Play Every Day
Freedom Of Expression Through Nature-Based Adventure
Summer 2019
Written By: Ashley Brown | Images: Gillian Hunter
A“LIFETIME OF BEING OUTDOORS” BROUGHT JULIA GEISLER TO PARK CITY IN 2007. SHE CHOSE PARK CITY BASED ON ITS SKIING OPPORTUNITIES AND THE PERK OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. WITHIN FOUR YEARS, GEISLER FOUNDED PARK CITY YOGA ADVENTURES (PCYA), WHICH WAS INSPIRED BY HER EXPERIENCE WORKING IN THE OUTDOOR EDUCATION PROGRAM AT THE OAKLEY SCHOOL. THE TEENAGERS AT THE SCHOOL LOVED THE COMBINATION OF HIKING AND PRACTICING YOGA OUTDOORS AND GEISLER REALIZED, “IF THIS IS FUN FOR TEENS, THEN IT WILL BE FUN FOR ANYBODY.”
Geisler launched PCYA with one goal: to create an outdoor lifestyle for both clients and guides. Geisler explains, “The company is built upon myself, the guides, and the clients having the ability to get outside and play. We keep ‘play every day’ at the forefront of our minds.” PCYA immediately found their niche in the Park City community. The company specializes in Park City-based hikes with an outdoor yoga session, a journey on foot through the wilderness with yoga in a yurt, and paddleboard yoga in the ancient Homestead Crater. Geisler says, “The yoga hikes [snowshoe in the winter] and paddleboard yoga were our first trips and remain our main offerings today.” The result of PCYA’s close relationships with The Lodge at Blue Sky and the Homestead Crater is an excellent customer experience as it’s “something you can’t do anywhere else in the world.”
PCYA is consistently expanding trip options and coming up with ways for clients to find expression through movement. For example, yoga using silks results in freedom of expression as there are “no limitations when using silks as props.” Yoga in silks allows each person to “move their body with the silk in a way that is creative.” During the summer, clients can hike to the “Grove of Ganesh,” a whimsical forest where the yoga session uses silks that are suspended above the earth. Geisler is adamant that PCYA is a shared success. “Guests return home and write rave reviews. They are always blown away by their guides.” She chooses guides carefully to reflect PCYA ideology, and loves the diversity of the PCYA team. “Every guide brings their own passion and creative expression to the adventure.”
PCYA is more than a successful business, Geisler articulates, “Coming from a dance background, yoga is a way to move the body in the same kind of choreographed flow as dance. The art is the whole yoga adventure; movement and connecting people with nature.” Her ambition is that a trip with PCYA inspires stewardship and respect for land in her clients and guides. “The future of PCYA is continuing to build appreciation for open spaces and to make sure people feel that there is value to protecting public and private land for recreation and conservation.” Her hope is that clients will go back home “and advocate for the protection of wild open spaces to allow for more adventure”
