Vast Magnificence: Utah and Arizona in July

A visual tour of Utah and Arizona's ancient landscapes.
by Mimi Lopez | July 17, 2015

Mimi Lopez took a leap of faith and moved to LA from Manila when she was 22. She’s since spent the last 10 years traveling around the country. Her most recent adventure took her to Utah and Arizona for breathtaking views of nature’s works of of art.

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“The beauty of ancient native Utah and Arizona has the power to bring your state of mind to a higher level.”

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We started the trip in Utah with Zion National Park, the state’s first national park. We then headed to Bryce Canyon National Park and to Arizona via Antelope Canyon, the Horseshoe Bend, and finally, the Grand Canyon.

Pictures don’t give justice to the magnificent sandstone formations of Zion National Park. It offers a (massive and astonishing) peek at Utah’s ancient history. Park entrance is 30USD per vehicle and you can take advantage of the hop-on-hop-off shuttles inside the park that comes every five minutes to take you to every pit stop of the park.

 

A view of the Navajo sandstone cliffs and the canyon from the Emerald Pools. This trail offers an easier hike for families with children. Zion’s enchanting trails each offer a unique assembly of flora and fauna, and there are different levels of difficulty per trail.

 

The park’s scenic byway through Mount Carmel Highway. This view stretches for 54 miles of winding road from the bottom of the canyon up to the top views of the plateaus. Mount Carmel is also the best route to take from Zion to Bryce Canyon National Park, which is about two hours away from this point.

 

This is the iconic view from Bryce’s Inspiration Point shows you the vast greatness of the famous hoodoos the park is known for. Hoodoos are the thin, tall rock formations that protrude from the bottom of the canyon floor.

 

Bryce Point is around 200 feet higher than Inspiration Point, at about 8,300 feet above sea level. From here, you can enjoy a birds-eye view of the spectacular colors of hoodoos and the canyon. This is probably my favorite pit stop at Bryce. It’s also one of the best places on Earth to watch the sun set.

On to Page, Arizona, about four hours from Bryce, where Antelope Canyon, one of the world’s most beautiful light marvels, lies.

Lower Antelope Canyon, or Hasdeztwazi (translates to spiral rock arches) in Navajo is a product of nature’s relentless forces in the past millennia. The amazing array of colors and shadows moves and changes constantly as the Earth moves around the sun.

 

Going around Lower Antelope Canyon is about as difficult as it looks, it requires climbing steep metal stairways and a bit of Catherine Zeta-Jones-ing through the narrow “pathways.” But it’s all worth it, don’t you think?

 

About 15 minutes away from the trails of the Lower Antelope Canyon and an easy half a mile’s hike away from the parking area is the Horseshoe Bend. This offers a no less than spectacular view of the vast Colorado River down below.

 

One of USA Today’s new seven wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon is simply a jaw-dropping site to behold for all wanderers. The elaborate canyon is known for being 1.6 kilometers deep, 29 kilometers wide, and the 466-kilometer Colorado River running through it.

The astonishing view of the canyons remind you that you’re just a tiny speck in the Grand Scheme of Life, and that you’re lucky to know just that.