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 …
Sep 06 2024
Sunrise Point is one of the signature viewpoints of Bryce Canyon National Park, offering a sweeping look across the hoodoos, fins, badlands, and colorful cliffs of the Bryce Amphitheater. Perched at roughly 8,100 feet above sea level, the viewpoint sits along the northern side of the amphitheater and provides one of the easiest places in …
Sep 06 2024
Sunset Point is one of the most spectacular overlooks in Bryce Canyon National Park, offering an expansive view across the Bryce Amphitheater and some of the park’s most famous hoodoos. From the rim at approximately 8,000 feet above sea level, visitors can look directly into a maze of orange, pink, white, and red rock towers …
Sep 06 2024
Biscayne National Park protects a landscape unlike almost any other national park in the United States. Instead of mountains, forests, or desert canyons dominating the scenery, most of Biscayne lies beneath clear subtropical water. About 95 percent of the park is water, and beyond its mangrove shoreline, shallow Biscayne Bay, and chain of islands lies …
Sep 05 2024
The Lost Mine Trail is one of the best introductions to the Chisos Mountains and one of the most rewarding moderate hikes in Big Bend National Park. In just under five miles round trip, the trail climbs through oak, juniper, and pine woodland before reaching a high ridge with sweeping views across Pine Canyon, Juniper …
