Travel Photographer- Utah to Arizona

On to the Canyonlands! We packed up the people-mover and hit the road. America has some lonnnnng straight roads, it can get a bit tiring travelling so far but most of the time the scenery was worth it!

A quaint little town (below) where we stopped for lunch. Isn’t that house so cute?

Just before we made it to Moab, we stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park, an incredible lookout and our first taste of all the amazing canyons to come.

That glowing light… dreamy!

We settled into our Moab accomodation and in the morning headed out to Arches National Park home to over 2000 natural sandstone arches including the famous ‘Delicate Arch‘. The are a bunch of different trails in the park. A few of us did part of the Devil’s Garden Primitive Trail.

We stopped for lunch then joined the masses on the trail off to see the Delicate Arch. It’s hard to show the vastness in photos but it is a truly amazing landscape, so massive and different to anything we have in New Zealand.

We stopped in Canyonlands National Park on the way back for a few more jaw-dropping views at the Mesa Arch and the Island in the Sky.

Little Ava loved it too!

We came home and had a spa and Thai for dinner after a massive day exploring. I would definitely recommend staying in Moab to be in close proximity of all these canyons, there are so many to see, the options are endless! In the morning we sadly farewelled my sister, brother-in-law and baby Ava as they headed home to Salt Lake City, then the rest of us hit the road for another big day driving! We drove through Monument Valley which you may remember from this Forest Gump scene and many other films.

We found this cute little jewellery shop in the middle of the desert and I bought a Navajo necklace.

We crossed the border of Utah into Arizona then stopped for the night at Cameron Trading Post a random little town (if you can even call it that) in the middle of nowhere not too far from the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon, we explored the South Rim starting at Desert View Watchtower and stopping at a few other lookouts along the way.

Around the main visitor centre and main lookouts it’s pretty packed with tourists. I definitely recommend doing one of the trails that goes down into the canyon. We did part of the South Kaibab Trail. It’s awesome to get away from the crowds and get a different perspective of the canyon. I’d love to go back one day and hike right into the Grand Canyon to the Havasu Falls (usually a few days hike to get to), I’ve heard they are incredible!

We hit the road again and took a little detour so we could pass through one of the original Historic Route 66 towns called Williams, super cute!

Next stop… Las Vegas baby! More to come…