The American West, from the Grand Canyon to Zion
The Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, the arches of Utah, Bryce and Zion: the great parks of the American West lie a few hours’ drive apart. A two-week loop from Las Vegas, through Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
Two weeks of canyons and deserts
The loop starts and ends in Las Vegas. You cross the Colorado near the Hoover Dam, follow the South Rim of the Grand Canyon from viewpoint to viewpoint, then go on to Page, Lake Powell and Horseshoe Bend. The stages rarely take more than three and a half hours’ driving: the rest of the time, you walk and wait for the evening light.
From Kayenta, US-163 leads to Monument Valley, and the red sandstone buttes rise on the horizon. Further north, at Forrest Gump Point, you turn round: the road runs dead straight towards them.
In Utah, you visit Arches and Canyonlands from Moab. Scenic Byway 12 then crosses the aspen woods of Boulder Mountain, at about 2,900 metres, and runs over the Hogback, a ridge with a ravine on either side. After Bryce, the road to Zion goes down through a 1.8 km tunnel, then down hairpin bends to the floor of the canyon.
Navajo country
Monument Valley is not a national park. It lies on the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the United States, across Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. The Navajo, who call themselves Diné, run this tribal park; the national parks pass is not valid here. A red dirt track of about 27 km runs past John Ford’s Point, a spur where a Navajo rider poses for photos.
The story goes that the trader Harry Goulding showed photos of the valley to John Ford, who filmed “Stagecoach” there (1939), with John Wayne.
Antelope Canyon, near Page, is also on Navajo land: you can only go in with a guide, on a booked tour. These passages flood quickly in a storm; in 1997, a flash flood killed eleven visitors there. At Navajo National Monument, a viewpoint looks out over Betatakin, a village built in the 13th century in an alcove in the cliff.
At the bottom of the canyon, the oldest rock is about 1.8 billion years old.
The geology of the parks
The Grand Canyon is 446 km long and up to 1,800 metres deep. At the bottom of the canyon, the oldest rock is about 1.8 billion years old. The limestone of the South Rim forms the first step of the Grand Staircase described by the geologist Clarence Dutton: cliffs that get younger and younger towards the north, all the way to Bryce.
In Bryce, on more than 170 days a year, it freezes at night and thaws by day. In the cracks, ice swells and cuts the rock into spires, the hoodoos. According to a Paiute legend, they are beings turned to stone by Coyote. Arches has more than 2,000 sandstone arches, and in the end they fall, as Wall Arch did in 2008.
Goblin Valley State Park
Thousands of sandstone mushrooms, the “goblins”, that you can wander among freely. The park was a set for the film Galaxy Quest (1999). It is a Utah state park, with its own entry fee, and a certified dark-sky park.
Practical notes
- When to go
- April–May and mid-September to October. In summer, it can go above 40 °C in Page and the Valley of Fire; at Bryce, it freezes from autumn onwards.
- Getting there
- Cars and vans can be hired in Las Vegas. The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is about four and a half hours’ drive away.
- Access
- Everything is tarmac, except the tracks in Monument Valley and the Valley of the Gods, best avoided after rain. In a motorhome or a van, you visit Monument Valley with a Navajo guide. At Zion, oversized vehicles are banned on the road from the east entrance.
- Sleeping in a van
- Campsites in the parks, to book early, and around Page, Moab and Springdale. Elsewhere, wild camping is often allowed on federal BLM land.
- Worth knowing
- The America the Beautiful pass is not valid on Navajo land or in state parks. Since 2026, non-residents without a pass pay a surcharge at Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion. Arches has no timed entry in 2026. Arizona does not use daylight saving time, except on the Navajo Nation; Utah does.
- Allow
- Two weeks for the loop, three to do more walking.
What not to miss
- 1The Desert View WatchtowerThe stone tower by the architect Mary Colter (1932), at the end of the South Rim road.
- 2Horseshoe BendThe loop of the Colorado below a viewpoint, at sunset.
- 3Delicate ArchThe arch pictured on Utah’s number plates, a 4.8 km round trip on foot.
- 4Mesa ArchAn arch on the edge of the Canyonlands cliff, to see at sunrise.
- 5The Zion shuttleFrom March to late November, it replaces cars in the canyon, as far as the start of the Narrows.
- 6The Valley of FireRed rocks an hour from Las Vegas; several trails close from mid-May to September.
The American West in pictures
The wavy walls of Upper Antelope Canyon, lit from above.
The table of the American West
On Navajo land, you eat the Navajo taco, fry bread topped with beans, meat and cheese. In Fruita, in Capitol Reef, the Gifford Homestead sells fruit pies in season. In Utah, chips are dipped in fry sauce, a mix of ketchup and mayonnaise.
In Boulder, Hell’s Backbone Grill cooks the vegetables from its own farm, from mid-March to late November. In Utah, grocery shops only sell beer of 5% or less; everything else goes through the State Liquor Stores.
Loop from Las Vegas
+47stops- 1Hoover Dam · Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge · Arizona Route 66 Museum · Seligman
- 2Mather Point · Yavapai Geology Museum · Grand Canyon National Park · Kolb Studio Museum
- 3Grandview Point · Tusayan Ruins · Desert View Watchtower · Horseshoe Bend Viewpoint
Free, no account needed — start from its places and make it yours.
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