The Southwest Parks: Grand Canyon to Monument Valley
The southwest is sold as a driving holiday and ruined by being driven. Six hours of highway between two overlooks leaves clients arriving at noon, which is the one hour of the day when none of these landscapes look like themselves.
So we build backwards from the light. Bryce’s amphitheatre at sunrise, the Zion narrows in the middle of the day when the canyon is shaded, Monument Valley at dusk from the Navajo back road that no self-drive can use.
Monument Valley and Antelope are on Navajo Nation land, and we work only with Navajo-owned operators there. It is the right way round and it is also, plainly, the better guiding.
In and straight out: the drive northeast to Springdale, arriving under the Zion cliffs at dusk.
The Narrows upstream in the shaded hours, then Angels Landing or the gentler Emerald Pools depending on the party.
The quiet Kolob canyons in the morning, then the tunnel road east through the slickrock to Bryce.
Sunrise Point at first light, down the Navajo Loop among the hoodoos, and the Fairyland trail after the crowds go.
The Grand Staircase road, Horseshoe Bend late in the day, and Antelope canyon with a Navajo guide at the light hour.
East into the Navajo Nation, the back road among the buttes by four-wheel drive, and a night at the valley rim.
West across the Kaibab plateau through the aspens, arriving at 2,500 metres for the rim at sunset.
Cape Royal and Point Imperial in the morning, and the first two miles of the North Kaibab trail below the rim.
The long drive around by Marble Canyon, arriving at Desert View for the late light and the eastern gorge.
Sunrise from Hopi Point on the Hermit Road, then the drive to Phoenix or Las Vegas for the flight home.
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