Jun 03 2026
Canyonlands National Park protects a vast wilderness of deeply carved canyons, towering mesas, sandstone spires, natural arches, sheer cliffs, desert basins, and two of the American Southwest’s great rivers. Spread across more than 337,000 acres of southeastern Utah, the park is so rugged that the Colorado and Green rivers divide it into districts that appear …
Sep 07 2024
Canyonlands National Park is famous for immense sandstone canyons, needles, mesas, natural arches, and the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers, but some of its most extraordinary features are much smaller and far older in human terms. Across canyon walls and sheltered alcoves, Indigenous people painted and pecked images into the rock, leaving a …
Sep 07 2024
At first glance, Canyonlands National Park can look almost empty. Vast sandstone benches stretch beneath intense sunlight, sheer cliffs plunge toward the Colorado and Green rivers, and miles of exposed slickrock appear to offer little water, shade, or vegetation. Yet the apparent emptiness is deceptive. Canyonlands supports a surprisingly rich community of animals that has …
Sep 07 2024
Mesa Arch is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Canyonlands National Park. Perched directly along the edge of the Island in the Sky mesa, the low sandstone arch frames a vast landscape of cliffs, canyons, towers, and distant mountains. At sunrise, the underside of the arch can glow fiery orange as early light reflects …
Sep 07 2024
Horseshoe Canyon is one of the most extraordinary places in Canyonlands National Park, combining a remote desert hike, towering sandstone walls, cottonwood groves, thousands of years of human history, and some of the most significant rock art in North America. Its centerpiece is the Great Gallery, an extensive panel of Barrier Canyon Style pictographs and …
Sep 07 2024
Shafer Trail is one of the most dramatic drives in Canyonlands National Park. From the high mesa of Island in the Sky, the unpaved road drops roughly 1,500 feet through a seemingly impossible series of switchbacks carved into the sandstone cliffs of Shafer Canyon. Far below, the road eventually reaches the broad bench of the …
Sep 07 2024
Canyonlands National Park is one of the largest and wildest landscapes in Utah, a sprawling maze of sandstone cliffs, deep river canyons, natural arches, towering rock spires, high mesas, ancient rock art, and remote backcountry roads. The Colorado and Green rivers divide the park into distinct districts, each offering a very different experience. That geography …
Sep 07 2024
The Maze is the wildest and least accessible district of Canyonlands National Park, a remote labyrinth of sandstone canyons, mesas, buttes, rock towers, technical four-wheel-drive roads, primitive hiking routes, ancient rock art, and expansive stretches of desert where travelers must be prepared to solve their own problems. This is not another version of Island in …
Sep 07 2024
The Needles is one of the most rewarding parts of Canyonlands National Park for travelers who want to move beyond roadside overlooks and experience the park on foot. Located in the southeastern corner of Canyonlands, the district takes its name from the colorful sandstone spires that rise in clusters across the landscape, creating a maze …
