Utah

Jul 28, 2009 5:09:47 AM

Travel secret #4: Capitol Reef National Park, USA

At #4 in Lonely Planet Magazine’s top travel secrets is the mind-blowing lunar landscape of Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park, as recommended by Lonely Planet guidebook author John Vlahides:

‘If you want to see something in the States most Americans haven’t, head to Capitol Reef National Park. I don’t know what Mars looks like, but it’s got to be close to this. Giant slabs of chocolate-red rock rise above enormous canyons, crowned with sweeping yellow sandstone domes like giant teeth biting at the sky. The park’s centrepiece is a monocline (called Waterpocket Fold), a buckle in the earth’s surface 100 miles long - a scale I’d only grasped once I’d driven 1000-vertical-feet to the top. From on high I could see clear across canyon country to the 11,000-ft high Henry Mountains, the last-discovered range in the continental US. My favourite place to stay is Red River Ranch, a grand Western lodge. One night in the hot tub I thought the sky was cloudy, until I looked through binoculars are realised it was milky with a zillion stars.’

What came in at #5 in the travel secrets countdown?

And what pipped this one at the post at #3?

Get the whisper on a whole batch of travel secrets in the Lonely Planet Magazine

Get an author’s guide to more USA national parks - and tips on how to beat the tourist crowds

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