Salt Lake City where we started. Went to the Botanical Gardens and Natural History Museum on our own, but we didn't see much of Temple Square as it's under construction for a major earthquake proofing renovation. Photo from Capitol building.

On to Moab where we took a flight-seeing tour of Canyonlands. At over 330,000 acres, it's a good way to see it. But we also drove through part of it with stops at overlooks. Quite something. Here is the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. You can see they maintain their own distinct colors for quite awhile before mixing into one muddy shade.

Next day into Arches National Park. It is truly an amazing area. The red rocks and the arches created by the disappearing salt dome made for some amazing sculptures in a very hot desert environment. It was 99° with 0% humidity when we were there.

Following day we left Moab for a 2-day train ride through the Rockies. The Utah side had lower elevation and more heat which was reflected in the landscape.

As the train rose to over 9,200' at Moffat Tunnel, under the continental divide, the vegetation and the scenery changes to taller pines and some aspen trees in the mix.

Finally down the foothills so steep, the train had to make a few switchbacks to reach the plains below, and down into Denver at only one mile high.

Last day, we went to Red Rocks. Little did I know that in 1964, the Beatles played there, it wasn't sold out and tickets were only $6!! It's an incredible natural amphitheater with fabulous acoustics.

One last look at the highest peaks in the Rockies in the distance from Lookout Mountain...

Before we bid our final farewell, sun setting over the Rockies.

Thanks for sharing, Annie. Gorgeous scenery! Im so glad you had a good time. I especially like the aerial shots.

I agree about the northeast. So green and lovely.

I love it out there, but like you - I much prefer humidity in my air!

Such beautiful photos of a lovely part of the USA. Thank you for sharing.

Beautiful! Was this on the Rocky Mountaineer? What was the name of the train/tour. My sister always wanted to do that trip, but I'm more concerned about her mobility and her asthma at elevation.

Bellieve it or not, we've never been to a show at Red Rocks.

Wow, Annie, those are beautiful! So nice of you to share them.

Thanks much for the beautiful photo tour Annie! If this was your first visit to these majestic sites I imagine you were as awestruck as I was. It’s amazing to actually see the great rock formations made by all those ice age glaciers sliding along. Truly amazing!

Lovely pictures. But you missed the humidity back east? Well, girl, you got it now. It's a sauna out there with feels like 103 degrees, factoring in the humidity. My hair would like it out there.

Annie, thank you for the pics. Beautiful scenery!

Really beautiful, Annie. I saw Brandi Carlile at RR two summers ago with my two adult children. What a memorable night.

Well, it was so dry, my hair was full of static that I struggled to tame!

This was called the Canyon Spirit run by the Rocky Mountaineer people. The train was lovely. Here's the lounge car. Our passenger car had exclusive use of that lounge with the staff of 4 (chef, bartender and 2 servers). We were on the premium service so it included all drinks, soft or hard. They had an afternoon tea, a whiskey tasting, breakfast and lunch and the food was excellent. You won't go hungry. The staff was most accommodating. We did head to the hot springs in Glenwood Springs and really enjoyed it. We hit 3 out of the 7 pools there .... 2 were icy that we didn't go in... one was the size of a football field that we also avoided.

I have no idea how the elevation would affect her, but we spent most of the time sitting so hardly exerting ourselves. The train started in Salt Lake, but we picked it up in Moab. So you can do a 2-day or 3-day tour on the train which includes the hotel stay overnight. They also have a lifter to accommodate people who have difficulty walking so they can get on and off the train.

Bestyears, I saw Brandi at Red Rocks, too! But it was probably 5 years ago.

Great pics, Annie, thank you for sharing. Moab and Arches are on my to-do list.

We did end up on a humvee ride through some ridiculous off-road trail in Moab. I mean we were almost vertical in a number of locations with drop offs on each side and the trail -- not even a roadway -- over uneven rocks was only as wide as the humvee itself. There were others doing the trail in dune buggies and jeeps and such as well as motor cycles and e-bikes. Not my idea of fun, but the scenery was beautiful. Glad I did it, but wouldn't do it again.

As someone who lives just outside of Salt Lake City, I loved reading this!

Thank you you, Annie, for the great pics and narrative. An amazing adventure for you!

Was at Red Rocks a couple of days after the Beatles were there. I was 11 and amazed that I was breathing the same air the Beatles breathed. LOL

I saw John Denver in concert at Red Rocks. It was wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing your pictures of the gorgeous scenery.

What a great trip! Thanks for sharing .... Moab and Arches are on my list too and I also a long train trip!

Beautiful! I love the west. Our oldest lives near Glenwood Springs, and I have braved that coldest pool a few times. It is quite a shock to the system. I love Red Rocks and have been a few times. I still want to go to the national parks in Utah one day. Your trip sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

It's been over 50 years since I was in that part of the country. Annie, your pictures are fantastic and the train trip sounds like so much fun. I'm glad you had a great time. Thanks for sharing them.

Awesome trip! Thanks for the great pictures. If anyone is traveling every near the Northern Utah/Colorado border Dinosaur Monument is an awesome National Park/museum in the middle of nowhere.

