Canyons, deserts, lunar landscapes: Nothing better explores the national parks in the southwest of the USA than a round trip out of season – right now. And if you like, you can finish it off in a pretty decadent way.
It’s the quiet force of such experiences that defines the Southwest: a 45-minute walk between rounded red rocks and juniper bushes, then you’re standing on a rocky edge. It goes down vertically for 500 meters. Below is a desert plateau, a few kilometers opposite the mighty sandstone monolith Junction Butte. The view here in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park extends 20 or 30 kilometers to the west, where the sun is low.
Bright blue sky, light breeze. You can hear: nothing. The sandstone radiates the stored heat like a radiator. Sit down, be silent. Humble silence. First your eyes wander, then your thoughts. It smells of sage and space. After half an hour of solitude, you pick yourself up, tear yourself away from the beauty, head back, and the sun will soon be gone.
It is difficult to simply write down the sensations of the southwest of the USA – without exclamation points: Arches, Monument Valley, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon. The natural wonders, many of them protected as national parks, are a best-of-the-best that the North American continent has to offer. Iconic hits made of sand and stone, perfect for an all-American road trip. Through landscapes that seem infinitely familiar because you have virtually driven through them dozens of times without ever having been there. On the cinema screen or in the Netflix stream. “Easy Rider”! “Nomadland”! “Thelma and Louise”! “Little Miss Sunshine”! Plus hundreds of westerns from 80 years of film history. Every film title sets the image generator in your head in motion.
Temperatures bearable, visitor numbers low
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There are thousands of ways to explore this area, which is roughly the size of Germany, France and Italy. Classic starting points for a tour are Denver, Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. If you want to concentrate on the most important parks (almost all in the state of Utah) and have two weeks to spare, Las Vegas is a good choice.
It’s best to rent a 4×4, buy the “America the Beautiful” National Park Pass (which will cost $250 instead of $80 as of 2026), which allows entry to all parks, and get the Southwest essentials: baseball cap, sunscreen, lip balm, water bottle. Now, in winter, is the best time for the southwest: temperatures bearable, visitor numbers low, tourist businesses relaxed.
Start with a visual bang: In Zion National Park, rugged rock faces surround a paradisiacal river valley. The canyon floor is covered in lush vegetation, with deer grazing in clearings between poplars and willows. If you want, you can rent e-bikes and glide along the twelve-kilometer-long Scenic Drive parallel to the North Fork of the Virgin River.
Only shuttle buses are allowed to travel here; the route is closed to private cars. That’s a good thing, because it’s difficult to keep your eyes on the road, given the spectacular rock formations to the left and right of the road. Short hikes like to Weeping Rock interrupt the bike tour.
The next day has an adventure in store: The Narrows! Equipped with waterproof hiking boots, dry spare clothing in a dry bag and a wooden stick, we wade upstream in the Virgin River. The canyon narrows to six meters wide between 500 meter high rock walls.
For most of the route you are knee-deep in water, sometimes even up to your chest. That sounds cold and unpleasant, but in between there are always sunny beaches where you can dry off and warm up. If you don’t want to go any further, just turn back. In Springdale or the “Zion National Park Lodge” a cup of coffee or a burger awaits you to combat the calorie loss.
Natural amphitheater in Bryce Canyon
Just an hour and a half further is probably the most accessible national park, Bryce Canyon. An absolute photographer’s highlight. Thousands of red, bizarrely shaped towers, so-called hoodoos, stretch into the deep blue sky in a natural amphitheater.
The Rim Trail between the viewpoints Sunrise Point, Sunset Point and Inspiration Point is a must and easy to walk, but only when you climb down can you experience the fascination of the sandstone labyrinth with all your senses. The short Navajo Loop Trail leads 2.5 kilometers through the rocks.
The best view from above is from Bryce Point to the south. Located near Tropic, there is an extraordinary accommodation: from a distance, the “Clear Sky Resort” looks like a fleet of landed UFOs. You can spend the night in the glass domes – and admire the star-studded night sky over Utah from your bed.
