If you missed the first three  installments of our Big Trip Retrospective, you can follow our blast around Eastern Europe and Scandinavia here: Europe , our trip across the Rockies here: Rockies and our tour of the finest climbing in The Golden State here: California

If you’ve followed the adventure so far, then I apologise for leaving you on tenterhooks for more than a year! The “retrospective” show got put on the back-burner as real-life Rockaroundtheworld-ing resumed post covid, and I’ve only just spotted this part-finished post in my drafts folder. I hope it’s been worth the wait, so buckle up as we leave California and head south to explore the desert!

We bade farewell to California with a fabulous sunset

… and headed for the spectacular Meteor Crater near Winslow Arizona (more famous for a song by the Eagles than this mile wide, 200m deep dent from a direct hit about 50,000 years ago).

More recent evidence of history captured in stone at the Walnut Canyon National Monument:

Of course, Arizona isn’t short of impressive Big Holes in the Ground, and despite all the prior exposure on TV there’s nothing that prepares you for the scale and majesty of the Grand Canyon:

Literally breathtaking!

Chilly on the rim in November at around 7,000ft…

… but soon warms up as you drop down towards the valley floor:

Heading into Utah, Zion NP might not have quite the scale but it’s certainly a match for natural wonder, and there’s more climbing to sample too.

The highlight for us was a family trip up to Angels’ Landing (at the top of Moonlight Buttress) with impressive exposure and surprisingly little in the way of “Nanny State” precautions!

We only managed a taster of the sandstone climbing on offer, and MB is very much on the Bucket List to come back for.

Following in the track-marks of the great waggon-train migration…

… we looped around St George to check out the climbing in Snow Canyon:

Next stop on the tour of Utah’s Mighty Five National Parks (and probably our favourite) was Bryce Canyon and its ethereal hoodoos.

A brief stop in Capitol Reef NP underlines the incredible wealth of extraordinary rock scenery hereabouts – anywhere else it would be a multi-day destination, but it’s relegated to a relative sideshow on the way to Arches NP.

…and even managed to squeeze in ur first Desert Tower, with an ascent of Owl Rock

On to the adventure capital of the South West – Moab is wall-to-wall with outdoor opportunities and a great base to explore the world-famous MTB along the Slick Rock Trail.

It’s also the epicentre of desert sandstone crack climbing, with Wall Street offering a very accessible roadside taster…

… as well as being the gateway to the last of “The Utah Five”: Canyonlands! This is a topsy-turvy Park with most of the access and infrastructure on the “Island in the Sky” mesa, sculpted out by the Colorado and Green rivers, giving amazing perspectives down onto improbable tower-filled canyons below. Another 12CB4 (One To Come Back For)

Heading south, staying one step ahead of winter, we pitched up in Natural Bridges National Monument (yup, this incredible scenery only warrants NM status!)

Into Monument Valley – the iconic region of the Colorado Plateau, located on the Utah-Arizona state line, near the Four Corners area

…and a bit further south, a chance to top our second Desert Tower, the well-named ‘Mexican Hat’, via a bit of aid shenanigans (clip stick improvised from kindling and duck tape!)

Looping back into Colorado, the Mesa Verde NP protects some amazing cliff dwellings dating back over 1,000 years.

More rocks of interest, at least from a climbing perspective, at Shelf Road…

…and Penitente Canyon

Having absolutely maxed out our 90 days US Visa, it was time to end our whistle-stop tour of the States, but not our Big Trip. Having got a third of the way around the Globe it seemed a shame to head back east just yet, so the journey continued westward. Keep an eye out for the next installment as RockAroundTheWorld heads for New Zealand (and I promise not to leave it another year before posting!!!)