The Importance of A Certified Guide For Your Hiking Or Mountain Bike Adventure

by Laurel Darren - Wild Bunch Desert Guides • May 16, 2022
Outdoor activities, like hiking or biking tours, are a fun way to spend a vacation. While it might seem fun and exciting to go hiking in the Sonoran Desert with just a canteen full of water, some trail snacks, and an adventurous spirit, we want to keep you safe while you're on your adventure.

Wild Bunch Certified Guide On Hiking Tour

Trained Guides help tourists visit unfamiliar places by sharing their knowledge of the local region to enhance your hiking experience and keep you safe.

Trained Guides

At Wild Bunch Desert Guides, it's our job to accompany you on a hike or mountain bike adventure and make sure you know everything you need to know to enjoy your tour safely. We know the best trails and can even host a private party for adventure tours.

To offer guided tours, a company must be certified to lead people in extreme excursions, such as desert hiking and mountain bike tours. Our crew at Wild Bunch Desert Guides are certified and medically trained and have decades of experience giving guided tours in the Scottsdale and Phoenix area.

Check Your Guide’s Certifications

When you're planning your hiking vacation in the Scottsdale area, you need to find a certified team to take you on your guided adventure. If you're looking to book a tour and find a deal that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Keep in mind that your safety and any friends or family with you are most important when on a hiking adventure. More than saving a few dollars.

Recently, a Flagstaff man was arrested for offering guided backpack trips in the Grand Canyon without first obtaining a Commercial Use Authorization to do so. A CUA, according to the Arizona National Park Service, "allows an individual, group, company or other for-profit entity to provide commercial visitor services within a National Park area."

When you're looking for a tour guide company that you're going to entrust your safety to, it needs to be thoroughly vetted. Make sure you know the company's name and if they're certified and allowed to offer guided tours. In the case of William Chandler Woods, the non-certified tour guide, he had been advertising under many company names and had no type of certification at all and might have put his tour group in harm's way.

Who Needs A CUA

Any individual or company that plans to offer and receive money for a commercial-type activity or service, such as hiking or biking tours in a National Park area, needs a CUA. Commercial tours are services sold for recreational purposes by a company and have one or more people taking the tour.
 
Trust in Wild Bunch Desert Guides to keep you safe on mountain bikes or desert hikes. We're certified, trained, and have the experience to make your vacation fun and safe. We even offer hotel pickup, so you don't have to drive to the trails. Come on down and book a hike or bike tour today! If after your adventure with us you still have some energy to spare, you may want to visit Old Town Scottsdale for a retail shopping adventure!

 

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