Canyon fun's gorge-ous
OFF-TRACK ARIZONA'S SO GRAND
THE Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Cathedral Rock – Arizona sure does have its showstoppers.
But why follow the crowd to a handful of famous viewpoints when you can experience less frequented beauty spots with just as much wow-factor?
Within its famous desert landscape is Antelope Canyon, a narrow chasm of swirling red rock, stripes and shapes sculpted out by violent floods.
Dazzling
Approaching on foot, at Lower Antelope Canyon, its entrance is barely visible. But if you climb down the ladders you’ll be staggered by a dazzling underground world.
The restricted light reflects off its amazing curved walls, which have earned it the nickname Corkscrew Canyon, creating an incredible display of glowing oranges.
Meanwhile, Lake Powell is considered by those in-the-know to be even more spectacular than the Grand Canyon. When a dam was built, it became a giant lake of many arms, inlets and narrow canyons, and is as striking as it was pre-dam, but in a different way.
The lake – formerly known as Glen Canyon – has nearly 2,000 miles of twisting shoreline, which can be visited on tour boats.
One of its many jewels is Rainbow Bridge, which at
290ft is the world’s highest natural bridge carved from the cliffs.
I stayed at the Lake Powell resort, perfectly-located for gazing out across the landscape. Views are particularly spectacular when the sun sets over the 186mile lake, the blue water popping against the desert cliffs, towers and domes.
Antelope is known as a slot canyon because it’s so narrow in places you can touch both terracotta walls simultaneously with both hands.
But on the other side of the dam is what most people imagine as a gorge – where the 350ft walls constrict the Colorado River into a sinewy path as it flows into the Grand Canyon. In Britain, Somerset’s Cheddar Gorge is regarded as an amazing natural phenomenon, but this would be dwarfed by the Colorado’s channel, which is six times deeper.
You can appreciate it from water level on relaxing float trips which follow in the oar strokes of the famed one-armed explorer of the American West, John Wesley Powell.
The section we sailed down was used in the film Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta.
The view is equally breathtaking from the rim, where those floating boats appear as dots.
Nowhere is more scenic
than Horseshoe Bend, where you can see an almost circular loop in the river below.
Arizona is also a famous road trip state, where along the way you’ll find some of nature’s most extraordinary creations.
The striped and surf-like undulating formations of The Wave have proved such a magnet for visitors that 160,000 people put in lottery applications in 2017 for the 20 daily permits.
If you do strike it lucky, the restriction on numbers means you will be guaranteed relative solitude.
But if your name isn’t pulled out of the hat, there are other marvels to be enjoyed with no more than a handful of people.
At Monument Valley – the setting for John Wayne and John Ford movies – the crowds tend to stick to the loop road that winds round a small selection of its giant monoliths.
I decided to swerve that particular beaten track on a trip with Phillips Photography Tours. Its overnight excursion to the high plateau of Hunt’s Mesa provides a bird’s eye view of the sunrise and sunset, as it lights up the grand scene below in everchanging hues of pinks and oranges.
For more classic Arizona, take in the distinctive red sandstone formations of Sedona, the “real-life” version of Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain ride, and Goldfield ghost town, a reconstructed
1890s town with gold mine tours.
But if you want to get a high-octane taste of this place, sign up for canyoneering with 360-Adventures.
Hiking, scrambling, swimming and abseiling through Salome Jug, where waterfalls cascade through weather-sculpted granite rocks, is an unforgettable way to experience the canyon state’s geological treasures.