I keep coming back to the Colorado Plateau — for the light, mostly, and for the way a trail that looks impossible from the rim turns out to be a pleasant walk once you are actually on it. These are my field notes: what we hiked, what the guidebooks got wrong, and what I would do differently next time. No listicles, no sponsored anything — just trips, written up the week after.
Grand Canyon: three days on the South Rim
Sunset at Hopi Point, a morning below the rim on the Bright Angel Trail, and why October beats every other month I have tried.
Lower Antelope Canyon in the morning light
Ninety minutes underground with a Navajo guide, ladders bolted into the rock, and the famous light beams — which are real, but only just.
Wading the Narrows at Zion
The river is the trail. Notes on renting the right boots in Springdale, reading the flow gauge, and turning around at Wall Street.
Horseshoe Bend, an hour before sunset
The most photographed bend in the Colorado is a fifteen-minute walk from the car park. Come late, stay past the crowds, and mind the edge.
Bryce Canyon: hoodoos at sunrise
A minus-two dawn at Sunrise Point, then down the Navajo Loop into a silent maze of stone figures. The strangest forest in Utah.
All notes
- Oct 14, 2025ArizonaGrand Canyon: three days on the South Rim
- Sep 24, 2025UtahBryce Canyon: hoodoos at sunrise
- Sep 22, 2025UtahWading the Narrows at Zion
- May 10, 2025ArizonaHorseshoe Bend, an hour before sunset
- May 9, 2025ArizonaLower Antelope Canyon in the morning light
Planning a first trip?
If you only have four days, do what we did in May: fly into Las Vegas, drive to Page for Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, then finish at the Grand Canyon's South Rim on the way back. Distances look huge on the map and feel much smaller on the road — US-89 is half the pleasure.