Grand Circle Tours in the Southwest USA

You can visit all the best sites of the American Southwest USA on one of our exclusive scenic Grand Circle Tours. The truly great and scenic Southwest USA landscape contains a fabulous concentration of National Parks, National Monuments, State Parks and National Forests. This creation of scenery has an infinite beauty that is hard to imagine, much less comprehend. At every turn there is a variety of color, scenic views, canyons, mountains, rivers, rocks, cliffs, spirals, monuments and rivers that beckon the traveler to enjoy this circle of adventure in their own unique manner. Our Grand Circle Adventure Tour travels a 1000-mile to 1500-mile loop through what we believe is the most spectacular country on earth.

On a Grand Circle Tour you can experience the history of the first Americans and celebrate the American West. You will visit locations so compelling you will long to walk their most intimate paths. This is a spacious land with a "big sky", far from the hustle and bustle of the big city. It is full of different kinds of towering walls and ancient dwellings. It is a homeland where native peoples still live.

We who live within the Grand Circle are blessed to call it our home. We are intimately aware of the small part we play in this enormous tapestry of creation. We invite you to take a journey with us to enjoy, explore, experience, discover and relax within this awesome place. We will enrich your travel experiences, offering you the opportunity to explore some of the lesser-known treasures located within the Grand Circle.

Tell us about your interests, objectives and the number of days you would like to tour. We will design a custom Grand Circle Adventure Tour that you will remember for a lifetime.

Our Grand Circle Tours are offered from the Flagstaff Arizona area, the Phoenix Arizona area, the Las Vegas Nevada area or from any other Southwest USA location by special arrangement.

Below is a SAMPLE Itinerary for a Six-Day "GRAND CIRCLE" Custom Private Tour of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah from Flagstaff Arizona. Ideas for optional activities are listed which can be substituted for other activities to better meet the interests of your family or group.

Day 1 Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest & Painted Desert:

Leaving Flagstaff around 8AM with our first stop is at Meteor Crater, which is about 550 feet deep and 2.4 miles in circumference. Meteor Crater is so big, one can see its rim from several miles away as it rises out of the red earth west of Winslow. The Museum of Astrogeology details the effects of meteors worldwide. The Astronaut Hall of Fame records the experiences of men and women training in the crater for lunar landings.

Our next stop will be a large shop and museum of petrified wood. This is a private supplier of petrified wood where you may purchase souvenirs. From here we would travel through the entire length of the Petrified Forest National Park with stops at their visitor's centers and some of the best view points. In the Petrified Forest one finds giant trees that were turned to stone. Scattered over the stark and barren desert floor, many appear to have just toppled over like so many toothpicks spilling out. The park museum gives information regarding the natural processes that cause wood to turn to stone. The Museum of the Americas displays the equipment used to cut and polish the stones to reveal their colorful beauty. In the same area you will visit the prehistoric Indian ruins at Puerco Pueblo.

This visit would also include some good overlooks of the Painted Desert. We also travel through parts of the Painted Desert where blue, gray, green, pink, and red soils paint an ever-changing landscape.

Day 1 OPTION: Just outside Flagstaff is Walnut Canyon National Park. Hike down into Walnut Canyon and walk in the footsteps of the people that lived here over 900 years ago. Under limestone overhangs, the Sinagua built their homes. These single story structures, cliff dwellings, were occupied from about 1100 to 1250.

This day may include a visit to the historic Hubbell Trading Post on the way to Canyon de Chelly.

Imagine yourself overlooking a deep straight-walled canyon, ancient Indian ruins tucked under grottos of sandstone, a valley floor with lush bright green grass and cottonwood trees, Native American crops, and a sliver of water trickling over red sand. This is Canyon de Chelly, a place of unparalleled beauty and contrasts of color, light and texture.

You will be intrigued by the mystic stories related to Spider Rock and the surrounding areas. An optional tour takes the visitor along the canyon floor with a Navajo guide pointing out natural, historic and spiritually significant items along the way.

We will arrive in the Monument Valley area in the afternoon or evening with a short stop in the Navajo community of Kayenta Arizona. From Kayenta it is only about a half hour drive to the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park and the Visitor's Center. At Monument Valley one sees huge animal shapes, castles, and high pinnacles at every turn of the road. The desolation and expanse of this place gives you a strong feeling of time standing still. Many artists, photographers and movies starring actors like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and, most recently, Tom Hanks as Forest Gump, have captured the beauty of Monument Valley. As we approach the famous Goulding's Lodge you will begin to see massive sandstone sculptures rise from the desert floor. The otherworldly experience of Monument Valley is one you'll treasure for years to come.

Your adventure includes a 17-mile tour through the valley with stops at all the historic and scenic views.

Day 2 or 3 OPTIONS: Optional four-wheel drive tours are available with a Navajo guide into the back country where you can see Petroglyphs and ancient Anasazi dwellings only accessible on this guided tour. The prices for these back country tours start at $25 per person. Another option available is a horseback ride into Monument Valley, also with a Navajo guide. Horseback rides start at $25 per hour, $40 for two hours and $50 for three hours.

Day 3 Mexican Hat, Natural Bridges National Monument, Upper Lake Powell, and Capital Reef National Park:

This is a VERY scenic drive through Mexican Hat, Utah on the way to Natural Bridges National Monument with a spectacular overlook along the way. This is an often missed natural bridges park that has some short hikes that go down into a canyon and under some natural bridges. This is a special unique and less crowded park.

