Desert atmosphere: Arizona offers premium natural scenery, especially the Grand Canyon.
The Western U.S. comes in different topographies: snowy mountains, thick forests, the Pacific Ocean. Then, there are deserts. Arizona has a traditional desert in midst of a Southwestern landscape. Much of the state features rocks and mountains colored in red and orange, just like Utah. It is also home to top-notch parks, including: Petrified Forest National Park, Saguaro National Park, and the king of Arizona parks – Grand Canyon National Park. Arizona embodies mind-blowing panoramas making the desert an exhilarating destination to visit, if you can tolerate the extreme heat. I visited Arizona once in 2006, and again in 2016 when I stepped over into the state at Four Corners Monument.
Grand Canyon National Park
A natural masterpiece, Grand Canyon’s beauty from above is simply breathtaking. A vast, deep canyon stretching your mind and into the distance, words cannot describe a natural vista as expansive and elegant as the Grand Canyon.
My family took a bus from Las Vegas to the South Rim of the famous landmark in July 2006 to finally witness for ourselves such an environmental art. Given the bus ride was hot and cramped, the visit to the park more than made up for it. Unfortunately, summertime is not an ideal season to visit Arizona since the temperature was scorching hot, sizzling above 100 degrees. Nevertheless, a very young me got out to explore a canyon I had zero clue about, much less understand how it was formed. Walking toward the enormous viewpoint while sweating, however, led me to the most stunning vista of my young life.
The Grand Canyon was grandiose. An endless lineup of red combined with buff and gray, delicate green and pink rock formations expanded into the horizon with various shapes, structures, and appearances. It was all so much to take in. Of course, I was curious about the canyon’s features: whether life resided there? If any humans had gone down to the bottom? What loomed below, if anything? This may have been the beginning of my avid interest in traveling, and especially my love for nature. There was a certain mystery to the Grand Canyon, it was incredibly mammoth and extravagant, but what lied in the interior and far into the abyss was something that picked at me like a bug in the desert heat.
Though the Grand Canyon is likely Arizona’s top attraction, I do want to visit the state again and visit the other desert parks. Not to mention, Phoenix, Tucson, Sedona, and Flagstaff all have their own cultural offerings. Arizona remains a special state to me because it was my first time witnessing such gorgeous natural scenery in the Western United States. Since it was one of the first vacations I had ever taken in my life, my trip to the Grand Canyon will always be a long-lasting memory, as evidence of this article.
