Travelshot: near Lake Powell, SW USA

Zion

The best way to enter Zion National Park is via the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. The road leads you through hairpin bends and switchbacks as you descend into the valley, then plunges you into darkness via two long tunnels, blasted through the rock in the 1920s. Five "windows" let in a little light and fresh air, but don't diminish the eerie sensation of being in the centre of a mountain.

An air hole in the mountain - claustrophobics need not apply

(Is it terribly immature and wrong of me that I wanted to stop the vehicle, stick my head out of the "window", and yodel?

Yep, thought so.)

Is it a rock? Is it a quilt?

Once you get down to the valley floor, the real park begins. We unfortunately couldn't hike deep into the canyon (as the deep portions, known as the narrows, were closed due to flash flood risk) but we did manage to do some walking along the Emerald Pools trail (with its waterfalls, splashing ducks, and water orchids).

So pretty....

A helluva place to lose a cow: Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon, halfway between Lake Powell and Zion, is named after homesteader Ebenezer Bryce (the author of the above quote). I prefer the old Paiute Indian name, which if Rough Guides can be believed, translates as red-rocks-standing-like-men-in-a-bowl-shaped-recess.

That is how you name a canyon, ladies and gentlemen!

At 8000+ feet above sea level, it's got enough altitude that you don't want to be rushing about on your first day (I personally wanted to vomit and lie down, not necessary in that order).

The narrow pillars formed by erosion are called hoodoos.

Hoodoo? You do! Do what? Remind me of the babe....

Salt and pepper formation on the way to Bryce Canyon:

I really don't know these people...

Those are plastic horses my dad is trying to drive, people. Plastic horses.

A Monumental Valley

Monument Valley - the scenery that launched a thousand Westerns.

It's not really a valley (there's no riverbed here) but it is beautiful, if quite packed with tourists.

Monuments? Check! Rustic fencing? Check! Pretend ye-olde-wagon? Check!

We took a jeep tour through the valley (you can self-drive through some of it, but the roads are fairly rough, so you'd want a decent car). There were several photo opportunities / viewpoints where you can stop the car - complete with locals from the reservation selling Navajo crafts (mostly bead pendants, bookmarks and keyfobs).

Yes, that's my father with his tongue out. Sometimes, I'm so proud I could just cry!

At John Ford's point, there's frequently a Navajo man on horseback posing for photographs.

As seen on a thousand postcards

The Navajo tacos at nearby Goulding's Lodge are pretty yummy too (picture a fried flatbread the size of your head, covered in beans, salsa, lettuce, and cheese. I like to pretend the beans mean it's health food).

You blew it up! Damn you all to hell.... (Lake Powell)

Lake Powell is Utah's number one tourist destination, and is still quite controversial.

It used to be the Glen Canyon. Then in the 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam came along and the canyon was flooded to create Lake Powell. Bye-bye ecosystem, hello boaters.

It's pretty, in a so-unnatural-it's-vaguely-eerie kind of way.

This lake is massive, folks. When at its fullest, the water is 550' deep at the dam. It covers almost 200 miles of the Colorado River, as well as countless other side canyons.

A cactus flower outside the dam

The splash-down scene in the original Planet of the Apes was filmed here; it's easy to see why.

Mmm... other-wordly....