Capitol Reef National Park is also a less know and less crowded park. Within the park is the Water-pocket Fold, a 100-mile long wrinkle in the earth's crust known as a monocline. It extends from nearby Thousand Lakes Mountain to the Colorado River (now Lake Powell). Capitol Reef National Park was established to protect this grand and colorful geologic feature, as well as the unique historical and cultural history found in the area.

Day 3 or 4 OPTION: A two-hour hike to a natural arch in Capitol Reef National Park.

Day 4 Calf Creek Recreation Area, Grand Staircase Escalante Canyons National Monument, and Bryce Canyon National Park:

This has to be one of the most breath-taking drives in the world. Along the way you may want to stop at one of the many optional stops in the new Grand Staircase Escalante Canyons National Monument area.

Bryce Canyon is one of our favorite, colorful and photographic parks. It is not really a canyon, but a high plateau that overlooks many small canyons full of extraordinary bright yellow-orange sandstone formations.

When possible Bryce Canyon is a great place to spend the night and get up to see the sun rise over the canyons that face the eastern sun. We have seen few views more spectacular than a sunrise over this park.

Calf Creek Recreation Area. Close to this location I recommend a short hike that goes through a very narrow canyon from one side of the highway to the other side. Some call it a "slot canyon". There is also a beautiful canyon hike along a creek to a significant waterfall.

Escalante Canyons. This is a newly recognized wilderness type recreation area and is one of the most primitive areas of the United States.

Escalante Petrified Forest. This is much smaller than Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park, but gives you a feel for this type of geological peculiarity.

We recommend a hike of one to three hours looping through one on the trails at Bryce Canyon National Park.

Zion Canyon National Park may actually have to be an optional or quick tour. When possible, we especially enjoy taking at least one hike in Zion. We usually go up "the narrows" of the Virgin River or on one of the trails literally carved out of the side of one of the cliffs. The views from these trails are spectacular and beyond description.

From the Zion and Bryce Canyon area we head for Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam. Lake Powell is one of the largest and definitely one of the most scenic man-made lakes in the world. Its' coastline is longer than the entire west coast of the United States. For the afternoon we will a half-day Rafting trip through Glen Canyon on the mighty Colorado River. Glen Canyon is the upper end of the Grand Canyon and is very much like the Grand Canyon spectacular scenic views and remote back country conditions.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes: Vibrant pink dunes on the way Lake Powell, but would take an extra hour to drive through the area.

We try to keep this one a secret: A hike in the longest slot canyon in the world known as Buckskin Gulch. Do not do this hike if there is ANY threat of thunderstorms or rain of any kind!

Day 6 Navajo Reservation, Vermillion Cliffs, Painted Desert, Little Colorado River Gorge, and THE GRAND CANYON:

A large portion of this drive on the way to the Grand Canyon includes a most interesting, desolate and yet scenic portion of the large Navajo reservation. We again drive through another portion of the Painted Desert. A rest stop is the beautifully restored Cameron Trading Post and Restaurant. This is a great place for a meal of authentic "Navajo Taco". A word of warning, the "small" size is really "big", and the large taco is "gigantic".

At the Little Colorado River Gorge overlook, Native American artisans display a variety of crafts including rugs, pottery, and jewelry. They will gladly pose for photographs along with their works. The Gorge itself will literally take your breath away as you look hundreds of feet down to the river winding its way along the bottom of the steep, narrow canyon. Continuing on, you will relish the serenity, open spaces, and ever-changing colors of the Colorado Plateau.

One stop at the Grand Canyon is the Watchtower at Desert View overlook. The winding staircase inside the native stone structure takes you past traditional Indian paintings. At the top you will appreciate vistas of the Painted Desert, the eastern portion of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, and the surrounding forested hillsides. This tour also stops at Mather or Yavapai Point, Grandview Point, and Bright Angel Point in the Grand Canyon Village. At the village you will be able to stroll along the rim of the canyon and visit historic buildings and museums. The Visitors' Center at Grand Canyon Village displays information regarding the history and geology of the Canyon.

Optional Additional Day or Substitute Day: Arches and Canyonlands National Parks:

Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park would be our major stops for the day. Arches National Park preserves over two thousand natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch, in addition to a variety of unique geological resources and formations. In some areas, faulting has exposed millions of years of geologic history. A striking environment of contrasting colors, landforms and textures highlights the extraordinary features of the park, including balanced rocks, fins and pinnacles.

From Arches, we travel by way of Green River Utah and highway 24 towards Capitol Reef National Park. Depending on your time, you can spend the night before or after Capitol Reef. I personally prefer the Boulder Mountain Lodge in Boulder Utah, south of Capitol Reef. There is a great place next door, for breakfast or dinner.

OTHER OPTIONS: After breakfast, just north of Monticello we can take a side trip to the Needles Overlook in the Canyon Rims Recreation Area. This spectacular overlook of Canyonlands National Park has a drop-off of 1600 feet and a view or up to 120 miles. If you skip this optional side trip you could spend more time in Arches National Park.

Step-on-Guide Service We also offer a personal and private "Step-on-Guide" service where the tour guide travels in your personal vehicle or rental vehicle.

Grand Circle Tours

A Custom Grand Circle tour can take you to the most fabulous concentrations of National Parks in the Southwest USA