Best of Utah’s Canyonlands

Delicate Arch [1]: Arches National Park is filled with astounding rock arches, but Delicate Arch, which rises directly from a slickrock bluff, is the most awe-inspiring. That it requires a bit of a hike to reach only makes the experience more rewarding.

Mesa Arch Trail [2]: It’s a short, easy hike from the Canyonlands park highway to the Island in the Sky cliffs, where a rock window opens up at the very edge of the precipice. It’s a totally unlikely combination: a soaring arch over the void.

Grand View Point [2]: From this astounding spot, you’ll see the trenchlike canyon of the Colorado River from the top of thousand foot cliffs. Quite simply, this is the most dramatic vista in all of Utah—in fact, from here you’ll feel that much of the state is spread out beneath your feet.

BLM Newspaper Rock Historical Monument [3]: Perhaps this superlative example of ancient Native American rock art was like a newspaper to early residents of southern Utah. The meaning of the rock art has been lost (some images are more than 2,000 years old), but what remains here, at one of the best and most accessible rock-art galleries, is beautiful, mysterious, and oddly meaningful.

Hovenweep National Monument [4]: The Anasazi masonry villages at Hovenweep were built around 900 years ago and formed the center of an extended agricultural community. The settlements were quickly abandoned, leaving behind these amazing ruins. Hovenweep is mostly unexcavated and largely unvisited, which means that you can explore the vast series of mysterious ruins on your own.