You don't have to go to the Antelope Valley in the United States, but you can see the magic of the canyon and feel the mystery of the Tianshan Mountains in the Kuqa Grand Canyon.

Duku Highway is a route that every friend who drives into Xinjiang wants to try, but it is only open to 10 every June. Even during the opening hours, a section of the road will be closed for many reasons. So whether it can be realized depends on fate. Duku Highway is an important channel connecting northern Xinjiang and southern Xinjiang, spanning the north and south of Tianshan Mountain. The scenery on the way is infinite. You can feel the magic of the four seasons when crossing the Dooku Highway.

Kuqa is the end of Duku Highway, a famous historical and cultural city in China (starting from Dushanzi), and it is an ancient Kuqa country, one of the 36 countries in the western regions on the ancient Silk Road. Kuqa not only has splendid history and culture, but also many famous scenic spots, the most famous of which is the mysterious Grand Canyon of Tianshan Mountain, commonly known as Kuqa Grand Canyon.

There are two routes to the Grand Canyon. One is to start from Kuqa and drive 67 kilometers north along Duku Highway, and the scenic spot is next to the highway. The other way is to start directly from Dushanzi, take the Dooku Highway, watch the four seasons along the way, reach the Grand Canyon through many scenic spots, and go to Kuqa to have a rest after swimming.

Friends who have been to Xinjiang know that the direct traffic to southern Xinjiang is extremely inconvenient. Under normal circumstances, most people will choose to go to northern Xinjiang first, and then take the Duku Highway to Kuqa. The Grand Canyon is the only place to pass. So if you want to go to the Grand Canyon, I suggest that you prepare your play time directly on the way to Kuqa to avoid wasting time when you return to Kuqa.

We set out from Bayinbuluke and crossed Tielimaitidaban. After a short drive, we can see the quiet lake surrounded by mountains like a pearl, illuminating the road ahead.

This is the big and small Longtan. Dalongtan is more than 2300 meters above sea level, which was formed by the melting water of Tianshan snow and ice.

Longtan and Xiaolongchi are 4 kilometers apart, and the lake is blue-green under the sunlight. Surrounded by mountains, cypresses and green grass, people can't help but want to stay here for a while and take some photos, but the photo effect is always unsatisfactory. Later, it was discovered that the beauty left in the camera was not as good as what they saw with their own eyes.

Continue to drive in the direction of Kuqa, the scenery has changed a lot, the terrain has become flat, and the surrounding mountains are no longer snow peaks, no longer surrounded by greenery, but become "flaming mountains". It looks like a fire from a distance. Although it is not a flaming mountain, it is better than a flaming mountain. With the appearance of the Flame Mountain, the temperature rises gradually, and people who are roasted by the scorching sun are upset and even don't want to go to the Kuqa Grand Canyon.

The most peculiar and attractive thing about the Grand Canyon lies in the canyon itself, which is composed of sedimentary rocks. After Tianshan fault, crustal movement and years of wind and rain erosion, the rock stratum has undergone a series of wavy bends. Now, different folds and fracture lines can be clearly seen on the side wall of the canyon.

Someone once said that going to Kuqa Grand Canyon is like going to American Antelope Valley. Antelope Valley is one of the top ten photography sites in the world, and there are a lot of tourists going to Antelope Valley every year, so the United States has to start limiting the number of tourists going to Antelope Valley. The antelope valley is about 400 meters long. The light refracts through the rock layer, making the whole rock layer appear different red. At different times, the angle of sunlight refraction is different, so the color of the whole canyon is different. Walking in it seems to be in a magical world.

The Kuqa Grand Canyon is indeed similar to the American Antelope Valley, although similar but different.

The Grand Canyon is next to the Dooku Highway, and the stone tablet at the entrance already feels like a canyon. The fare is 45 yuan per person. There will be some precautions when buying tickets, so be sure to read them carefully.

