The Dispatch: New Luxury Grand Canyon Hotel, Segway's Electric Future and Border Issues for Hikers

If you were forced to name one national park as the most iconic in America, I think you'd be hard pressed not to give that honor to the Grand Canyon. It is, after all, grand. 

Trailborn, a hospitality company that focuses on boutique hotels designed for the adventure and outdoors set, just opened a brand new property in Williams, Arizona, roughly 60 miles outside of the Grand Canyon. 

According to a press release, Trailborn Grand Canyon is a renovated hotel along Route 66 with southwestern flair featuring 96 redesigned King and Queen guest rooms, a saloon-style events space, restaurant, bar, pool, hot tub, bocce court, kids’ play area and firepit. The rooms aim to merge nostalgia and modernity with design features that include velvet headboards, leather-stitched lamps and walk-in showers and amenities like Grown Alchemist bath products, Tivoli Bluetooth radios, 55” smart TVs and high-speed WiFi. 

Camp Hall is Trailborn Grand Canyon’s event space, which can host up to 190 guests for live music; bingo, game and movie nights; and private events. An outdoor space has an area for gatherings on an events lawn, kids play area, the bocce ball and corn hole court and a fireplace. Later in the spring, Trailborn Grand Canyon will reopen a local restaurant that’s served the area for years—Miss Kitty’s, a southwest steakhouse. The reimagined grill and bar will, like the rest of Trailborn Grand Canyon, honor the past while keeping its eye toward contemporary trends. Its interior will feature “rich dark woods, handcrafted tiles,” and a “playful western touches and illustration.” 

"Trailborn Grand Canyon is a celebration of the spirit of the American West, bringing together history, adventure, and community in a truly special location," said Ben Weinberg, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Castle Peak Holdings and Trailborn. 

In the past year Trailborn has also opened Trailborn Rocky Mountains in Estes Park, Colorado; Trailborn Highlands in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina; Trailborn Surf & Sound in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Later this year another Trailborn location is slated to open in Mendocino, California.

To learn more about Trailborn Grand Canyon and to book your stay, visit here.

— H. Drew Blackburn

Just when we thought the e-bike market was starting to get a little stale and boring, along comes Segway (yes, that Segway!) to shake things up a bit. The new Xyber Electric Bike looks and performs more like a motorcycle rather than something you might pedal. Thanks to an optional second battery, it has a range of up to 112 miles and can go from 0-20 MPH in just 2.7 seconds. It also comes with fast charging capabilities, tires that perform well on a variety of surfaces, built-in antitheft features, and support for Apple’s Find My location traction services.

MSRP is $3,000. segway.com

— Kraig Becker

If you've had a dream to hike the Pacific Coast Trail (or even if you've completed it already), then you probably know the image from the Northern Terminus. Hikers with their poles and packs posing by engraved wooden posts with two flags—American and Canadian. But in January, the Canada Border Services Agency ended a permitting process that allows hikers to continue the eight miles of trail into British Columbia’s E.C. Manning Provincial Park to the nearest road at Manning Park Resort. Instead, hikers need to backtrack from the border about 30 miles for road access.“The opportunity to cross into Canada has been a cherished part of the experience for many people for decades,” Pacific Crest Trail Association trail information manager Jack Haskel told the Seattle Times.A statement from the CBSA says the policy aligns with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which does not allow travelers to enter the U.S. from Canada on the trail.

— Jennifer Justus

If you're a certain brand of music obsessive, the name "Alan Lomax" puts you into a state of pleasant alert. Arguably the most important archivist and musical folklorist in American music history, Lomax devoted his life to documenting traditional styles and grassroots genius across the nation, starting in the 1960s. This work has a newly shiny home: the Lomax Archive, a record label launched this year to modernize the distribution and aesthetic marketing of the sensational art and creative genius that Lomax spent his career recording. The first four releases will take you deep for at least an afternoon, maybe a lifetime, starting with Georgia Sea Island Singers, featuring Bessie Jones and John Davis, pieces recorded between 1959 and 1966, which deserves to become the coffeehouse soundrack of 2025. The project's overall vibe is "Smithsonian but cool" and its bona fides look good to us: cofounded by Lomax's long-running nonprofit, veteran New Orleans music man Reed Watson in the director's chair.

— Zach Dundas