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There is no Grand Canyon viewpoint, no one spot where you can go and simply see the place. The closest approximation you’ll find is Mather Point, a fenced outcropping on the South Rim with a dramatic panorama of one hell of a gorge. Erosion over millions of years has left Arizona and Utah with some of the planet’s most riveting scenery, and Grand Canyon is just the start. You’re gonna see rock stacks hundreds of feet high, vertical-sided chasms and canyons, chequerboard mesas, crumbly fairy-castle formations and unbelievable rock arches – all in an easy-to-explore area away from the interstates, on roads with relatively little traffic. Even more amazing is the fact that Utah’s largest National Park, Canyonlands, is the least-visited. Breathtakingly beautiful and totally inhospitable, it is an arid wilderness of high plateaus and deep canyons carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers with three distinct areas: Island in the Sky stands above the confluence, a 6,000 ft. mesa affording 100-mile views in every direction; The Needles holds 50 square miles of spires, arches and canyons; The Maze, is virtually inaccessible and unexplored – venturing in is not an option, getting lost is easy. Adjacent to Canyonlands are two other parks, Dead Horse Point and Newspaper Rock, and a few miles away, another mind-bender, Arches National Park, with impossible red rock spans from 30 ft to 300 ft. And in the middle of all this is Moab, a small town where outfitters line main street, guiding people over slick rock on mountain bikes, over rock bridges in jeeps, and at the bottom of canyons in river rafts. And there’s more besides – Capitol Reef, Bryce, Zion, Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods, Moki Dugway, Muley Point, Natural Bridge, Newspaper Rock, Oak Creek Canyon, Route 66, Montezuma’s Castle, Sunset Crater, Goosenecks of the San Juan, Lake Powell, Rainbow Bridge, Lees Ferry, Marble Canyon, Highway 12 traversing the sublime Aquarius Plateau et. al. They’re all on this route. If you book early enough, we’ll be able to secure rooms at the lodges inside the parks, and, if you’re so inclined, a Mule trip from Grand Canyon South Rim, descending a mile to Phantom Ranch by the Colorado River.
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