My hair looked great when we lived in Denver, it does not like humidity. And I loved how quickly everything dried out - clothes, towels, pretzels never got stale, mopped floors dried in a jiff, no moisture on the outside of iced drinks Not great for eyes, skin or the nose unfortunately.
My first Red Rocks concert was Steve Martin, Martin Short and the Steep Canyon Rangers. They also show movies there in the summer which is a lot of fun.

Beautiful photos!

Thanks for sharing your travel memories ,Annie.

Great photos!

Thank you for sharing the photos and your trip write up. Your photos are absolutely --absolutely --absolutely --wonderful!

Loved it all.

Lovely photos. I have always wanted to go to a concert at Red Rocks. It has legendary status in my world.

I am another one who has hair which loves the southwest. High porosity hair is a PITA. 😄 I love that entire area, my hair loves that area, and yet here I am in the fetid swamp of New York.

Great photos! Especially the flight-seeing tour of Canyonlands. Glad you had such a nice time.

Enjoyed your beautiful photos and trip narrative, Annie. I especially liked the aerials of Canyonlands. Such a vast place, it is just spectacular. We spent several days there and in Arches. We didn’t have hip, knee and other such issues then and did a lot of hiking to many of the remote arches, including to Delicate arch in the evening to see the sunset. If anyone plans to go and hike, I highly recommend reserving a ranger-guided hike in the Fiery Furnace in Arches. It remains one of our favorite and most spectacular hikes. We also did a fair amount of hiking in The Needles area of Canyonlands. Nothing really strenuous but absolutely gorgeous and we saw so many petroglyphs and other relics of previous life. We also took a 4WD tour in the Sky area which we really enjoyed. Not nearly as hair-raising as Annie’s adventure.

BTW, do you mind sharing what camera you are using? They don’t look to be phone camera pics. I have no objection to phone pics but have always loved having a good small camera and have needed a new one for a while.

Such a beautiful part of the country. Sounds like you had a great time! How many were in the group on this trip?

Majestic! Great photos -- thanks for sharing with us. What a wonderful trip!

We've been having some pretty steamy weather here in the Northeast these last couple of days!

I used my iphone15. I brought my canon but never used it. It has the built in 40x zoom but I certainly didn’t need it for these vistas.

There were 22 guests in our group.

Thanks for the photos/recap, Annie. The pics of the flight tour are amazing. Glad you posted those because it's the only way I will ever see that. No amount of money can get me in one of those planes or helicopters. Yep, I'm a chicken!

I would love to do a train trip one day. Especially through the rockies.

Re Canyonlands, only the 1st photo was from the plane. The 2nd photo was on the ground at an overlook. That's how high the canyons are.

Here's another aerial photo in Canyonlands

And another. The terrain across the canyons can be very different -- partly why it's so impossible to see it all except from the air. We were in a small plane...the largest of the 3 with 8 passengers. The other 2 planes were smaller.

An interesting feature: outside the NP, they use giant evaporation tanks in the process of drying out mined potassium chloride. They color it blue to make it evaporate faster. Quite stark contrast to the surrounding rocks. We use that chemical to soften our water, but mainly it's used as fertilizer.

And a side note...or should I say an "after"word.... we saw quite a number of rafters along the Colorado River which the train followed along until picking up the Fraser River. Apparently it's a *thing* in UT for rafters to moon the train as it goes by. I have a number of butt shots.... crazy, right???

Our first 2 nights, we stayed at the Grand America Hotel in SLC. It was stunning! We had a suite with our own private balcony. The grounds included a fountain and center court yard. The place was enormous. But what was really special was all the wood, crystal and marble throughout the lobby area with incredible art on the walls and antiques throughout. Not to mention a harpist to greet you for afternoon tea or other refreshment should you want it.

There are many sites of unique natural beauty in the West. We did a driving trip not too long ago coming at Utah from the other direction and very much also enjoyed Grand Canyon, Monument Valley (remember John Wayne/John Ford Westerns?), and also the parks in the southwest of the state (especially Zion and Bryce Canyon) in addition to the beauties mentioned in this thread.

There's a lot to see in this general area and elsewhere in the region.

I really enjoyed hearing about your trip and seeing the wonderful and unique photos, Annie! So glad you had such a nice trip.

DH and I have been talking about a train trip; this is inspiring. Thank you for sharing!

Jilly, I recommend them. We took a train ride in NM into CO on a narrow gauge rail, we took a train ride in AK, and an overnight train ride from Vancouver into Jasper. They've all been wonderful.

Once again, the aerial photos are stunning.

Annie, your photos are outstanding! I'm so happy you got to enjoy this trip. Absolutely gorgeous all of it.

Annie, I loved hearing about your wonderful train trip and seeing all the fantastic pictures! I’m so glad you guys had such a great time. I have a quick question, though. I’ve mentioned to my husband a number of times the past couple years about taking a trip like yours, and he said that the sleeping accommodations are what holds him back from saying yes. He thinks that it would be rather uncomfortable and not very quiet to sleep in an actual room bedroom on a train. How was it for you?

Lynn, while we did do an overnight train ride in the Canadian Rockies -- which was fun, but tight, this train trip included an overnight stay at a hotel along the way, not on the train. We stayed in Glenwood Springs, CO at the Maxwell Anderson. Got on the train the next morning for breakfast. (Just don't stay in room 190 as we did...it is huge, but dark and unpleasant as there are no windows...it's a completely interior space with bad lighting. Fortunately, it was only 1 night.)

Thanks!