A landscape, like a man or woman, acquires character through time and endurance.

- - Edward Abbey, Vox Clamantis in Deserto

Our 4-week trek thru Northern Arizona and Southern Utah started at Snow Canyon State Park near St. George, Utah, and ended at Canyonlands and Arches near Moab. In between, we visited Zion, North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Page and Paria River Canyon, Bryce, Escalante, Capitol Reef, and Goblin Valley.

This region is in the heart of the grand Colorado Plateau whose amazing geology was formed millions of years ago. The plateau encompasses portions of the four-corner states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The Colorado River and its main tributaries -- the Green, San Juan, and Little Colorado -- drain 90% of this area, thus exposing billions of years of colorful and diverse landforms, from deep canyons to mountain peaks, from volcanic flows to weathered arches.

Spending 30 days in this area gave us ample time to explore and discover many of the plateau's major attractions and geologic wonders, but, in actuality, we only scratched the surface. A person can spend an entire lifetime exploring this region and still see only a tiny piece of the plateau's remarkable landscape. There is much, much more to explore.

Joining me on this trip were Herb Lee and Jay Okada. The September weather was ideal for the most part and we were able to camp out most of the time. Like all our previous campo-velo-hiko trips, we saw the area by bike and boots.