Something Wilder

The majority of the Something Wilder takes place in Canyonlands National Park. The park is located outside of Moab, Utah, in the Four Corners Region of San Juan County located in the American Southwest. In Something Wilder, Lily, Leo, Nicole, Bradley, Terry, and Walter venture out into the Canyonlands for a week-long horseback riding adventure. Their treasure-hunting trip is largely set in the Horseshoe Canyon District of the park. This region is “remote enough to feel like wilderness but still close enough to town in case a guest [on one of Lily and Nicole’s tours] sense[s] the true isolation they’[ll] be facing and [gets] cold feet” (41).

As detailed in Utah.com’s travel brochure, the “Horseshoe Canyon is a non-contiguous section of Canyonlands just northwest of The Maze that holds The Great Gallery and other impressive rock art panels from the Barrier Canyon, Fremont and ancestral Puebloan cultures” (“Canyonlands National Park.” Utah.com). Because there isn’t a ranger station in this portion of the Canyonlands, the characters must rely on Lily and Nicole for guidance throughout their adventure. Over the course of the novel, they venture through this rocky, arid terrain.