America’s natural beauties never disappoint. My husband and I recently returned from a tour of three national parks: Bryce Canyon and Zion in Utah, as well as the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We also visited the Monument Valley Tribal Park on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. Each offers a compelling spectacle.
With such alluring landscapes and rich histories, we filled each day with magical vistas of these national treasures. Early in the morning, the viewpoints were dotted with tourists, coffee in hand. In anticipation of the sunset, we saw charcuterie trays and bottles of wine slowly being consumed by visitors awaiting a vibrant light show. Throughout the day, people hiked, biked, rode horseback, picnicked and took photos nonstop.
Here are the parks that captivated us:
Bryce Canyon National Park is located in the southwestern portion of Utah. It wasn’t until research for this trip that I learned about hoodoos. Hoodoos are asymmetrical rock columns eroded over time. In fact, Bryce Canyon is the largest concentration of the red rock formations in the world. The hoodoos have a more erosion-resistant top, sparking a comparison to totem poles. Each is a unique structure, generally composed of sandstone, limestone and other sedimentary rocks. They range in size from a tall person to a 10-story building.
It’s not just the red rocks (actually red, orange and white like rust) that draw you in, but every aspect of the scenery: the green trees, lustrous blue sky, puffy clouds bouncing in the distance and twinkling stars as the sun sets. It really isn’t until you reach Bryce Canyon’s rim that you begin to understand the park’s enthralling nature. The canyon unfolds before you, filled with thousands of hoodoos of all shapes and sizes. You’ll be mesmerized by the light as shadows are cast about. As the massiveness of the canyon sits before you, there is an intimacy standing on the rim, overseeing it all. To take in the canyon from different perspectives, take the Bryce Canyon Scenic Drive, where you can stop at stunning viewpoints while driving to its northern-most end.
Outside of the Native Americans and Spaniards who traveled the canyon, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that Bryce Canyon was actually explored and mapped. The ancient rock formations here date back over 144 million years. In 1923, President Harding declared Bryce Canyon a National Monument.
Next up was Zion National Park, also in southwest Utah. Zion is one of the nation’s most popular parks, with its unsurpassed stretch of nearly 232 square miles of canyon. In 1909 President Taft designated it a national park under a different name, Mukuntuweap National Monument. In 1919 the national park was renamed Zion.
On a spectacular day in mid-September, we entered the park around noon. The line to the Park Ranger booth was so long, we were waived through. (We purchased a Senior Pass online, though the ranger was not aware of this.) As we wound our way through the canyon’s red cliffs (mostly sandstone), we were rewarded with nonstop sights of steep canyon walls with mammoth rock formations and narrow floors below. Zion, like Bryce, was formed over millions of years due to changing weather patterns and erosion.
We stayed in Springdale, just outside the canyon’s south entrance. We drove to the park and easily found a space in the main lot early in the morning. By 6:30 a.m., we walked by the light of a full moon to Zion’s first shuttle stop. There is a daily free shuttle that regularly makes stops from one end of the canyon to the other and back, a round trip of just over 15 miles.
At exactly 7 a.m. the bus rolled in; the line behind us had grown substantially. The first stop was the Zion lodge and now, with coffee in hand, we hiked to the second stop. From there, it was about 30 minutes of flat stretches, stairways, slippery terrain and of course climbing up and down rocks. On the park maps, this is described as a moderate stretch. At the end, we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the Virginia River and its three separate Emerald Pools.
Choosing to combine hiking with jumping on and off the shuttle, we ended up at Big Bend, near the farthest end of the canyon. (Along the way, each stop is more gripping than the one before.) This is where the hiking morphs into wading (proper clothing is encouraged) and threats of flash floods can be imminent. The Narrows, as the trail is called, requires more experience than we have. It leads up the river to the Temple of Sinawava, a natural amphitheater formed by waters of the Virginia River.
After Zion, we drove east across Utah onto the Navajo reservation and the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. A visit here requires some preparation: plenty of water, proper clothing and a vehicle that can withstand the challenges of the 17-mile drive of rough roads and deep sand dunes that encircle many of the monuments. Even before the official entrance, the magic unfolds: majestic sandstone monuments rise as high as 1,000 feet. The beauty changes with each passing cloud and the position of the sun in the sky — both casting seductive shadows on the red sand and the surrounding scenery of shrubs and rises.
The best time to enter the 17-mile drive is just after it opens (times vary throughout the year) when it’s cooler and an amazing sunrise is probably in progress. There are plenty of seats to purchase on open-air trucks. We drove so we could stop whenever we wanted to take in the beauty of the rock formations and snap never-ending photos. With names like Mitten Butte, Three Sisters and John Ford’s Point, we were enchanted. For the more adventurous, try one of the hiking trails to get a more up close and personal look at the monuments than the drive affords. When the road is closing and the sun is setting, you’ll be more spellbound by the landscape.
For those visiting Grand Canyon National Park for the first time, you’ll be overtaken by its sheer vastness, changing colors, and geological wonders. This canyon has challenged the mighty for thousands of years — from Native Americans to the early Spanish soldiers in the 1500s to John Wesley Powell, an explorer and scientist who successfully ran the Colorado with his crew in 1869; to adventurous river guides in 1983 setting the record for the fastest time down the river in a dory; to today’s unrelenting trailblazers, intent on discovering yet another slot canyon (narrow canyons formed over millions of years by destructive flooding). These slots can be three feet wide and several hundred feet deep, as treacherous today as they’ve been over time.
Just over 1900 square miles, the Grand Canyon was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. Today, millions of visitors from all over the world enjoy everything from camping and hiking to guided raft trips down the Colorado. Just before our visit, parts of the North Rim of the canyon were flooded, so we headed to the more popular South Rim. There, we were able to hike many of the paved pathways along the rim all the way to Hermits Rest at the far end of that part of the canyon.
Similar to Bryce and Zion, free shuttle buses run daily along the Grand Canyon’s rim, to the Visitor’s Center, and to many accommodations and amenities nearby. Grand Canyon offers visitors spectacular scenery and insight into geological evolution. When it comes to America’s great national parks, Grand Canyon is the first among equals. It serves up breathtaking light and shadows as the sun rises, drifts slowly over a million fissures, and finally sets.
Connect with Patty Burness on Instagram: @pburness, or email: [email protected].
