Hang Gliding in Utah

It’s 6:45 a.m., and my alarm is blaring. Normally I’d fumble for my phone until I managed to silence it mid-ring, then go back to sleep. Today, I immediately sit up and reach for the curtains at the foot of the bed. I can feel slight wind gusts against the side of our RV, but nothing too strong; a good sign.

Sliding the fabric aside, I see several paragliders soaring just above the ridge 600 feet away, the pilots suspended beneath the oval-shaped fabric. In anticipation of the wind picking up, other pilots are unfolding their hang gliders, setting up the large kites that will carry them into the sky.

“It’s really nice out,” my mom texts from her trailer next to ours, where she’s evidently assessing the conditions, too. “Let’s go,” I reply.

It takes only a few minutes to get dressed, meet outside, and carry our hang gliders over to the setup area. Twenty minutes later, we’re both ready to join the other pilots in the air. As I take a few running steps down the slope, the wind lifts me off my feet, bringing me smoothly into the lift band above the ridge. I watch as my mom launches below me, then relax and enjoy the view as we float back and forth over my dad and my fiancé, RJ, both still sleeping in our RVs below.

Utah, Hang Gliders, and RVs

The Point of the Mountain in Draper, Utah, is one of the best places in the country to hang glide and paraglide. We’ve visited there nearly every May for the last several years, often inviting 10–20 other pilots from Southern California to join the trip and celebrate my mom’s birthdays by flying together. Staying in an Airbnb in town was comfortable for many, but not as practical as an RV for the true purpose of each trip: flying.

Every morning we’d be up early, comparing different forecasts and stepping outside to feel the wind as we tried to guess at the conditions miles away on launch. If we were lucky, a pilot friend would be camped at the launch area and, if they were awake and not already flying themselves, could text us a wind report. Still, by the time our large group was ready to leave, drove to the launching point, and set up our gliders, morning flying would be half over.

When RJ and I bought our Jayco Greyhawk motorhome in July 2020, one of the first places we wanted to visit was the Point. By the end of September, we’d completed several shorter outings followed by a fourth, longer trip to Utah. That month, we spent almost two weeks camping and flying on the South Side of the Point, the south-facing slope known for its consistent winds and spectacular morning soaring.

A typical hang-glider flight for us back home in Los Angeles involves an hour-and-a-half drive before we finally get to fly. Waking up on the Point every day and being able to fly in our front yard, as it were—then landing right back where we launched and stepping inside our RV for a cup of coffee—was heaven.

My parents purchased a new Escape trailer a few months after we bought our RV. By the time they were prepared to plan their first longer distance trailer trip, RJ and I were more than ready to return to the Point—and of course, that’s where we all decided to go. In early June, we drove the 10 hours to Salt Lake City. RJ and I secured our hang gliders to our home-engineered rack on my Subaru Forester SUV (and our bikes to a much more standard rack), then hooked my car to the back of our RV as a tow vehicle.

My parents had an almost opposite arrangement, strapping my mom’s hang glider atop their Toyota Sienna minivan, which also towed their trailer. Having already completed a few short trips, they were prepared for the load and drove slowly but surely through the Nevada heat to meet us in Utah for our first family trip during the pandemic—of course, to go flying.

Fly Like a Bird

You may wonder what inspires us to drive for hours around the country to launch large metal-and-Dacron kites onto the wind currents. Hang gliding hasn’t always been one of my family’s central activities. The sport was most popular in the 1970s and ‘80s, long before I was born. At the time, the appeal of pure, individual flight enticed many to construct their own gliders and leap from nearby hills. The often-homemade equipment and lack of adequate (if any) instruction led to high accident and fatality rates, which likely contributed to hang gliding’s reputation for the danger that it often retains today.

My mom was one of those who tried a one-day hang gliding lesson in the 1980s—and has the certificate to prove it. Still, even though the sport’s modern accident rate is relatively low, its enduring reputation led my parents to instantly refuse when their 10-year-old daughter (me) happened across a photo of a hang glider in a book and begged to try it. Six years later, I remained fascinated with hang gliding. After researching the sport’s history for a high school paper, I finally began taking training hill lessons at Dockweiler State Beach in Los Angeles.

