The Grand Circle

The Grand Circle is a beautiful, vast region located in the Southwestern United States. Many of the areas we are exploring now and have explored previously are part of the Grand Circle. It is one of our favorite areas in the United States.

The Grand Circle encompasses portions of five states – Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. It contains America's largest concentration of national parks and monuments, many of which are connected by spectacular designated Scenic Byways. Some of America’s most diverse scenery can be found within the Grand Circle.

The following map shows the general area of the Grand Circle. Clicking on it will zoom it in a bit - the first link in the list below has a larger version of the map.

The national parks in the Grand Circle include Arches National Park (UT), Black Canyon of the Gunnison (CO), Bryce Canyon (UT), Canyonlands (UT), Capitol Reef (UT), Chaco Culture Center (NM), Grand Canyon (AZ), Great Basin (NV), Mesa Verde (CO), Pecos Nat'l Historical Park (NM), Petrified Forest (AZ), and Zion (UT).

There are also national monuments, 29 Scenic Byways and a number of state parks. For more information and maps, click on the following links

http://www.grandcircle.org/

http://www.utah.com/nationalparks/grandcircle.htm

http://www.us-parks.com/the-grand-circle.html

Also in the Grand Circle are a few more of our favorite places that are located on the Navajo Reservation. These include Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley. The following link has a map of these places and has further information.

http://navajonationparks.org/parks.htm