25Years
No. 23 · 25 Adventures
Before we owned it
The tour that sold us.
Before we owned Dreamland, we went on one of its own tours as guests.
Will wanted us to experience what we were considering buying, so he sent us out to White Pocket and South Coyote Buttes with Orion, who still guides for Dreamland today. Truth be told, we showed up to this tour as skeptics of the “we-prefer-independent-exploration” school. We also thought we knew quite a bit about the desert, and that it was going to be hard for Orion (or White Pocket and South Coyote Buttes) to wow us. Boy were we wrong!
Orion taught us more about the desert in a day than we thought a day could hold. And the geology was hands-down the wildest beauty we had ever seen.
We came home from that tour and decided we'd somehow find the money to buy Dreamland.
Best decision we've made.
Will wanted us to see what we might be buying, so he sent us on his most in-demand tour: the White Pocket & South Coyote Buttes combo. We came home knowing that we wanted to become part of the Dreamland team.
Andrea got last-minute South Coyote Buttes permits for us. Orion led the tour and taught us more about this desert (and tough off-road driving!) in a day than we thought a day could hold. Both Orion and Andrea still guide for Dreamland today.
That day we did both White Pocket and South Coyote Buttes in one breathless combo. Guests bought it like hotcakes — but the guides told us how brutal it was in the field: too many hours in the truck, not enough time on the rock. So once we took ownership we retired it, even though it was Dreamland's top-seller at the time.
25That's Paul and a few fellow guests on that first visit to White Pocket. On a combo day you don't make it to the Wormhole — or the Wave of the South, or the Control Tower over in South Coyote Buttes. We had no idea what we were missing. Now we do, and it's exactly why we kept them split: each one deserves its own full day.