Yosemite and the sequoias, the ghost town of Bodie, the canyons of Utah and Arizona and a night in Monument Valley.
The American West is one big natural gallery. Across a few thousand kilometres there are dozens of national parks, each one different. The best way to travel is by car at your own pace. The roads are good, and between the parks you drive hundreds of kilometres through desert.
Yosemite
Yosemite National Park in California is famous for its granite walls. The best known is El Capitan, a rock almost a kilometre high that climbers from all over the world come to scale. Yosemite Valley was carved by a glacier. Steep granite walls rise more than a kilometre above the valley floor, with waterfalls pouring down them. They carry the most water in spring and early summer, when the snow melts.
In summer thousands of cars pour into the valley. A free shuttle bus runs around the park and it is better to leave your car in the car park.
The Mist Trail leads to Vernal and Nevada Falls. On a sunny day rainbows form in the spray. The trail is wet and slippery. It climbs more than six hundred stone steps. If you climb above Nevada Fall, you get a view of Half Dome, the park's other famous rock.
Giant sequoias grow in the park. They are among the largest trees in the world and some are more than two thousand years old. The giant sequoias grow in the Mariposa Grove. Their bark is thick and protects them from fire. Some have hollows burned out by fires that you can walk through.
Bodie
Bodie is an abandoned gold-rush mining town. At the end of the 19th century about ten thousand people lived here. Then the gold ran out and people left. The houses remained just as they were abandoned. Today it is a historic park and the buildings are kept in a state of arrested decay. Through the windows you can see tables, beds and shelves of goods, as if the people might come back at any moment. The town lies at over 2,500 metres and the winters are harsh.
Utah
Utah is home to Zion National Park with its steep canyon walls. The trail to the Angels Landing viewpoint follows a narrow ridge with chains. The view down into the canyon from the top is one of the most famous in the West. The canyon was carved by the Virgin River. You can also walk up the riverbed in the narrow gorge of The Narrows, wading through water between walls hundreds of metres high.
Natural Bridges is a lesser-known park with three natural rock bridges. There are few tourists and at night the sky is full of stars. The bridges were formed by water cutting its way through the rock walls of meanders. Natural Bridges was the first park to be certified as a dark-sky park. Trails lead beneath the bridges and you can climb down to them. The oldest bridge, Owachomo, is thin and will one day collapse.
Monument Valley and Horseshoe Bend
Monument Valley lies on Navajo land. The rock towers rise from the red desert and you know them from westerns. There is a campsite in the valley with a view of the rock towers. The Navajo manage the valley as a tribal park. An unpaved loop road runs between the rocks; more remote areas may only be visited with a Navajo guide. John Ford's westerns were filmed here. The rock towers are the remains of a plateau broken up by erosion. They are named after their shapes, such as the Mittens or the Three Sisters.
Horseshoe Bend is where the Colorado River makes a horseshoe-shaped bend. The viewpoint is on the edge of a cliff about three hundred metres above the river. The best light is just before sunset. Not far away is Antelope Canyon, a narrow slot in the rock where shafts of light fall at midday. It can only be visited with a guide.
Practical tips
For the national parks it is worth buying the annual America the Beautiful pass. In summer the desert parks are very hot, so it is better to hike early in the morning. Campsites in popular parks need to be booked months in advance. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for the West. In summer the trails in Yosemite and Zion are crowded, and some places require a permit in advance.
