One of our favorite and most accessible National Parks, Bryce Canyon is a full day drive from San Diego. The Park is large and spectacular enough to be overwhelming, while at the same time small enough that you can see nearly the entire Park in two full days of hiking and driving around the rim. Some of the most iconic images of US National Parks can be seen here.

This National Park is a long 60 mile and narrow 6 mile park that boasts sweeping landscapes, sheer cliffs of red rock, petryoglyphs and arches. There are many short hikes directly accessible from the road to get out, stretch your legs.

A must-see for anyone who enjoys the outdoors and desert southwest, Arches National Park, only a few miles outside of Moab, is a spectacular and quite walkable destination. Natural sandsone arches give the park its name, and offer incredible panoramic views for anyone who appreciates a moment captured in photo.

Cove Arch

Another iconic image of the desert southwest, Upper Antelope Canyon, a type of desert slot canyon, is not a national park. The canyon is on Navajo land and requires the visitors to pay an entrance fee and be driven to the canyon entrance, "Mad Max" style racing across the desert sitting in the bed of a group of pickup trucks. The time in the canyon is limited and expedited. Groups are brought in and ushered all the way through the canyon, pausing momentarily to take photos, emerging on the other side, and then quickly back-tracking out.