Hayden Gyms and Fitness

The Fairways Golf Course’s layout unfurls over rolling terrain teeming with wetlands and native grasses. Multiple water hazards and fast greens pose challenges for experienced players, and relatively open fairways and a set of closer, forward tees cater to junior clubbers, beginners, and golfers testing out a set of repurposed spatulas. A dramatic conclusion awaits at the par-4, 419-yard 18th hole—the course’s most challenging hole—where golfers must contend with a dog-leg right and a small pond that arches around the front and left sides of the green. Golfers can prepare for the round at the driving range and practice green, or simply ask the course’s beverage-cart operator for the liquid cure for a slice-prone swing.

More than two decades ago, Paul Fish dreamed up a unique backpack and stitched a prototype by hand. After some redesigns, Fish and his wife opened an outdoor apparel shop—Mountain Gear—where they could sell these packs to local climbers and backpackers. Today, Mountain Gear's spacious retail location boasts a comprehensive selection of gear for camping, hiking, and climbing, as well as snowsports and watersports. Skiers can bundle up in gear from The North Face and Black Diamond, and mountaineers can ascend to new altitudes with Mountain Hardwear apparel. Mountain Gear also houses an indoor climbing wall, and its outdoorsy staff hosts classes that teach attendees how to tackle their first climbing wall or cook meals in the wilderness without having to call a restaurant for instructions.

A locally owned fitness destination for 30 years, Peak Health & Wellness provides patrons with three facilities as spacious and well-maintained as gyms owned by a corporate entity, but as personalized as a family business. Guests walk into any location to find large workout floors stocked with rows of cardio and strength equipment, separate group-aerobics studios, and indoor courts for playing tennis, squash, basketball, and pretend jury duty. The personable staff of certified trainers lead 40 distinct fitness programs including group classes of Insane-X, X-Fit, and spin, while onsite childcare centers watch over the little ones as parents work out. To solve the other side of the health and wellness equation, each locale hosts various nutrition programs and seminars.

Awarded one of the “Top 10 Golf Experiences Within Idaho” by Golf Digest, The Highlands Golf Course beckons golf enthusiasts with forests of towering pine trees and rolling terrain of verdant beauty. The course was originally designed by Jim Krause and opened for play in 1991, though anyone who hasn’t played it since 2006 will appreciate the additional tee boxes and marked improvements in bunker playability resulting from course renovations. Six lakes come into play, demanding deft club selection around the greens and impeccable swan dives to retrieve errant golf balls. Narrow fairways and several doglegs also place a premium on flawless drives off of your playing partner's belly button.

As a warm-up or a cool-down, practice at the driving encourages skill development with grass tees and nearly 400 yards of open expanse. A short-game practice area recreates most on-course situations a golfer can conjure up, with sand bunkers and two regulation flagpoles that double as golf cart jousting lances.

Course at a Glance:

• Par 72

• Four sets of tees

• 6,385 yards from back tees

• Rating of 69.7 and slope of 120 from back tees

• 1991 Jim Krause design

• Renovated in 2006

The experienced instructors at Arizona Elite Bootcamp understand that not everyone can do a one-handed pushup or bench-press a Fiat. Instead, they embrace each of their students’ individual abilities in boot camps, which combine the benefits of a strength and cardio workout with a motivational group mentality. In three outdoor locations, campers use both designated equipment and their own body weight to work their entire bodies. After workouts, clients can log in to the website’s fitness-tracking feature to view detailed reports and graphs that show their progress.

Sticks and stones may break some bones, but not if they’re directed toward one of Capital MMA & Elite Fitness’s students. In a team-oriented environment, the studio’s instructors teach key mixed-martial-arts moves such as grappling, striking, and wrestling and supplement the training with classes in specific fighting styles, such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muay thai. Guests looking for a practical crash course in self-defense learn snippets from each technique in women’s self-defense classes, learning methods for staying aware of surroundings, fending off attackers, and freeing themselves from the grip of King Kongs.

The studio's CrossFit program, alternatively, boosts athleticism without combat, through a multi-faceted regimen of Olympic weightlifting, cardio exercise, and custom diets. Beyond group classes, the center offers private lessons and seminars, which allow its students—both children to adults—to learn with focused guidance.