The AZ Hikeaholics aren't afraid to show the less glamorous side of the Arizona outdoors

The social media world of influencers promoting the great outdoors is vast. They camp, they hike, they find great swimming holes in summer — and they make it all look idyllic on Instagram.

Lauren and Owen Steinwall certainly do all of that. But, they also are willing to show the not-so-glamorous side of the outdoors in Arizona.

From pushing a leave-no-trace message, to showing the real impacts of wildfire across the state, the AZ Hikeaholics do it a little differently.

Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER: Is there a first hike that you remember, either of you, where you were sort of floored by the beauty of this place?

OWEN STEINWALL: Oh. I think we’ll probably have the same answer, but Chiricahua National Monument. We did the Big Loop, which kind of takes you through the entire monument. And we weren’t expecting, you know, what we saw. Absolutely gorgeous hike. Highly, highly recommend if you can do that.

LAUREN GILGER: And that’s one of the like less visited places in the state. That’s an interesting answer. Would you agree there, Lauren?

LAUREN STEINWALL: Yeah, I would agree with that. I think we fell in love with the Sky Islands when we did that hike. That was early on. I think 2021 we did that hike, and it’s just so beautiful down there, southern Arizona, just very underrated part of the state.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, it definitely is underrated.

OK, so you both have mentioned this a little bit already, but I want to talk to you about how you’ve sort of turned this social media project also into sort of an advocacy project. You’re big advocates for public lands, for, you know, outdoors, for Arizona, I think in a way, for Leave No Trace. You’re like official Leave No Trace ambassadors, right?

I think it sounds like it’s gone beyond social media influencing for you both.

OWEN STEINWALL: Yeah. We get our clean air, we get our clean water from these natural places. So a lot of advocacy and keeping these places, you know, protected from, you know, pollutants and and things that can disturb them. The more time we spend outside, we’ve seen a lot of wild animals, and that is like so heartwarming. And thinking about their home and habitat being, you know, either destroyed or reduced dramatically, you know, we think about the impacts on them.

And, yeah, we also want these places to be around for future generations, right? I think, you know, Americans before us, right, you know, that set aside these lands, you know, had that intention for for future generations to enjoy it, and we want future generations to experience the same thing. It’s really cool to go somewhere like, you know, the Grand Canyon, for example, and think about, you know, Teddy Roosevelt stood in this same area and saw the same thing and not much has changed, and it’s pretty epic, so.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, and not much has changed. That’s an important thing.

OWEN STEINWALL: Definitely motivated. And I think part of what we’re doing is trying to show off how amazing Arizona is in the Southwest and, you know, encourage people to go experience these things for themselves.

LAUREN GILGER: One of the reasons I wanted to talk to you both on the show is because I noticed this video that you posted where you showed the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, a video kind of driving down the road there before the Dragon Bravo Fire in the fall. It was beautiful.

And then afterward, and it’s so stark, like the impact of that wildfire was so destructive.

I wonder, because you’re influencers, right, like part of your job is, as you’re saying, to sort of promote the state and and say like, "This is a beautiful place to be and to be outdoors in," but it’s interesting to me that you’re willing to post stuff like that, that’s not necessarily rosy, but is sort of the reality of the Southwest right now.

OWEN STEINWALL: Yeah, that is a tough pill to swallow to, you know, drive through that, but partially, we were curious ourselves what it looked like. It was closed for such a long time, so we really wanted to see how bad the destruction was.

We saw pictures, you know, being sent in, you know, news and other people, so it was kind of curious, and wanted to show people, right, the impact of fire, and and I know that one was lightning-caused, but fire can still be very destructive, you know, no matter who starts it. So, yeah, that was part of it.

LAUREN STEINWALL: Yeah. I think it was really sad to drive through. I think the North Rim of the Grand Canyon’s one of our favorite places in the state. It’s so much different than the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

You know, the aspens when you drive into the into the park. It was very sad to see. It was a not human-caused fire, but I still think, you know, the impacts of climate change definitely play a part in the fires that we see in the Southwest. Very dry and little rain that we receive. So I think it’s still an important conversation to have and to show the impacts of.

