Red and gold light cascades into the valley as the sun rises over the mountains. The incredible rocks below me change from a dull grey to a light pink and finally a vibrant orange. Despite the cold, a bone chilling –16C, it’s been well worth the wait.
I’m standing on a precarious platform called Bryce Point, 8,297ft above Bryce Amphitheatre in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. The park is famous for its rock formations known as ‘hoodoos’, jagged pinnacles of limestone the Native Americans believe were shape-shifters, turned to stone by the cunning coyote to stop them draining the natural resources of the land.
The view is one of the most magical I’ve seen. Utah, in America’s south-west, is bordered by Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. It’s made up of five magnificent national parks, each one with a vastly different look and feel. If you blink, you might miss a road runner tearing through the searing-hot valleys.
But I’m here in February and it’s a completely different picture. Utah has some of the best skiing in the world and plenty of exuberant winter activities to get stuck into.
I start in the snow-capped mountain town of Park City where, every year at the end of January, Hollywood’s A-listers flock to showcase their latest blockbusters at Sundance Film Festival. It’s low key, with a few chic boutiques, casual restaurants and lively bars.
I have an intense day’s skiing – it’s the biggest ski area in the US, with about 350 runs to tear around on.
There are loads of ski resorts to choose from in Utah, including Alta and neighbouring Deer Valley, a swish skiers-only resort known for impeccably groomed mountains and high-end restaurants. The draw is the powder snow and there are bucket-loads of the stuff.
After a few days skiing, I drive four hours south to Bryce Canyon National Park. Here I meet my guides, Marsha and Jon, who furnish me with snow grips to attach to my hiking boots before setting off along the trail, down into the plateau below.
They met in San Diego and moved to Utah to be in the thick of this beautiful national park. I can see why.
As we walk down the narrow rock path, every turn is more jaw-dropping than the last. It’s late in the day and the rock has turned deep red, the tops covered in snow, framed by the blue sky.
We hike into a beautiful basin known as Queens Garden, which they explain is so-named because apparently one of the hoodoos looks like Queen Victoria. They say it’s too early in the season for most tourists, who tend to stick to the ski slopes, so we have the place to ourselves.
Afterwards, I head to Springdale, a town of 500 or so residents, right in the middle of Zion National Park. This park is known for its petrified sand dunes, which are more than 200 million years old.
Pine trees fill the valleys, the air scented with their fragrance, while longhorn mountain sheep scamper along perilously narrow tracks, clinging to the sides of huge frozen waterfalls. It feels completely different from Bryce Canyon.
At 230 square miles, the best views are from above, so I take a helicopter tour to soak it all up (from £85pp). We fly over huge peaks, deep gorges and vast residential ranches – it’s stunning. Zion is the most popular national park in the country with about five million visitors a year but January is quiet.
I’m up early next morning to hike The Narrows, a five-mile gorge rising up nearly 1,500ft through mountains. It’s quiet and still, the air restoratively fresh, and I continue walking, alternating between the crystal-clear water and the shore, until I hit Wall Street. Here the 22ft-wide canyon splits into two and you can continue in either direction for miles.
The next day, there’s time for one last adventure. I stop on the side of the road to hike Canyon Overlook Trail, a half mile up the mountain, with views of Pine Creek Canyon. As I sit on the side of the cliff, 200ft up and observe the canyon, I don’t think I’ve ever been so relaxed and in tune with what I am doing. Utah rocks.
A seven-night Utah and National Parks ski safari, including return flights from London, accommodation and SUV hire starts from £2,179pp.
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