America’s Canyonlands

America’s Canyonlands

I have just come back from surveying our Canyonlands holiday and I would guess that the area we cover around southern Utah, Arizona and Colorado must have the densest concentration of world-class sites anywhere. Add this to some great American hospitality, breakfasts fit for a (very hungry) king, and beautiful trails on which to work them off and we have the recipe for a perfect holiday.

We started in Las Vegas, which is not to my taste but a fascinating place to see, then off to Zion Park for walking in alpine-like scenery, Bryce Canyon for bizarre rock formations and a chance to stroll up ‘Wall Street’ and Moab in Utah, our base for visiting Arches National Park. To my mind the walk through Arches and its outlandish rock formations is the best of the holiday. We continued to Mesa Verde, which was the biggest surprise. The ancient Native American dwellings are fascinating to see; you can a very good idea of what life must have been like for these people.

Monument Valley is a vista that everybody should see, but the highlight was the Grand Canyon. We headed down in the early morning, arriving at Phantom ranch by midday, and just sat and cooled off in the stream next to the accommodation in the afternoon. The walk out was just as spectacular: starting out at 05.30 and watching the sun rise over the canyon is not to be missed.

All in all a great holiday. Finally, for the entertainment, America has both kinds of music – Country and Western!