UTAH'S ARCHES, CANYONLANDS, BRYCE CANYON AND ZION NATIONAL PARKS
Utah, at the heart of the western USA's scenically-spectacular Grand Circle Region, is enhanced by a wealth of national parks. To the south-east, Arches National Park is known for the world's largest collection of natural stone arches, among the most breathtaking being Delicate, Windows, Queen Nefertiti and Queen Victoria.
To its south, Canyonlands National Park encompasses a vast primitive stretch of canyons carved by the Colorado and Green Rivers and is best viewed from Dead Horse Point, now a State Park.
Sited between the two, Moab offers tours to both parks as well as accommodation, or you could stay on a house boat in Lake Powell to the south; it's part of the massive Glen Canyon National Recreation Area spanning the Arizona state border.
In far south-western Utah, there's Bryce Canyon, actually not a canyon but an amphitheatre of stunning rock domes and pillars known as ‘hoodoos'. (It is said that when pioneer Ebenezer Bryce, after whom it was named, looked down into the rocky maze he said it was “one heck of a place to lose a cow”.) You can descend into the main amphitheatre at six different points, including the playfully named Peek-aboo Loop Trail.
To the south-west, Zion got both its name and those of some of its key sites – the Great White Throne and Angels Landing – from the Mormon pioneers who settled this area in the mid-19th century. Becoming Utah's first national park in 1919, it has walking trails through such canyons as The Narrows, where part of the way you have to wade through the Virgin River hemmed in by 2,000ft-tall cliffs that are as little as 20 feet from each other. Other attractions include the introductory film in the Human History Museum near the park's visitor centre and the occasional sighting of cliff-clambering bighorn sheep.
There's accommodation in the park's historic lodge and in nearby St George's and the pretty town of Springdale, settled by the Mormons in 1862.
IN FAR SOUTH-WESTERN UTAH, THERE'S BRYCE CANYON, ACTUALLY NOT A CANYON BUT AN AMPHITHEATRE OF STUNNING ROCK DOMES AND PILLARS KNOWN AS ‘HOODOOS'. (IT IS SAID THAT WHEN PIONEER EBENEZER BRYCE, AFTER WHOM IT WAS NAMED, LOOKED DOWN INTO THE ROCKY MAZE HE SAID IT WAS “ONE HECK OF A PLACE TO LOSE A COW”.)