LAUREN GILGER: What kind of reaction do you get when you post stuff like that or when you talk about wildfire prevention, Leave No Trace stuff, these sort of, you know, serious messages?

OWEN STEINWALL: I’m laughing because we get a a surprisingly mixed response on social media. A lot of people support, a lot of people, you know, reposting, sharing, you know, emphasizing the message, and then we get people that deny, you know, that it’s a real problem or, you know, that these massive wildfires are natural, and we know fire is a natural part of, you know, the ecosystem, but to the size and scale that they are, that that’s not natural. And so, yeah, it’s shocking.

We also had a video last year that we posted about people leaving their fire still smoking hot in Sequoia National Park.

OWEN STEINWALL [in video]: It is boiling. Are you kidding me?

LAUREN GILGER: One of the, you know, prime things you do not want to do when you’re camping somewhere, yeah.

OWEN STEINWALL: Yeah, especially in Sequoia, they had a really bad fire the year prior, so we thought, you know, OK, people are going to, you know, be open, you know, to us sharing this, and we were shocked at how many people, you know, fighting in the comment section about putting out your fire at a campground. So, yeah, honest answer, it’s it’s mixed, but we we do think there’s more good people out there than than there are bad.

LAUREN GILGER: And you’re willing to to put those out there anyway.

OWEN STEINWALL: Yeah, oh, for sure, for sure.

LAUREN STEINWALL: Yeah. I think there’s a lot of education to be had. You know, when I moved here from Ohio, I didn’t know about Leave No Trace, I was unfamiliar with a lot of things, and I’ve, you know, I’ve educated myself, I’ve learned, and I think maybe people don’t know about Leave No Trace or don’t understand the impacts that like a fire, you know, if you don’t put your fire out all the way, what could happen?

So I think there’s a lot of education. I’m hopeful that, you know, people do want to learn. There’s always going to be people who maybe disagree or, you know, it’s social media, but I’m hopeful.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. How much have you seen the impacts of climate change out in the state when you’re out and about? I mean, you’re you have a unique point of view, because you two are out there more than the rest of us, I think. I mean, it’s heat, it’s fire, it’s the lack of water, the drought that’s ongoing. What’s it look like?

OWEN STEINWALL: Yeah, it’s scary sometimes. I think some of the places where we’ve seen the most dramatic change is, you know, Lake Powell, Glen Canyon area. Water levels are really low there. This past winter, really low snowpack through the Rockies and even Arizona, and and we’ve seen that play out in our forest lakes.

Even we’ve been in the White Mountains the past couple weekends, and there’s a bark beetle infestation that is partially because of the the lack of precipitation in the area, and that, you know, allows them to reproduce, and that’s, you know, the perfect climate for them. So, yeah.

LAUREN GILGER: It’s eating up trees fast, yeah.

OWEN STEINWALL: We’re seeing a lot of brown trees out there, and it’s it’s really sad and and devastating.

You know, I think nature is naturally resilient, and we’re hopeful that, you know, nature will hopefully recover, but I think humans have a have a lot to play in that natural recovery, as well.

LAUREN GILGER: Let me ask you both lastly what you really still love about this place and about the outdoors here, even as it’s tough right now, like it’s not, you know, perfect out there by any means. But it sounds like you both are still very passionate about being in the outdoors in this state and and the state itself.

OWEN STEINWALL: I love how peaceful it can be out there. Like, we can get two hours out of the the Valley and just sit there in pure silence.

LAUREN GILGER: Lauren?

LAUREN STEINWALL: The diversity of state, I just love it. And when I’m in Ohio, you can’t drive two hours and have a 20- to 30-degree difference in temperature, but, you know, in Arizona, you can, and I think a lot of people don’t realize that. You can drive two hours and it’ll be a completely different climate than Phoenix. It’s just, it’s just incredible.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Lauren and Owen Steinwall, the AZ Hikeaholics, joining us. Thank you both so much for coming in. I really appreciate it.

LAUREN STEINWALL: Thank you.

OWEN STEINWALL: Thank you.