You’ve heard of snorkeling, and you know it requires water. What, then, is land snorkeling, and why is it suddenly all the rage? Well, if you asked the original land snorkelers, Clyde Aspevig and Carol Guzman, they’d probably say that it’s always been a popular way to enjoy the outdoors; it just didn’t have a trendy name until they gave it one. In fact, if you’re a frequent visitor to Outdoors.com, you probably land snorkel, at least occasionally.
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In a blog on the website Landsnorkel.com, Aspevig described land snorkeling as “taking the time to savor aspects of nature we ordinarily don’t see or pay attention to.” That’s right, land snorkeling requires no fancy gear, little to no planning, and no special skills—it’s just wandering through nature with no particular intentions, paying attention to the details along the way.
“Each blade of grass, rock, or creature has some connection to us,” Aspevig wrote. “We ask questions looking at nature and find out what that connection might be—we develop our cognitive and abstract muscles to solve the problem. We have fun doing it.”
Aspevig says land snorkeling enhances imagination and creativity and enriches peoples’ lives. Plus, it’s free, and it’s fun.
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Why Call It ‘Land Snorkeling’?
The couple first came up with the term years ago while hiking in Sedona, Arizona. Guzman was hiking along when she stopped to notice all the life beneath her feet and on the ground. She realized when she look closely at the nature around her, it was similar to what people do when they snorkel underwater—they look closely; they inspect.
Guzman then said to Aspevig: “It’s land snorkeling!” And the rest is history.
“[Land snorkelers] open up all of our senses to experience the hidden treasures of nature,” Aspevig wrote. “We sniff it, touch it, examine the texture, color, shape, etc.”
Do you land snorkel?
Header stock image by Artur Debat/Getty Images
