Utah National Parks tour: exploring geology & culture

The group will meet in the early evening for introductions and an overview of the tour over drinks on a terrace overlooking the landscape of western Colorado.

• Hotel: The Maverick Hotel, Grand Junction
• Free evening for dinner

We begin our journey by heading to the Colorado National Monument, discussing the landscapes and geology and the history of the Grand Valley as we experience sheer-walled, red rock canyons along the twists and turns of Rim Rock Drive. We then head west and stop at Sego Canyon to view petroglyphs and pictographs on cliff walls and have a picnic lunch.

Turning south towards Moab, we drive to Dead Horse Point State Park, named for its use as a natural corral by cowboys in the 19th century where horses often died of exposure.  The location above the edge of the Colorado River provides dramatic views of Canyonlands National Park.

We finish the day with a short drive into the bustling town of Moab. After checking in to our hotel we will  head to the Sunset Grill restaurant for a group dinner. On a hill overlooking the town of Moab and the desert beyond, the restaurant is the former home of Charlie Steen, “The Uranium King of Utah”.

• Hotel: Spring Hill Suites, Moab
• Group dinner at Sunset Grill, Moab

We will spend the morning and early afternoon with the fossilized dunes of an ancient desert in Arches National Park. We will hear how the complex blocky terrain developed and how the spectacular arches were created within narrow bands of eroded sandstone. Our visit will include several short walks to some of the arches, including the Windows section of the park, Delicate Arch viewpoint (0.5 mile / .8km), and Tunnel and Pine Tree arches on the Devil’s Garden trail (1 mile / 1.6km). We will enjoy a picnic lunch in the park.

We will make a stop along the Colorado River to see some spectacular Fremont rock art high up on the cliffs before returning to Moab, where participants will have time to explore on their own before selecting a restaurant for dinner.

• Hotel: Spring Hill Suites, Moab
• Free evening for dinner

Today we head south from Moab through Spanish Valley and past the La Sal and Abajo mountains to Utah’s Scenic Highway 95. This road is part of a large loop known as “the Trail of the Ancients” and hosts a succession of well-preserved archaeological sites. We will stop at Butler Wash Indian Ruins, where an easy round-trip walk leads to an overlook of several ancient dwellings (1.5 miles / 2.5km, 200 foot / 60m elevation gain), and to the roadside archeological site called Cave Tower Ruins, which includes a partly restored kiva, a tower, and a small block of rooms.

We then drive the loop through Natural Bridges, Utah’s first National Monument, where three majestic natural sandstone bridges invite you to ponder the power of water in a landscape usually defined by its absence.

Weather permitting, we will take the steep switchback roads of the Moki Dugway, with mind-bogglingly beautiful views of Monument Valley’s red-rock spires rising from the vast desert floor, into Bluff.

• Hotel: Bluff Dwelling Resort & Spa, Bluff
• Group dinner outdoors at the hotel with a view of the red rocks

We begin the day with a visit to the remains of an Ancestral Puebloan Great House over 1000 years old on a hilltop overlooking Bluff and then stop at the renowned Sand Island Petroglyphs, a 300-foot (100m) long panel overlooking the San Juan River with images that are 300 to 3,000 years old.

We will then take a short drive westward to the spectacular views of the meanders in the San Juan River at Gooseneck State Park and enjoy a picnic lunch while hearing how the landscape was formed. We then drive into the dramatic setting of spires, buttes and towers that is Monument Valley, familiar as the backdrop of numerous western films, and a highlight of the trip: a tour of the Navajo Tribal Park from a Navajo guide.

We will have dinner at The View restaurant, overlooking the towers of the Valley, before returning to Bluff.

• Hotel: Bluff Dwelling Resort & Spa, Bluff
• Group dinner, Monument Valley

The morning is free to explore the town of Bluff and Bluff Fort or to relax and enjoy the hotel amenities. An optional activity is to explore the treasures along Comb Ridge including Wolfman Panel, a renowned petroglyph site with remarkable precision in the rock art, and Monarch Cave ruin, a well-preserved cliff ruin from the Ancestral Pueblos. These require a short drive from the hotel and MODERATE walks through uneven terrain with round trip that does not exceed 2 miles (3km) (extra cost).

In the afternoon we will drive east to an area cut by numerous canyons that once housed thousands of inhabitants but is today nearly barren. We will visit several famous sets of ruins and towers preserved at Hovenweep National Monument and place them into a geological and archeological context.

• Hotel: Bluff Dwelling Resort & Spa, Bluff
• Final group dinner, Desert Rose Inn, Bluff

We will depart Bluff in the morning for the Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding. The museum has an extensive collection of Ancestral Puebloan artifacts on display as well as rebuilt walls and kivas of a  Puebloan village. Our visit will include a back-room tour to see many items not normally on display. A picnic lunch is provided on the museum grounds.

We continue northward to a spring at the edge of Canyonlands National Park and to Newspaper Rock, a cliff panel with pictographs drawn by different Native tribes over a period of a thousand years.  This dramatic assemblage is now protected as part of the Bears Ears National Monument.

We return to Grand Junction by way of a loop road across the La Sal Mountains into Castle Valley (where we will see some dinosaur tracks), a scenic drive along the Colorado River and a stop at the ghost-town of Cisco.

The tour ends in Grand Junction, where participants can be delivered to a downtown hotel to continue their exploration of the American West or to the Grand Junction airport.

Note: If required for reasons beyond our control, GeoCultura reserves the right to substitute alternative accommodation of equal or higher quality or adapt the itinerary if required.