The American Southwest is one of the most visually dramatic landscapes on earth. But most road trip guides send you to the same five places: Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Arches, Monument Valley. All beautiful. All packed with tour buses.
This route goes somewhere different.
We mapped a 1,400-mile loop that starts in Albuquerque, curves up through southern Utah, cuts across northern Arizona, and returns through New Mexico — hitting places that most Southwest visitors have never heard of.
Day 1-2: Albuquerque to Chaco Canyon Most people drive through Albuquerque on their way somewhere else. Stop. The Old Town has some of the best New Mexican food you'll ever eat, and the Sandia Mountains turn watermelon pink at sunset.
From Albuquerque, head northwest toward Chaco Canyon. This is one of the great archaeological sites in North America — a complex of massive stone buildings constructed by the Ancestral Puebloans between 850 and 1150 CE. The largest building, Pueblo Bonito, had 800 rooms. It was the center of a civilization that stretched across hundreds of miles.
Chaco is remote (the last 13 miles are on unpaved road) and receives relatively few visitors. At night, it's a Dark Sky Park — some of the clearest stargazing in the country.
Day 3: Shiprock The Navajo call it Tsé Bit'a'í — "the rock with wings." Shiprock is a volcanic plug that rises 1,583 feet above the desert floor in a landscape so flat and otherworldly that it looks digitally composited. It's visible from 50 miles away on a clear day.
Shiprock is sacred to the Navajo Nation and cannot be climbed, but you can drive close and walk around the base. The dikes — ancient volcanic walls radiating from the main formation — are equally dramatic and less photographed.
Day 4-5: Monument Valley to Valley of the Gods Monument Valley needs no introduction. But here's the thing: 99% of visitors see it from the same two or three viewpoints that have been in every Western movie since John Ford. Drive the 17-mile dirt road through the valley at sunrise or sunset and you'll understand why it keeps appearing in films.
Fifteen miles northeast, almost nobody goes to Valley of the Gods — Utah's answer to Monument Valley, but without the entrance fee or the crowds. The formations are smaller but the solitude is total. You might have the entire valley to yourself.
Day 6: Natural Bridges National Monument Three natural rock bridges span canyons in this remote corner of Utah. The largest, Sipapu Bridge, is the second-largest natural bridge in the world. The loop trail takes about 3 hours and passes beneath all three. You'll see maybe a dozen other people.
Day 7-8: Goblin Valley and Little Wild Horse Canyon Goblin Valley State Park looks like a set from a science fiction film — thousands of sandstone mushroom formations (hoodoos) covering the valley floor. You can wander freely among them.
Nearby Little Wild Horse Canyon is a slot canyon hike through narrows that squeeze down to shoulder width. Unlike Antelope Canyon (which now requires a guide and costs $80), Little Wild Horse is free, permit-free, and lets you move at your own pace.
Day 9-10: Capitol Reef and back south Capitol Reef National Park is the least-visited of Utah's "Mighty 5" and arguably the most interesting geologically. The Waterpocket Fold — a 100-mile warp in the earth's crust — creates canyons, domes, and arches in almost every direction.
The orchards in the Fruita historic district still produce fruit — visitors can pick apples, peaches, and pears in season.
From Capitol Reef, head south and east back toward Albuquerque through the San Rafael Swell — a geological formation the size of Rhode Island that most Utahns have barely heard of.