Bryce and Zion Canyons, UT

Bryce Canyon isn't really a canyon because there is no river and no opposing canyon wall. All you can see is a sweeping amphitheater of mutlicoloured hoodoos. These incredible stalagmite-like structures are formed over millions of years. Water and wind gradually wear away the soft sandstone into fine fins, which crumble into arches, which then erode into long skinny pillars. These rock cigarettes can be 50+ metres tall. Their vivid colours - reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, whites - are testimony to their age. Each colour represents tens of millions of years. Hoodoos are seriously old.

Hiking down into the canyon is surreal. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of hoodoos all around you. You wind your way along ridges, then down around them. They sprout up everywhere and populate the cliffs, a batallion of sleeping sentries. But guarding whom? Walking amongst the coloured statues is earie and beautiful. A strange place, enchanting yet out of place.

If Bryce is intimate, quiet and intricate, Zion National Park is its antithesis. This canyon is a beast. Red Navajo sandstone cliffs soar thousands of feet from the valley floor. The gigantic rock faces - each with a suitably grand biblical name bestowed by the first Mormon settlers - tower down over you. Presumably the Virgin River, now a wimpy trickle, once had a bit more oomph. Or maybe it takes 100 million years to create such a canyon.

One morning, after a few Lavazza espressos and some Jif peanut butter sandwiches (the best of Europe and America), we scrambled to the top of Angel's Landing. This giant sandstone tower does not look climbable, and, well, it almost isn't. I had to focus on planting one foot after the other so as to avoid looking to the 800ft drop to my right, and the 1,100 foot fall to my left. Heart pounding (more out of fear than physical exertion), I hauled myself up the rock wall not worrying about how I was going to get down. The view from the top was just as impressive as the panaroma from the bottom of the canyon. I'm not sure that I was any closer to God, but if he did make the world in 7 days, he must have spent a good deal of time here in Zion.