About Us

We are Carrie and Zach, a travel-obsessed couple always on the hunt for new adventures! Whether it’s a months-long camping road trip in the American west, riverboat hitchhiking in the Bolivian Amazon, rock climbing the amazing karst cliffs of Thailand, meditating with Buddhist monks, or learning about traditional healing rituals with witch doctors in Tanzania, we are always DOWN for an exciting adventure. If we get to challenge ourselves and learn something new along the way, all the better!

We’ve been traveling as much as possible during our 14+ years together, but life hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows. We’ve both had our share of struggles with substance abuse and poor coping mechanisms which brought us to some scary places. After deciding enough was enough at different times, we both found new life through sobriety and a spiritual program of recovery which has included the 12 steps, Buddhism, adventure, plant medicine, and yoga. Yoga and outdoor adventures continue to be of huge importance in our healing journeys. We’re dedicated to breaking stigmas against addiction in this world and passing on the hope and freedom of sobriety to others with the same struggle. Thus, Bigger Life Adventures retreats are devoted to serving those in recovery from anything!

Bigger Life Adventures was born from a spark of inspiration to combine all of our passions and share them with our friends — travel, yoga, adventure, recovery “outside the box”, cultural immersion, and to promote sustainability and environmentalism along the way. Doing this work of enabling others to have a life-changing travel experience truly lights OUR souls on fire!

We live in Williams, Arizona and run our retreat property, Grand Canyon Eco Retreat, from May through November. We still travel as much as we can, both while hosting retreats and for our own adventures! We are #vanlifers, campers, backpackers, hikers, trail runners, climbers, aspiring tiny house builders, and storytellers. You can read more about our travels on our blog!

Please, come join us on an adventure and discover for yourself how you can change your story!

Carrie Hoffman

Trauma-Informed RYT500, YACEP, Ayurvedic Health Counselor, Wilderness First Responder, Boss-lady

Carrie has been practicing yoga for eleven years, teaching for five, and can personally attest to the transformational power of the practice. She loves enabling students to explore yoga beyond the mat and discover a mind-body-spirit practice that works for them! In 2018 she obtained her Yoga Alliance RYT 200 from Quantum Yoga School under teacher Lara Baumann and in 2021 her RYT 500 from Lakshmi Rising School of Yoga and Wellness under Dr. Liz Lindh. She’s additionally trained in trauma-informed yoga, yoga for recovery, teaching yoga to teens, and yoga for mental health. She teaches at several studios in Northern Arizona, in juvenile detention centers and recovery centers, and loves traveling to teach special workshops and classes. She’s also an 800-hour certified Ayurvedic Health Counselor through Joyful Belly Ayurveda and offers personal Ayurvedic consultations and workshops. Aside from yoga, she loves traveling, trail running, chocolate, and puppies!

Zach Minnich

Vegan Chef, Meditation and Breathwork Teacher, Reiki Master, Wilderness First Responder

Zach is a Plant-Based Chef and Holistic Nutritionist with a specialty in creating healthy and delicious vegan eats! He also loves reaching alternate states of consciousness and has been studying various forms of meditation and shamanism for 5+ years. He specializes in guiding journeys of breathwork meditation in the Wim Hof style. He is also Reiki Master and enjoys offering energy healing sessions. His other passions include rock climbing, music, hiking, and building our sustainable off-grid kingdom at Grand Canyon Eco Retreat.

Zach is currently building a tiny house and finishing writing his first cookbook! (Pre-order here!)

Sydney Kleis

500-hour Trauma-Informed Registered Yoga Teacher

Originating from Grand Rapids, Michigan, this is Sydney’s second season working for Carrie and Zach with Grand Canyon Eco Retreat and Bigger Life Adventures. She has been a student of yoga for 9+ years and teaching for 3+. After undergrad earning a degree in Psychology with a minor in Dance, she didn’t feel ready to continue to graduate school and a few months later started her 200hr YTT at Funky Buddha Yoga in Grand Rapids. Deepening her practice of yoga in this way bridged the way to fulfilling her call to guide people to lead their best, healthiest lives. In her studies, she was constantly intrigued by the connection between movement and yoga practices and mental health. This passion to help her own healing from an eating disorder and anxiety/depression, as well as help guide others in their own, led her to Mindful School of Yoga for her 500hr trauma informed YTT. Through her role as a teacher Sydney hopes to lead others to grow in self-compassion and self-love using the modalities yoga has to offer for growth and healing. Generally when taking a yoga class with Sydney, expect a moving meditation with some fun dance-like movements sprinkled in!

In addition to working as a yoga teacher and general staff for Grand Canyon Eco Retreat and Bigger Life Adventures, Sydney is the owner of Sydney Raye Yoga where she offers various online yoga and meditation classes. When she is not doing yoga or working, Sydney loves reading, going to concerts with her partner Trevor, running, hiking, and becoming moss on the forest floor.

Carrie Hoffman

Trauma-Informed RYT500, YACEP, Ayurvedic Health Counselor, Wilderness First Responder, Boss-lady

Zach Minnich

Vegan Chef, Meditation and Breathwork Teacher, Reiki Master, Wilderness First Responder

Sydney Kleis

500-hour Trauma-Informed Registered Yoga Teacher

Where else to find us?

Listen to Carrie on these other podcasts:

Find us elsewhere on the web!