issued for any one day.

There are two ways to secure a permit: 1) Apply online for a Coyote Buttes North permit at recreation.gov 4 months in advance of your preferred dates.  So, for a hike in April, you would apply during the month of December, and you will be notified if you won on January 1st.  12 groups and 48 permits are issued, but you will be competing against thousands of other hopefuls.  2) Apply via the online geofence last minute lottery 2 days before your intended hike.  4 groups or 16 permits are issued this way, but you will still be competing against hundreds of hopefuls.

Does this all sound confusing?  We can help.  We’ve written a blog post that you may find here about everything you need to know about the Wave.  To make things even easier, we have created our popular Wave Conditional Tour.  Here’s how it works:  When booked, Dreamland will submit guests’ names for the last-minute Wave lottery.  If we’re successful, fantastic.  If not we will next submit names for South Coyote Buttes permits.  If we’re unsuccessful with either of the permits, we will go to White Pocket.  All three areas are in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, and all three are spectacular. Your guests are guaranteed a tour to an amazing location, we just won’t know which specific spot we’ll be going to until the day before.  Have more questions?  Give us a call at 435-644-5506.

What activities to suggest for your guests?

Dreamland offers tours for every guest and interest.  Our friendly and knowledgeable office staff would be happy to talk about your guests’ interests and abilities and make a recommendation.  Here are a few:

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