My parents saw the fun I was having and soon understood that hang gliding was more like a bicycle ride through the sky than an adrenaline-filled freefall (in fact, when you fly a hang glider in smooth conditions, there’s no falling sensation at all). After I moved to the East Coast for college, putting my flight training on hold, my mom missed being at the flight park and wanted to fly with me when I got back. She started learning to hang glide, too, and we’ve been flying together ever since.

Exploring the Ground and the Sky

Hang gliding today is a relatively small sport, with just a few thousand active pilots around the country. Still, for those who’ve dreamed of flying, it’s addicting. If you want to try it, you can find a local instructor or school with a quick online search. As with an RV, start-up costs are generally the main expense, running a few thousand dollars for lessons and equipment (your glider, harness, helmet, and backup parachute as the main items).

Once you’re a licensed pilot, though, the sky is—literally—the limit. With just a 50-pound tube of metal and cloth that you can transport in your RV or atop your car, you can launch from a mountaintop and fly for several hours and tens (or for more advanced pilots, hundreds) of miles. You can fly sites around the US and the world, soar with friends, and instantly bond with pilots you meet over your shared passion for flight. In short, hang gliding gives you a new perspective—both physically and spiritually—as you float above the earth’s surface, and allows you to sightsee from the sky.

Really, seeking the freedom of the open roads in an RV isn’t so different. Hang gliding gives us an entirely new dimension to explore and is particularly suited to RV travel and lifestyle. For one, you can plan your travel locations with the seasons, visiting areas with good flying at that time of year.

While many pilots living in the north are grounded for much of winter, you can drive to Florida or Arizona and enjoy daily updrafts and sunny skies. When spring and summer roll around, head to California, Utah, or New Hampshire to enjoy epic flying among large pilot communities, with all the comforts of home awaiting you when you land. On non-flyable days, you can explore everything the ground-based world has to offer with local attractions or hikes.

Some pilots schedule their travels even more particularly, following hang gliding or paragliding competitions and events. Competitions draw pilots from around the country to race through the air for miles, tagging specified points along their airborne route and landing in a designated goal area. Other events, called fly-ins, may offer an informal competition or simply the chance to fly, learn, and have fun with a large group of pilots.

Dreaming of the Point

You can explore the country with an RV and a hang glider, but the Point is special, attracting pilots from across the US and the world. After hang gliding for nearly 15 years and flying a variety of sites around the US, in Mexico, and in Japan, staying at the Point in our motorhome is one of my absolute favorite experiences.

Flying alongside my mom and my fiancé is always wonderful, and sitting outside our RVs sipping coffee with my parents after our morning flights and hiking around the launch area together created new treasured memories. Our 26-foot motorhome is also the perfect size for all of us to relax in, resting in air conditioning during the peak afternoon heat and making dinner together when the evening winds are too strong to cook outdoors.

The day isn’t over after morning flying, either, because the Point is actually two sites. Traditionally, the wind has tended to switch during the day to blow from the north in the evening. This weather pattern opens up an entirely new area, the North Side of the Point, to hang gliding and paragliding.

After finishing remote work for the day in our RV, I text my mom again. “Want to go check out the North Side?” The four of us drive 10 minutes to the other side of the mountain, where gliders fill the sky, their sails glowing golden against the setting sun. Stepping into the air, I drift through the sea of colorful wings, gliders bobbing all around me on the buoyant evening breeze. Eventually touching back down on the grass, we return to our RV for dinner after a perfect day of soaring. Then we wake up, check the wind, and do it all again.

There are many ways to enjoy your RV, and even for us, not every trip is a hang-gliding trip. Still, within days of returning to Southern California, we were ready to head back to the Point. We’re already figuring out when we’ll be able to do just that. See you on the highway, and, perhaps, in the air!