I’ve seen a bunch of unforgettably beautiful places in my time—all across North America and in northern Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. But if you put a gun to my head and made me name my all-time favorite, I’d have to go with the arc of otherworldly scenery across southern Utah and northern Arizona.
My wife, Kathy, and I once spent a leisurely week in March traveling from the Grand Canyon to Arches. We camped when the weather was nice, which was most of the time. It did snow the night before we visited Bryce Canyon, but even that turned out to be blessing, dusting the fairytale red rock fins and hoodoos in a brilliant mantle of white.
It’s not only a cornucopia of national parks—Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches. It’s one of the most varied and entertaining drives I’ve ever taken, because the scenery between national parks is national park-worthy in its own right. Every mile seems to offer a uniquely exquisite example of nature’s rock-carving prowess.
It gets my vote as the best road trip ever.
