Upon first glimpse of the surrounding landscape in Canyonlands National Park, water is likely the last thing to come to one’s mind, but it should be the first.
Guide to Canyonlands
Canyonlands National Park
From viewpoints high atop the park, visitors gaze out over a starkly barren desert, littered with sandstone pillars and massive red canyon labyrinths that fade into distant horizons. If one is blessed with keen eyesight, a small sliver of glistening water may be visible far below, but its effect upon this land is probably still largely underestimated.
Canyonlands, as we see it today, is indeed, the product of water. Two of the west’s major rivers meet in the heart of this amazing park. The Green River flowing from the north, and the mighty Colorado River entering from the east, come together near the geographic center of Canyonlands. These merging waterways form a rough Y shape that divides the park into three distinctly different districts.
The most accessible of these districts is the Island in the Sky. Lying in the center, between the two arms of the Y, it stands as a high mesa towering 2,000 feat above the confluence of the two rivers. Here visitors tour along a paved roadway lined with grand vistas that offer sweeping views of this spectacular red, western cartoonland of a national park.
1,000 feet below, the White Rim Road offers a more rugged path of travel across a middle layer of the mesa. Here, 4x4s, mountain bikes and street legal enduro motorcycles can weave their way through mazes of unparalleled complexity and intricate beauty on a rough and narrow dirt road that runs across the park from east to west.
To the east lies the Needles district, taking its name from the tall, narrow spires of red-hued sandstone that stand solemnly above grassy coves in sheer cliff-lined valleys. Hikers can explore over 60 miles of trail in this area, most of which are rugged and require navigational skills.
To the west one finds an assortment of red-rock clefts and sandstone spires arranged in a most bewildered manner. This area, known as the Maze, exists as an area of untouched beauty and rugged wilderness and offers adventure seeking park junkies pristine solitude.
This is another Utah park that will leave park junkies with a more than a few wtf moments.
See ya there…
Guide to Canyonlands
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