There you are on the road, for a tight loop through the American West. Los Angeles, its excess - Sunset Boulevard is more than 50 kilometers away!, the ocean and its immense beaches, and Las Vegas, its bling bling architecture, its thousands of neon lights and its crazy Strip: the journey begins in a big way! Far from the city and its lights, it continues in the heart of XXL nature: Zion, a 300 m gorge cut in the rock, at the bottom of which flows a river - you will go up your feet in the water! Then it is the grandiose excess of Bryce Canyon, and its flamboyant panoramas. You then join Lake Powell, a blue ocean in the heart of a desert. At Monument Valley, an iconic site in the West. Then, head for the Grand Canyon, the huge fault - 300 km long, 30 km wide - created in the rocks by Colorado is perhaps the most impressive phenomenon on the planet. And the trip ends gently under the Phoenix sun, oasis of golf, tennis and swimming pools in the middle of the desert.
Must-Do during your trip
Eat a real burger in a "dinner" - laugh out loud at Universal Studios - listen to country music on the radio - sleep in real American film motels, where you park directly in front of your room - test your balance on water skis at Lake Powell - watch for hinds and squirrels in Grand Canyon - meet Navajos and Sioux Dakota - in Monument Valley, spend the night in the hotel where John Ford and John Wayne were staying during the filming of The prisoner of the desert.
LOS ANGELES
In Los Angeles, everything collides with habits: gigantism, the impossibility of traversing it on foot - the greater Los Angeles stretches along beaches, which extend over more than 100 kilometers.
The beauty of the city comes first from the geography. A coastal plain, hills at the foot of which, to the west of the city, are Hollywood, whose boulevard runs along the hills and Beverly Hills. The ocean and its immense beaches, and the sun.
In your first day, head to Universal Studios, the Hollywood dream machine. The original film studios date back to 1915, but they are still used for cinema and television, and have become a theme park as well.
LOS ANGELES TO LAS VEGAS
From one myth to another, there is only one road. A journey of approximately 5 hours, with possible stops at Barstow on the legendary route 66 or the ghost town of Calico. After crossing the Mojave Desert, the first casinos and neon lights are on the horizon.
LAS VEGAS
Launched by a genius gangster, Las Vegas is arguably the only city in the world entirely based on illusion. Do not worry, you will quickly get into the game. Here, the main activity is to walk the famous Strip, passing from a themed hotel-casino to another, observing with one eye the incessant ballet of a motley crowd, competing in elegance.
LAS VEGAS TO ZION
Enough desert road to reach Mount Carmel, at the entrance of Zion Park (3 hours).
To see along the way - At the entrance to St George, Snow Canyon State Park offers sublime landscapes: the black expanses of lava flows give the place a unique atmosphere.
ZION NATIONAL PARK
Famous for its deep canyons dug by the Virgin River and its tributaries, Zion is a green park where imposing mountains, sandstone cliffs, narrow canyons, forests of maple and poplars and arches jutting out are mixed sky. If you are looking for a real adventure here, then you should try waterfront hiking in the Narrows.
ZION TO BRYCE CANYON TO PAGE (LAKE POWELL)
You take the scenic route which winds between the rocks and seems to undulate under the cliffs in the direction of Bryce Canyon National Park, which you will admire its flamboyant panoramas and its hundreds of fairy chimneys. Keep driving until you face Lake Powell, the largest artificial lake in the United States. With its 300 km long, its 96 canyons and its 3155 km of coastline, it is one of the emblematic sites of the American West.
LAKE POWELL TO MONUMENT VALLEY
Road towards Monument Valley (about 3 hours), passing by the Hopi and Navajo Indian reserves. As the kilometers are rolled out, you can see the orange-colored monoliths and mounds taking shape in the distance in a setting straight out of the westerns of our childhood: the most emblematic park in the West still echoes overlaps filmed by John Ford. At the 22nd minute of the Fantastic Ride, a stagecoach drawn by six galloping horses crosses a desert valley, raising clouds of dust which bind the column of cavalry escorting it at the rear, while, outside the field, behind the monoliths, Geronimo and his men are preparing an attack.
Discover Antelope Canyon on foot, a narrow gorge carved out by erosion, which seems to undulate as one goes there on foot. The most photographed site in the American West, fascinating in beauty.
MONUMENT VALLEY TO GRAND CANYON
Road to the Grand Canyon, one of the most impressive geological phenomena on the planet. The 443 km long and 30 km wide fault - a glazed space allows the visitor to safely advance on the edge of the precipice - its immensity is disconcerting.
An overview of the Grand Canyon by helicopter, probably the best way to appreciate the excessiveness of the place.
GRAND CANYON TO PHOENIX
Road to Phoenix - the pine forest gradually gives way to the expanses of cacti and desert areas characteristic of Arizona, and the temperatures get warmer.
To see along the way - Sedona, in the middle of "red stone country", surrounded by immense red and gold pillars, gigantic mesas, mounds and columns: they have in the past nurtured the imagination of western scriptwriters, they now attract a new age community in search of mystical energy and spiritual well-being. Jerome, a ghost town in the Far West, is also worth a visit.
Your trip ends here. Thank you for reading
