WorldTraveler Creations Photography, By Aaron Loukonen

Journey Into The West Photos - April, 2008

Aaron and Jess are taking a week long trip exploring the desert wonderland of northern Arizona, eastern Utah, and southern Colorado, with all the beautiful if sparse landscapes, amazing rock formations, and canyons of all sizes.

Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, AZ Our first full day out west includes a visit to the amazing Desert Botanical Gardn in Phoenix, with its saguro and desert flowers, butterflies and succulents.	The Grand Canyon, AZ Our second day out west was spent on the South Lip of the majestic Grand Canyon, where I took just short of 300 pictures that day.
Monument Valley, UT Our third day, we headed north to the iconic towers of Monument Valley, and Jess's second new state of the trip -Utah.	Valley Of The Gods, UT Later that day, as we headed north from Monument Valley, a little off-roading trip turned amazing by allowing us to discover Valley of the Gods, a sort of Monument Valley-lite.
Mesa Verde, CO Our fourth day, we headed into Colorado to check out the ancient Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.	Canyonland National Park, UT We then headed north the next day to Canyonlands--full of otherworldly rock formations and stark coloring. Here are pictures from our 9 mile hike in the park.
MOAB! (UT) We arrived in the mountain biking mecca of the world, Moab, and set off (on foot) for an 11-mile hike on the famous Slick Rock mt-biking trail.	Arches National Park, UT Before heading back across the Rockies to Denver, we visited the iconic Arches Nat'l Park, where the wind that formed the amazing rock arches scoured us with fine sand our entire visit.