Of course June would be the month to be in the great outdoors! Not only that, but it is also National Camping Month. What a splendid month it is!
We’ve just returned from a two-week tour of Utah’s national parks, and I can tell you that, fresh out of a 16-month covid suspension of travel, those parks truly embody “America’s greatest idea.” The U.S. national parks (and the other properties in the National Park System) are unrivaled anywhere in the world in size, number, diversity and accessibility. What a wonderful world we have to discover and enjoy, all of it belonging to each of us.
The Utah parks have been on our agenda for a long time, but it is a pull to get there. Well worth it, though. Of the places we visited, though, we’d actually put Monument Valley at the head of our list. The Valley is part of the Navaho Nation’s Lands in the Four-Corners region of Utah and Arizona. The dramatic appearance of those monoliths rising out of the desert landscape is truly “monumental.”
But among the Utah parks per se, we’d give the gold medal to Bryce Canyon National Park. Thousands upon thousands of rock spires (hoodoos, they are called) cover a natural amphitheater miles across. The shapes, colors and positioning are just extraordinary(learn more about Bryce here) . We’d give the silver medal to Arches—how can one dismiss those wonderful rock windows as anything put spectacular? (learn more about Arches here).
The other parks are less showy, but perhaps more meaningful to those of us with a geology obsession. Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Grand Staircase Esclanate reveal amazing profiles of the earth’s history, laid out for you in textbook fashion. I found Canyonlands the most interesting, as we stood at the point of land where the Green and Colorado Rivers join, each having carved spectacular canyons on either side of us (learn more about Canyonlands here) .
I have to admit that we didn’t make it to Zion. The expected crowds discouraged us; Americans love our parks so much that to visit Zion in high-season, one must register for a one-hour time slot to catch a shuttle bus into the park. So we detoured down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon—yet another scene that our imaginations can’t even begin to comprehend.
But it doesn’t matter whether you are touring the towering spires and seemingly bottomless canyons of Utah or just taking a walk through your local park. Now is the best time to get outside and enjoy the natural resources that nature provides. You don’t have to believe me—the calendar says it is so!
