Explore Utah with Rainier Outdoor

Hi! My name is Cassidy and I’m part of the Rainier Outdoor team that recently traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah for a unique yurt photoshoot. Our team created an adventure itinerary to capture incredible images of some of our most unique products. We gathered information from our yurt customers to learn how they adapt to living in the round. Once we had the plans in place, we hopped on a plane to Utah to start our adventure.

One of our contacts is with a family of ten near Salt Lake City. This family purchased four Eagle Yurts about five years ago and invited our team to their property to experience ‘off-the-grid living for ourselves. After a quick plane ride, an hour's drive outside Salt Lake City, and a thirty-minute drive up a dirt road, we landed near the Red Canyons.

In addition to the yurts, our team was privileged to hear stories about the history of this property. This family owns a large piece of property that was passed down from their grandfather. In his early years, their grandfather ran a successful ranch off of this property. The ranch soon outgrew its roots and the property developed into a unique camping spot for their extended family. Today, they spend vacation time alongside the wildlife and unimaginable views.

The history behind this ranch dates back to the early 1900s and has been preserved over the years. In memory of multiple family members, the current owners have placed symbolic signage around specific destinations on the ranch. The property offers ruminants from the old ranching days, memories from summers spent fishing on the lake, and weekends spent building individual campsites for visitors.

One of the most exciting parts of this adventure was seeing the desolate space surrounding the yurts. It’s no secret that we love to see the spots where our customers build their yurts and how they decide to use them. Our motto is ‘live the adventure’ and this family displayed exactly that. We arrived in a small town just outside of Salt Lake City, UT knowing that we still had a long journey ahead of us. After about an hour down the highway, we reached a point where we could no longer travel in our vehicle. We jumped into a side by side with snow trek and continued our venture up the mountain until we reached 7,400 feet above elevation. The isolated property provides acres and acres of food for wildlife. On our way to the top, we saw moose, robins, elk, deer, and even a weasel!

The yurts are 24’, 27’, 30’, and 33’ Eagle Yurts, all built around the same year. Our first contact with the family was from the couple that purchased the 30’ yurt. Soon after, their distant family caught wind of this exciting venture and wanted one of their own. Each yurt was erected with the help of multiple family members and friends. The yurts all feature wood stoves, snow loads, and unique yurt platforms.

Our journey provided insight into the importance of installing a wood stove in your yurt. At the time, the temperature outside was 23 degrees. We entered our first yurt, turned on the wood stove, and watched the thermometer rise from 23 degrees to 45 degrees in a matter of minutes. As recommended in our ‘Heat Your Yurt for the Winter’ blog, woodstoves or heated floors are a must for full-time live-in yurts.

Did you know Rainier Outdoor sells wood stoves in addition to our Eagle Yurt? Check out our accessories page to learn more! In addition, our snow load capabilities can manage up to 169 pounds per square foot of snow. Features like our ring-rafter brackets ensure the strongest, most efficient outdoor living structure we have ever devised. We customize every yurt based on the environment, elevation, wind, and snow load. In this case, we customized these yurts based on the elevation and snow load at 7,400 feet above elevation. Finally, the yurt platforms! Check out our 'True Cost of Building a Yurt: Platform' blog for inspiration on platform ideas unique to your yurt.

If you enjoyed this post please like, share, or leave a comment below! If you have custom work for an idea you'd like to bring to life contact us now. Come live the adventure with Rainier Outdoor!