The Wild West cinema feeling sets in at the latest on the spectacular Highway 12. Five fantastic hours by car towards Moab, ideally accompanied by a Spotify road trip playlist. Through forests, mountain ranges, deserts and gorges. The simplest recipe for the ultimate road trip feeling: stop somewhere on the side of the road and get out while Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” plays from the car speakers. And then: switch off, see the seemingly endless expanse in all directions, breathe deeply, enjoy the silence.
Moab describes itself as the “Adventure Capital”, the capital of adventure. The remote nest is the ideal starting point for the two parks Arches and Canyonlands. Along the main road there is everything you can imagine to explore the area: hiking guides, mountain bike rentals, horse rides, rafting companies, helicopter tours, jeep safaris.
If you want to visit Arches, you have to book an entry slot well in advance in summer – in winter you just drive in. There are over 1,500 red rock arches in Arches, more than any other place in the world. Those in a hurry can get a good impression in a few hours, but the most spectacular arches require more time. You have to hike to the most beautiful ones.
National Park Jumping
The Landscape Arch has a span of 93 meters and can be reached in half an hour. Mandatory is the perfect Delicate Arch. It rightly adorns the cover of most travel guides about the southwest of the USA.
Canyonlands Park is right next door. 800 square kilometers in size, undeveloped, deserted and awe-inspiring. A gigantic tangle of gorges, crevices, plateaus, rock cones and caves. The distances are great, and if you want to go even a little further than the usual view points, you should plan a few days here, especially since you have to make the journey from Moab every day.
“Island in the Sky” offers wonderful views over the surrounding gorges (Grand View Point) and the long Mesa Arch. From this point on the southwest journey, the car, hiking boots and clothing are covered in the red sand of the omnipresent rocks.
Heading south, on the way to Monument Valley, stop at Newspaper Rock, a rock on which prehistoric hunters, indigenous people and traveling cowboys have been immortalized in petroglyphs over the centuries. And then, finally, Monument Valley! The Tribal Park in the middle of the Navajo reservation represents the Wild West like no other place – or the Wild West as it was conveyed to us by John Ford Westerns.
Outfit like a baked potato
A sunrise tour takes you by jeep to world-famous rocks such as “The Mittens”. Before sunrise it is freezing cold in the open jeep, desert climate, clear. It’s best to wrap yourself in aluminum heat foil, even if it makes you look like a baked potato.
The indigenous guide tells us how he looked after sheep here as a child before becoming a jeep driver. The sight of the monoliths in front of the rising sun is worth every goosebump, what magical moments! If you want to drive your own car on the washed-out 27-kilometer bumpy road, you should definitely make sure there is plenty of ground clearance. Again and again you see tourist cars stuck, unable to move forward or back, and having to be freed by Navajo in pick-up trucks.
The Grand Canyon is the canyon of canyons. 1600 meters deep, 400 kilometers long, up to 30 kilometers wide. Photographed billions of times by tourists. One of the first explorers said in 1857: “This area is completely worthless… nothing can be done there.” A colossal misjudgment. The southern rim of the canyon is unbearably crowded in summer. Now, in winter, it can happen that you are alone at one of the many viewpoints.
Even better than looking down is the descent down, layer by layer past two billion years of earth’s history to the bottom of the gorge – but only with excellent fitness and hiking experience. Because down below it is up to 45 degrees in summer, and even in December it can sometimes reach 25 degrees.
For mere mortals, the South Kaibab Trail is enough. A nice tour, via the onomatopoeically named “Ooh Aah Point” down to Cedar Ridge and back. On all of these hikes, you should not forget that if you reach the turning point, you have only completed half of the route. The climb, increasing heat and exhaustion make the way back feel more than twice as difficult as the way there.
