Northern Arizona and Southern Utah are part of the Colorado Plateau's slickrock country. Here lie five national parks, several national forests, and countless BLM wild areas worthy of wilderness designation. The geology is stunning, with sandstone cliffs and canyons of every imaginable color, carved by wind and water. Pinnacles, mesas, buttes, and arches decorate the landscape.

"The defining topographical feature of southwest Utah is the Grand Staircase. Named by pioneer river-runner John Wesley Powell, it consists of a series of plateaus, stacked tier upon tier, that climb from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Chocolate Cliffs , near the border with Arizona, are followed by the dazzling Vermillion Cliffs , then the White Cliffs - a 2000ft wall of Navajo sandstone, best seen at Zion - the Grey Cliffs , and finally the Pink Cliffs of Bryce. Although it took a billion years of sedimentation for these rocks to form, the staircase itself has only been created in the last dozen million years, by the general upthrust of the Colorado Plateau , which stretches away to the east." Travelnow.com

Join us for a backpack trip into the red-rock canyons or a kayak trip across Lake Powell.