Since Blair Carlyle, conservationist, law student and creator of his alter ego, Uncle Pappy, is on summer break, he decided to embark on “The Great American Water Road Trip,” where he will learn and educate people about different environmental issues across the country.
In the first two weeks of his road trip, he navigated through the drought-ridden West, the complete opposite of Florida, his home state, where hurricanes and floods are a constant cause for concern.
The goal of “The Great American Water Road Trip” is to “show leaders that Americans are united by their desire for water — clean, accessible water — and ambitious water policy,” said Benji Backer, the founder of United By Nature, which is based in Scottsdale and is sponsoring the trip.
“Think about how much better off we’d be if our leaders prioritized finding good solutions to our water problems than they are to expanding AI or … going to UFC fights,” said Backer.
“If you live in the West, you know the water issue is a crisis,” he said. “But people don’t know where to start.”
This road trip is also meant to showcase optimism, amplify solutions and give communities a voice — and a 30-year-old social media star is at the heart of this effort.
Who is Uncle Pappy and where is he going?
Carlyle, who uses a Snapchat filter for his viral persona, Uncle Pappy, an older gentleman, is known for giving his viewers advice on living a full life and embracing nature.
“I try to tie in a lot of what I learned in environmental law,” he added.
So far, Carlyle has only done a handful of public stops. People are encouraged to sign their names to “protect our waters” on the van he’s driving, and it’s already covered in signatures.
He said when the van finally shows up in Washington, D.C., it will serve as “a visual representation of how unified people across the country are to protect nature and, specifically, protect our waters.”
This 60-day journey began at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles, where they toured a wastewater recycling plant with Heal the Bay, a coastal water advocacy group.
With 1.1 million followers on Instagram and more than 10.4 million likes on Instagram, Uncle Pappy is known to film in the water. But lately, he has been showing off the desert landscape to his followers.
Carlyle hit the road, stopping at Salton Sea for a small adventure, before driving through Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
His journey will conclude in the Florida Everglades, with 22 stops in major cities along the way, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., before finally reaching the East Coast.
On July 4, which will mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Carlyle is set to attend the grand opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, where he will rally those gathered to honor America’s “Conservation President,” noted Backer.
He praised Carlyle for his “optimistic vision for the future, despite being worried about the problems” of today.
Backer, too, embarked on a coast-to-coast trip in 2020 to encourage market-based clean energy solutions. During his 60-day road trip, he visited 36 states and parts of Utah with now-Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, who is known for being a conservative environmentalist.
The lack of routine and long days can be overwhelming, but Backer believes Carlyle — “the modern-day explorer” — has the right attitude to accomplish his mission.
Carlyle gained his fame through satirical content, but as he gained traction on the internet, he realized the negativity made him uncomfortable, as Today reported.
So, he pivoted. As Uncle Pappy he makes more genuine and reflective videos, becoming an instant hit. Carlyle, who unveiled his real identity earlier this year, hopes to publish a pocket-sized book, “Uncle Pappy’s Guide to Life,” a collection of his mindfulness philosophies.
Here’s what Uncle Pappy learned about the West
While the Salton Sea — a highly toxic, 34-mile-long lake — stands as a symbol of environmental neglect, Tempe Town Lake in Arizona offers a more hopeful vision of what urban water stewardship can achieve.
Tempe Town Lake, conceived as a solution for flood control, uses innovative ways to reclaim and recycle wastewater in the desert.
Backer said the city’s decisions exemplify “that the most resilient communities in the future are going to be the ones that have prepared for water crises.”
“Even if climate change wasn’t real, even if we got rid of all the farming, even if we took drastic moves, we would still need to be smart with water.”
In one of Uncle Pappy’s videos, he notes the pressure a city like Phoenix faces as the Upper and Lower basin states negotiate over the water allotment of the Colorado River, shared by Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, as well as Mexico.
“I wouldn’t expect there to be such animosity regarding the Colorado River in like 2026,” he said, noting that 30% of the Navajo Nation struggles to access water and did not have a seat at the table during the 1922 negotiations that created the Colorado River Compact.
Backer echoed Carlyle’s concerns, saying the issue is a major crisis that requires a long-term policy, not band-aid solutions.
“No matter if we have great rain years or great snow years coming up, someone needs to solve it,” he said.
While in Utah, Carlyle took a flight over the Great Salt Lake to learn about the ongoing water crisis.
Here, Carlyle learned that the lake’s receding levels have exposed a lake bed with high concentrations of mercury, arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals.
A proposed data center, the Stratos Project, approved in May this year and backed by the “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, will sit about 10 miles north of the Great Salt Lake.
Carlyle, during his hikes around Antelope Island, met locals, activists, community leaders, and scientists and heard their thoughts about the Great Salt Lake and how Utah is changing.
Uncle Pappy’s road trip essentials
Carlyle considers himself “the biggest champion of road trips,” and has been going on them since he got his driver’s license as a high schooler.
“If you have a car, you can get anywhere in America,” said Carlyle, noting that this wasn’t the case for most of human history.
He said he never forgets to carry his journal and his favorite books.
“I always have ‘Catcher in the Rye,’ ‘On the Road,’ ‘Blood Meridian,’ and ‘Moby-Dick,’” Carlyle said.
He laughed that his selections may be “cliché” or “masculine,” but all four stories examine a journey.
“All I need to do is read one page from that, and it reminds me of how magical it is to be on the road, and how you’re a tap of thread in this tapestry of travelers through all time,” said Carlyle.
He also suggested bringing a cooler for peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
“Nothing feels better on a hike up on a mountain like digging in your backpack and pulling out a sandwich,” Carlyle said.
Besides the material possessions, a good road trip involves a bit of adventure. Carlyle’s current journey takes him off the beaten path.
“If you see some random roadside attraction, a cool thrift store, or something novel, don’t be in a rush,” he said. “The point of a road trip isn’t to get somewhere. It’s to be on a road trip.”
Backer concurred, saying the U.S. has so much wilderness outside of the popular national parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone that is worth exploring.
“The best places in America are the ones that people don’t know about, but they’re not hidden; you just have to look.”
Carlyle quoted his favorite line by American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, who in his 1844 wrote, “The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”
For Carlyle, his mind and body feel at ease when he is outside.
“Stars, moving water, a fire, the horizon,” the social media star listed off, “these are the four things humans have been looking at for thousands of years.”
“Your problems seem so much smaller when you realize just that you’re a creature on earth,” he said. “Just like every other creature that’s ever existed.”