• To promote safety, self-reliance and ethics through education.
• To facilitate the exchange of ideas and information among an international canyoneering community.
• To provide venues for networking between canyoneers, regionally, nationally and internationally.

The primary focus of the ACA is education.
The ACA is the only non-profit organization in America offering technical canyoneering courses. Through our courses, workshops, rendezvous and informative online forums, the ACA has introduced more people to canyoneering than any other organization in America.

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Canyoneering in its simplest form has been around since prehistoric times. Ancestral Pueblo Indians, more commonly known as the Anasazi, were exploring the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau since before the time of Christ. In fact, evidence can be found of prehistoric people inhabitting canyons, not only in America, but also in Europe, Australia and around the world.

Canyoning, as it is known in Europe, has been a popular adventure sport for many years. Although a few Americans have been exploring the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau for equally as long, the modern sport of canyoneering, as it is called in the United States, has only become popular in recent years.

ACA founder, Rich Carlson, has been canyoneering since 1977 and started the first canyoneering guide service in the United States in Arizona in 1990. In 1998 he had a vision of organizing an association of enthusiasts involved in this growing adventure sport. He acquired the domain name, canyoneering.net, and set up a simple web site that begged the question, "Should there be an association of canyoneers, and if so, what should it do?"

Rich received input from nearly 300 people. Those who showed the most interest in forming an association were canyon guides. Rich became vulcanized by all the interest the web site received and started down a path that eventually led to the formation of the American Canyoneering Association.

Because canyon guides were initially the most actively interested people to respond to canyoneering.net, Rich decided to create the ACA as a guides-only organization. He contacted the Commission Europeene de Canyon or CEC, who offer a widely recognized guide certification program, and in the spring of 1999 obtained CEC certification as a canyon guide.

In March of 2000 Rich brought the CEC's lead instructor, Stefan Hofmann, to Phoenix Arizona and offered the first ACA canyoneering course which followed the well established CEC model. Enthusiasts ranging in ability and interest from novice canyon explorers to professional climbing guides attended this course.

That October, Hofmann made a return visit to the U.S. and in Pagosa Springs Colorado he and Carlson offered the first ACA guides course and exam to a group that included Americans as well as aspirants traveling from as far away as Canada, Switzerland, France, Australia and New Zealand. This course resulted in certifying the first American canyoneering guide; the White Mountain Apache guide, Gregg Henry.

In May of 2000 Rich started the "Canyons Group", an on-line discussion group aimed at canyoneers around the world. The Canyons Group was originally intended to be a forum for discussion and consensus-building regarding important safety and ethics issues. Probably the most productive results of this group were the publication of the information booklet "Canyons" (available free from our Resources page) and the development of the ACA canyon rating system, now recognized around the world.

The ACA held its first organized canyoneering rendezvous in Zion National Park in August 2000. It was attended by canyoneers from Utah, Colorado and Arizona. In addition to having fun, the group participated in public service projects including badly needed anchor maintenance in both Pine Creek and Mystery Canyons.

Rendezvous continue to be held regularly throughout the year in California, Arizona, Utah and Colorado. In May 2003, the ACA co-hosted, with the Ecole Francais de Descent de Canyon, the first International Canyon Rendezvous in the Spanish Pyrenees. More than 180 canyoneers from 12 different countries attended.

Formally organized in 1999, the ACA incorporated as a non-profit in April 2002. In July 2002, the ACA relocated from Phoenix Arizona to Cedar City Utah.

Participants in ACA courses have included professional guides from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Scotland, Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Israel; as well as SAR team members and backcountry rangers from White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, Navajo Nation, BLM, National Park Service, National Forest Service, numerous county sheriffs and others.