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Cities of stone: experience the Southwest's oldest cultures and landscapes.

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One visit to the American Southwest is all it takes to convince you that no sky is as blue as the sky over sandstone. Few sights are as satisfying as a desert lit in muted rainbow colors, seen from high on a mountain. No skies are as dark and no stars twinkle as brightly as those seen from the rim of a secluded canyon. And no silence is as deep as the one that greets you when you've driven beyond the range of cities, into country where few people live, because conditions there are so extreme.

For thousands of years, several vibrant cultures--some long gone, some still thriving--have made their home in the Four Corners region, which extends outward from the juncture of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Today, visitors to this place are rewarded with soul-moving beauty and insight into little-known societies, past and present, that aren't found anywhere else in the world.

Driving a clockwise loop around the Four Corners, you can meet Navajo people, contemplate the remains of ancient homes and villages, and explore iconic red rock canyons and towering mountains with their forests either robust or startlingly charred from wildfire. In other words, you can immerse yourself in the fundamental elements of the desert Southwest, all in a few days' time. This is a remote road trip, but that's part of its beauty. Despite breathtaking, otherworldly landscapes, you'll never have to navigate a crowd.

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Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona

In Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de-SHAY) National National Monument, three canyons channel snowmelt from the Chuska Mountains across Arizona's eastern border with New Mexico before merging near Chinle, a small...

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