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American Southwest delivers on visual wonders
American Southwest delivers on visual wonders
Otherwordly landscape of buttes and mesas outshines Sin City
Awoman barely clad in beads and shells whirled her body to frenzied tribal beats. Two topless young women slithered over one another in a giant glass bowl. An Audrey Hepburn look-alike balanced horizontal to the stage, one hand on her partner's forehead, and a little man wrapped in white ribbons flew through the air with great ease.
Such were fleeting highlights of Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The provocative cabaret-style show is less death defying than Cirque's Kooza, and more suited to recharging sexual engines.
Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of the show was the plethora of natural breasts on topless talents, a stark contrast to those juggling for attention in casinos and along the strip in a city that needlessly has a Hooters.
But it wasn't nudity, gambling or lights that brought my husband and me to Vegas. The fountain-rich glitz in the middle of a desert was a mere gateway to the natural wonders that lie to its east in Utah and Arizona.
The 1991 film Thelma & Louise inspired me to visit the otherworldly landscape of buttes and mesas the pair cruised through, and the reality didn't disappoint.
Near Page, Ariz., we took in Horseshoe Bend, where you stand on an abrupt ridge and see a river curve around a rock outcrop. Red rocks worn to resemble giant wafers, green water far below and blue sky had us dashing around snapping photos under the blazing July sun.
Next stop was the spectacular Antelope Canyon where shafts of light filter into the slot canyon, higher than it is wide, to pick up marbled patterns of coral, terracotta and plum. If only our guide hadn't used her laser pointer to outline shapes such as hearts and George Washington's head that apparently could be discerned among the flash flood-worn sandstone (you can only access the upper canyon with a guide), we could have peacefully marvelled at the dramatic hues and contours.
Friends advised us to skip the Grand Canyon, but I'm glad we ignored them. We arrived at the less touristy North Rim at sunset and were gobsmacked by its awesome scale, resolving to visit again.
Red earth, sandstone mesas (flat topped mounts) and buttes, archetypal landscapes of the Wild West, drew us to Monument Valley, which, like Antelope Canyon, is on Navajo land. We braved twisting, potholed dirt roads to shoot colossal red rock formations that glowed in the evening's dying light.
Moab, Utah, is a great base for visiting Canyonlands and Arches national parks and Dead Horse Point State Park, where Thelma and Louise soared off the cliff.
The 1,365 square kilometre Canyonlands park has three distinct sections. We only visited Island in the Sky, where a jagged 1,500 foot-deep crater of green tinged white salt is ringed by a sea of red sandstone at Upheaval Dome.
We worried Dead Horse Point would be disappointing after the larger Canyonlands, but it was even more scenic, with stepped cliffs stretching to the horizon and a double rainbow after a brief but intense rainstorm.
Fitting in a drive around Arches in the same day was too much. Early the next morning, the weird and wonderful red rock formations that include an egg-shaped boulder that appears precariously balanced atop a tall tower and, of course, the naturally hewn windows, were worth rising for.
Looping back toward Vegas, we traversed Capital Reef National Park, with its steep red cliffs and petroglyphs. The touristy Bryce Canyon was worth a quick visit for the countless coral-hued pinnacles or hoodoos, but we ditched a planned second night to spend one in the more tastefully touristic Springdale, Utah, near Zion National Park, where we missed snapping 17 mountain goats perched on a small, sheer cliff.
We plan to return to the American Southwest, where nature's bounty is a million times more spellbinding than fake gondolas, a dark-glassed pyramid and slot machines. Go. |
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發表於 2010-11-22 00:20
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