Excess that has become a city
Anyone who reaches Las Vegas again after almost 3000 kilometers of road movie deserves the perfect contrast to the desert expanses and canyon depths. Las Vegas is excess that has become a city, a flickering orgy of neon, music, stretch limousines and the ping-pling of one-armed bandits. You can watch flamingos or tigers being fed, spend $10,000 on a cocktail, do a bungee jump from 800 feet, eat a 19,000-calorie burger, or learn to shoot a machine gun.
The “Bellagio” has 1,200 fountains that shoot water up to 140 meters into the air. Other casinos look like Venice, New York, Paris, Egypt or a knight’s castle. There is an NHL team, an NFL team and a Formula 1 race. In summer, when it’s 37 degrees, tourists rent fur coats in an “Ice Bar” and drink a beer when the room temperature is minus 20 degrees.
Drugstores have entire sections dedicated to condoms and hangover remedies. Couples get married at the drive-thru window without leaving their car. In short: America lets loose in Las Vegas.
Admittedly, it sounds like shock therapy, but it is precisely this contrast to the sublime nature of the southwest that has its appeal. When the southwest ring has closed and the tour is over, you can shake your head at the craziness in Las Vegas. Or just stand with your mouth open before the next sensation.
It’s good to get rid of the overly critical European and immerse yourself in the madness. Take selfies with an Elvis impersonator, attend a world-class show, admire the flickering world. In the evening you rinse off the last remnants of the red dust in the shower. It’s like a farewell. Certainly not forever.
Tips and information:
How do you get there? For example, with Lufthansa or United non-stop from Munich or Frankfurt/Main to Denver. Transfer connections to Las Vegas with Lufthansa, Condor or Delta.
How do you get around? You can’t do it without a car: a mid-range car for 14 days to and from Las Vegas costs from around 380 euros.
Tips for the individual stations:
Zion National Park: The “Cable Mountain Lodge” in Springdale is strategically located right at the entrance to the park, has clean rooms and apartments, double rooms from 135 euros (cablemountainlodge.com). You can eat deliciously at the Mexican restaurant “Oscar’s Café”. The rental company ebikezionrental.com rents e-bikes including helmets as well as boots and hiking poles for the hike into the Narrows.
Bryce Canyon Nationalpark: The “Clear Sky Resort” near Tropic is the perfect accommodation for stargazers, you can lie on the bed in transparent domes and look at the night sky, double rooms from 339 euros (clearskyresorts.com). There is rustic cuisine in the “Showdowns” restaurant and live music almost every evening.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument: The charming, quiet yurts of the glamping accommodation “Escalante Yurts” are ideal for breathing deeply, prices for two per night from 150 euros (escalanteyurts.com). The town of Escalante is a good starting point for a trip to the Peekaboo slot canyon.
Arches and Canyonlands National Parks: Located just outside of Moab on a bend of the Colorado River, surrounded by red rock walls, the cabins at Red Cliffs Lodge offer a resort atmosphere – with a pool, restaurant and a great museum dedicated to the Westerns filmed in the area over the decades; Double rooms from 126 euros (redcliffslodge.com/moab). In town, the rustic diner “Milt’s Stop & Eat” serves the best milkshakes and burgers in the area.
Grand Canyon: The functionally furnished “Red Feather Lodge”, double rooms from 101 euros (redfeatherlodge.com), is conveniently located near the gorge in Tusayan. The “Big E Steakhouse & Saloon” serves up the best steaks far and wide.
Vegas: Casino resorts centrally located on the Strip often have good accommodation deals; the “Wynn Hotel” or the “Bellagio” (with a view of the fountain show and Eiffel Tower copy) are among the best. Want an alternative to neon lights? Seven Magic Mountains is a colorful, Instagrammable sculpture a few kilometers to the west.
Further information: visitutah.com, visitarizona.com, visitlasvegas.com
This article comes from the guest edition of WELT AM SONNTAG by Andreas Gursky, one of the most famous photographers in the world. You can purchase this unique collector’s item here (Link: https://www.lesershop24.de/welt-am-sonntag/gursky) bestellen.
