From burnt-orange days to night skies pitched with a million stars, this desert region is a place of ancient heritage and geological grandeur.
THE SHORTLIST
Things to do in the Southwest to get the real thing.
- Take New Mexico’s High Road and pick up a churro blanket woven by Chimayo artisans
- Wake up before dawn and venture to Yaki Point for sunrise on Grand Canyon’s South Rim
- See Slab City, the California desert “free place” of outsider artists and nomads
- Tour the mythic landscape of Canyon de Chelley on horseback with a Navajo guide
- In Moab, hit Milt’s Stop and Eat for a chili cheeseburger and read a bit of Desert Solitaire
"Standing there, gaping at this monstrous and inhumane spectacle of rock and cloud and sky and space, I feel a ridiculous greed and possessiveness come over me. I want to know it all, possess it all, embrace the entire scene intimately, deeply, totally."
- EDWARD ABBEY
