Bruce Sawyer

Bruce has spent most of his life traveling throughout North America. A native New Yorker, he has lived in 14 states and has visited 49, including Alaska. He discovered the Colorado Plateau twenty years ago and things haven’t been the same since.

Trained in classical French cuisine, Bruce’s first career was that of Chef working in some of the finest restaurants and private dining rooms in New York, Atlanta, and Denver. Retiring from restaurants in 1990, and accompanied by his Siberian Husky, Chilako (a.k.a. Enviro-Dog-Wonder), Bruce moved into the wilds of southern Utah where he spent five months camping out and exploring the canyons and backcountry of Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. It was this intimate contact with the raw natural world that motivated him to return to university where his primary studies were in geology and the physical sciences. Along with studying rocks, he also studied southwestern archaeology and history, Native American cultures and religions, primitive pottery making, and the Dine' (Navajo) language. While in graduate school at Northern Arizona University he started Touch the Southwest Tours.

Today, Bruce guides trips across the southwest as well as oversees all aspects of the company. He still keeps his hand in the culinary arts by creating new dishes and recipes using indigenous ingredients he then presents to his clientele on tours and camping trips. When not touring, you’ll find him in his wood shop building furniture, four-wheeling in one of his old Jeeps, or playing with his two Huskies.