In redesigning your backyard, you can just flip through design catalogues until you find a picture that suits your vision. Or you could rely on the expertise of a designer. But why not draw inspiration from the largest catalogue of all, crafted by nature, the oldest designer? Why not explore backyard designs that evoke the wonders of the natural world?
Utah is home to many stunning natural vistas. They range from sand-swept canyons of stone shaped by eons to beautifully bleak salt flats. The state’s landscapes are varied, but inevitably inspiring and breathtaking. You can bring this dynamic and dramatic energy to your backyard by getting the right hardscaping materials delivered to your doorstep.
Here are two of Utah’s best natural wonders which you can visit yourself or view online to see the beauty that you could add to your home.
Bryce Canyon’s Forests of Stone
Bryce Canyon National Park is home to hundreds of hoodoos, enormous pillars of stone that soar hundreds of feet into the air. Erosion carved these magnificent natural features over the course of millennia. The colors of these rocky towers can range from soft white to fiery orange or dull red. The canyon is also home to a natural amphitheater of jagged rock, a frozen waterfall of muted orange stone.
If you want to create a miniature Bryce Canyon in your yard, select bricks of bright orange and pale red for your basic material. You can layer these bricks to capture the striated colors of the canyon. You can put up columns of bricks in this pattern to support a patio roof. Or you can create your own small, stepped amphitheater of bricks. This can surround an open-air stone fire pit or brick barbecue grill, perfect for chilly nights.
The Bleak Beauty of Bonneville Salt Flats
During the Pleistocene Era, the Bonneville Salt Flats was a lake, similar to the Great Salt Lake. Over the millennia, the lake dried up, leaving nothing behind but a vast area of densely packed salt. The Salt Flats is also home to the Bonneville Speedway. Visitors can expect pulse-pumping adrenaline and a stark barrenness that can stir the spirit. The dry, white horizon seems to stretch forever, a peaceful place of emptiness.
Bring home this bleak beauty with you by employing white pavers in your backyard. Pick pavers of wide, rough-hewn material, like flagstone, to achieve the packed texture of the Salt Flats. Use the pavers to put up a patio where you can do yoga, or simply bask in exquisite emptiness. You can use cement instead and paint it white if you want to achieve similar results on a smaller budget. You can shake up the textures by laying out paths of white stone, to contrast with the solid and imposing flagstones.
These are only two of Utah’s immense natural wonders. Perhaps you would like to find a way to incorporate the state’s many magnificent natural arches and bridges to your backyard’s design? You will find no shortage of inspiration from nature, the most prolific and patient landscape designer of all time.
