All of Us Travel - Zion National Park
All of Us Travel gear is put through a rugged field test by filmmaker Eric Beaudry and team. Gotta love Zion National Park.
Video Transcription:
This is Jake.
All of Us presents “A Zion Adventure”.
Back in April, I was invited by Eric and Kelli and CJ to join them on a trip out to Zion National Park to do a little photography and hiking. Eric is a photographer who works with All of Us. We’ve been friends for ages. It was a really cool opportunity for me to explore a new part of Utah that I hadn’t been to.
We flew into Vegas and did a trip out there, and it was just like every bend that we would round, we were just given another glimpse of the awesomeness.
Eric had brought along a number of the All of Us bags for us to utilize while we were hiking. The one that I found most comfortable for everything that we were doing was the Lightweight Packable Backpack. It was able to fit my Camelback, no problem. It was more space than I ever needed on a day of hiking. It’s really durable — I don’t know how much more wear and tear I could have put on this thing. It’s got a beauty mark from some of the dirt, but that’s about it.
I was able to roll this thing up and make a pillow, and I completely just zonked out on a rock — nature’s sound machine.
This trip was cool! I got to meet Eric’s cousin, Ryan, who’s just in love with photography. His passion, it’s just sort of contagious.
All that overlook, it’s just a fun little hike in. We got to see some mountain goats!
“I don’t want to spook them.”
The best part of the experience was just being on that overlook and I did a little bit of edging. I would get closer and closer to that cliff and see if Angel’s Landing was something I could even mentally accomplish.
Just to show you a little bit, I really just dig the simplicity and the ease of use. This is one of the pockets where you can just store some small things that you might need to get out a little more frequently. You got your dual-mesh pockets on the side, top pocket right here, and this is actually where the bag packs itself in. So, if you needed to bring this along, you can always put it in the 45 liters. The fabric is super lightweight, it doesn’t dig in.
Angel’s Landing was extremely intimidating and intense, but everything leading up to it, that was a pretty cool morning. We woke up at 3:00 to take pictures of the Milky Way in a way that our eyes can’t even experience. It must have been 35-40 degrees that morning, it was chilly, and I had my gloves and I had my jacket and my hoodie and like most hikes on the trip, there was food, there were water and an extra lens. It worked out perfectly.
So we got back that day, we had some breakfast and then did the hike up to Angel’s Landing. There were multiple points where I remember coming to landings and being like “we did it,” and it’s like “no, we’re only halfway done”.
The euphoric feeling that I remember getting when we finally made it, I mean getting to that endpoint and being able to just take in all the beauty in this extremely iconic spot. So many people since have taken that exact same picture overlooking the gorge, and it’s pretty cool knowing that we got to accomplish that too.
Bryce Canyon was so different than everything I expected. I guess I had never really looked at pictures of Bryce Canyon. Getting there was just really neat to see the formations and the colors and how unique they were compared to our experience two hours south.
We packed up the 45 liters, we did a hike down into the valley and took pictures, plenty of pictures. The hardest part about that was the hike back up. It was a lot of switchbacks.
The inside of this bag is extremely spacious. You can fit your water bladder in there and then redirect the hose. You got the sternum clip on this one, too. It wasn’t just my gear this time — we were putting Eric’s stuff in there, there was Kelly’s and CJ’s. Even though we weren’t doing anything that was longer than the day, it still gave us everything we needed and more. We were really able to pack it full just to see what it was able to accomplish.
The thing that I like the most is just how comfortable it is. All of the features are bonuses, but having a backpack or a bag that’s comfortable is what makes it or breaks it for me. I wasn’t having the shoulder straps cut into my shoulders. Especially with the back of the pack, the high-density padding made it feel like I was just carrying air around, it was great. It breathed really well — it’s not just like your back is soaked in sweat. And the waist strap is also pretty cool — the way that it adjusts to body types. We had a couple of different people that used the bag over the course of the trip and we were all able to make it fit us perfectly. You’ve also got smaller pockets where you can put stuff that you don’t want to lose. It’s got its one spot and it’s not going anywhere.
Another thing that I thought was pretty cool about it was your access to the bottom part of the bag. You can get to all the stuff that you might have accidentally put in the bottom of the bag, and I thought that was really cool.
One of the sleekest things about this bag is the rain cover. It folds out right from the bottom and it’s attached to it. That’s the last thing you need — wet gear. So, within seconds, you’re able to cover the whole bag — simple as that, ready to go. You don’t risk getting any of your gear wet.
The other cool thing is all the attachment points for your other gear, all over the place. You’re going to need that, it’s a crucial part to any bag.
The mesh side pockets were pretty awesome. I remember at one point we had a lens in the side of this. It has a drawstring so you can seal it pretty well. That’s on both sides of the bag.
Because the park is a lot smaller, we had a bit more opportunity to engage with other hikers and travelers. You just realize what a draw worldwide national parks have. I mean, you get that in cities and stuff, but you really realize it when you’re at a national park — how many people come to the US to experience the natural beauty that we’ve set aside and valued the same thing that you do in your country.
Let’s explore together.
All of Us is a growing community of travelers who promote tolerance, cultural curiosity, and emotional generosity.
Featuring Jake Miller, Ryan Cairl, CJ Beaudry, Eric Beaudry, Kelli Beaudry, Jill Ostlund
A film by Eric Beaudry made for All of Us.
All of Us — Supporting Humanitarian Relief
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