I bought a ticket, entered the scenic spot and walked around the reddish-brown mountains. In front of me, the sun is shining, even under an umbrella, I can feel the rising heat around me. I once wondered if I had gone to the wrong scenic spot, which was different from the photo. Squeeze your head and go all the way in. What a surprise.

Walking through an empty field, you need to climb some steps to gradually go deep into the valley. When we arrived at taniguchi, the first thing that appeared was the god dog guarding the valley. As the name implies, here you can see a "dog" lying on the cliff facing the canyon, as if protecting the canyon.

It was from here that I really entered the canyon. I was sweating outside the valley, and the sun was like fire. When I went in, I magically disappeared. The hot sun was blocked by the mountains, and the cool breeze came in the valley, and the hot moment of summer disappeared completely. Even when I go to some places, I feel cold.

The feeling of coolness spread all over my body, and my mood improved. I put away my umbrella and continued into the valley. The peaks and turns, the canyon is sometimes open and sometimes narrow, and the narrowest place can only be passed by one person. It is inevitable that there will be a feeling of being squeezed when you shuttle through it.

There are many interesting scenic spots in the valley, the most famous of which should be Ai Grottoes, which is only two kilometers away from the mouth of the valley and hangs high above the cliff. At first, it was necessary to climb the spiral ladder, and now the stone steps plank road has been completed, which can directly reach the mouth of the cave. Grottoes are basically murals, with the names of Buddha owners written in detail, many of which are the names of Han people, and we can feel the integration of Chinese culture and Qiuci culture at that time.

There are many high platforms in the valley, which are called safety islands. When I first saw this high platform, I didn't think it would work. After carefully reading the introduction, I realized that this place is called a safety island because the valley is deep and low, and it is easy to cause mudslides and other disasters after heavy rains. If it rains during the tour, tourists can take shelter here temporarily.

The most interesting things in the canyon are some small peaks with different shapes and vivid shapes. What impressed me the most were the elephant peak and the lying peak. Looking up from a distance, you need to recognize its shape carefully, but when you really see it, you will be surprised. The first thing you can see from the elephant peak is its elephant head. The whole mountain is divided into three parts, the middle part is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, and at first glance it looks like a nose. The mountains on both sides are nearly round faces, which are the ears of elephants. Standing under the elephant peak, I seem to hear the elephant's voice and feel that it will come to me at any time. Lying on the hump seems to be the most obvious two humps, one high and one low hill, not the hump used by camels to store water.

Go to the Valley of the Earth and the Basic Canyon, and you'll have finished the turn. Because when we went, for various reasons, the scenic spot behind the gully was closed, so we didn't see it at all, which is also a bit regrettable. The valley of the earth is quiet, the canyon is narrower, and the mysterious path is winding and deep, so I can't help but enter the valley, as if I could meet my hero of the earth in the next second.

From the beginning of entering the canyon, there has always been a "friend" who is inseparable from us, that is, the stream that looms at the bottom of the valley. We need to pay attention to our feet from time to time, otherwise we may step on our "friends" if we are not careful. Tired of walking, I stopped to fiddle with the stream for a while. In hot summer, water is so cool.

Sometimes it plays hide-and-seek with us. When we go to a sunny place, it will hide quietly. In a trance, we feel that this stream has never appeared at all, but the wetland has indeed witnessed the best proof that it has ever appeared. When you go deep into the canyon where the sun can't find it, it will appear quietly, and even shallows will appear in some places. This stream adds a bit of fun to the whole tour.

The overall tour time of the Grand Canyon is about two hours, and it is a must-see spot for taking the Dooku Highway. There are not many people in the scenic spot, so you can take good-looking photos. July and August are the best time to visit, so plan quickly.

Out of the Grand Canyon, we continued to March towards Kuqa. Although it was already 8 o'clock when we arrived in Kuqa, it was still bright. Book a room, tidy up, eat a bowl of authentic Su's beef noodles and a bottle of Dawusu to relieve the fatigue of the day.