How Far Mesa started
Nora and Sam Ellery found this mesa on a hike in 2018 and spent the next six years turning it into the camp they always wanted to stay at.
We are not hoteliers. Nora ran river trips for twelve years and Sam built houses in Salt Lake City. What we knew was how good a night outside can feel, and how rarely it comes with a real bed.
The land was a 640 acre parcel of slickrock and juniper at the end of a dirt road, with no power, no water and the best view either of us had ever seen. We bought it in 2019, slept on it in a borrowed tent for a summer and drew the camp on the back of a feed store receipt.
Far Mesa opened with four tents in 2021. Today there are ten, a dining house, a hot tub and a team of nineteen people from the towns around us who know these canyons better than we ever will.
We still answer the phone most days. If you call, you will probably get one of us.
Six years on the mesa
From a borrowed tent to ten of our own.
- 2019
We buy 640 acres at the end of Far Mesa Road and spend the summer in a borrowed tent.
- 2020
Solar panels, a well and a road we graded ourselves, mostly by hand.
- 2021
Four tents open in May. Our first guests are friends who could not say no.
- 2023
The dining house is finished and the long table seats its first full camp.
- 2025
Ten tents, a soaking tub and every outdoor light turned down to keep the sky dark.
How we look after the mesa
The camp should leave the land the way we found it, or a little better.
Sun powered
The whole camp runs on solar with battery storage. The backup generator started twice this year.
Every drop counts
Showers run on well water, gray water feeds the junipers and nothing goes into the canyon.
No new roads
We use the old cattle tracks, and the tents sit on decks so the slickrock below stays as it was.
Local first
Our guides, cooks and housekeepers live within forty miles, and most of the food comes from nearby farms.
Most guests come for the canyon. They come back for the mornings.Nora Ellery, cofounder
Who you’ll meet
Nineteen people keep the camp running. These three you will see every day.
Dale Whitlock
Head guideHas walked every slot canyon within a day’s drive, some of them twice in one day.
Marisol Ortega
ChefCooks over juniper and oak and grows the herbs for the long table behind the dining house.
June Park
Night sky hostA former planetarium educator who can find Saturn faster than you can find your phone.
Come and see it for yourself
Open March to November. Two nights minimum on weekends, and we keep a few tents back for last minute trips.