Michael Kelsey and I chat about his updated Colorado Plateau Technical Canyon guide book and more.

Michael R. Kelsey, a native Utahn, and born in 1943, experienced his earliest years of life in eastern Utah’s Uintah Basin, first on a farm east of Myton, then in or near Roosevelt. At age 11 and in 1954, his family moved out of the Uintah Basin and the Great Depression, to Provo where he attended Provo High School and later Brigham Young University, where he earned a B.S. degree in Sociology. Shortly thereafter, he discovered that was the wrong subject, so he attended the University of Utah, where he received his Master of Science degree in Geography (minoring in Geology). It was two days after final exams at the U. of Utah when real life began. On June 9, 1970 he put a pack on his back and started traveling for the first time. Since then he has seen 224 countries (now counting South Sudan), republics, islands, or island groups. When not traveling the world, he is mostly exploring the canyons of the Colorado Plateau. All his wanderings have resulted in a series of 16 self-published books. Michael continues to call Provo, Utah his home base.