Sightseeing at Canyonlands National Park

The Colorado and Green rivers separate Canyonlands National Park into three distinct regions: The Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze. The Island in the Sky lies north of the Green/Colorado confluence; The Needles consists of the country south of the Colorado River; and The Maze (the wildest and most remote area of the park) is found west of the Green and the Colorado.

Only those with a four-wheel-drive vehicle, plenty of drinking water, and a good pair of hiking boots can enter The Maze. Prior to the park's formation in 1964, most of the country in The Maze had been essentially unexplored. Today, however, many "desert rats" are familiar with the features of this starkly beautiful "Land of Standing Rocks."

Most visitors to Canyonlands National Park tour The Island in the Sky district, which features such spectacular overlooks as Grand Point View and Green River, and The Needles, where the trails lead to such wonderful spots as Chesler Park, Peekaboo Spring, Horse Canyon, Butler Flat, and the Devil's Kitchen. Hundreds of prehistoric Native American sites are in Canyonlands, including some awesome examples of rock art (especially in The Maze region).

Canyonlands can be explored by car, by foot, by bike, by boat and by horseback.
©2006 National Park Services
Horseback riding is just one of the ways
visitors can savor the scenery of Canyonlands.

Visitors without a four-wheel-drive vehicle can get a real feel for Canyonlands by driving into the Needles area on the eastern side of the park. Here is a spectacular landscape of deep canyons, unusual flat-bottomed valleys, called grabens; sandstone formations, such as the descriptively named Molar Rock; and numerous arches.

An 18-mile-long paved road, with dirt spurs, leads into the area. It begins at Squaw Flat, a grassy area with pinon pine trees and junipers. At Pothole Point you can walk to rock depressions that fill with rain water. These little ponds are an important source of water in canyon country. They often teem with life, such as snails, fairy shrimp, and worms, which live through the dry summer months wrapped like mummies in dried mud.

From Pothole Point you follow the road to its destination at Big Spring Canyon. Here, squat pedestals of sandstone rise like mushrooms from the barren bedrock. This point is the beginning of the trail that leads to Confluence Overlook, one of the most spectacular trails in the Southwest. The trail climbs the side of a canyon by means of a ladder, ending at a site more than 900 feet above the point where the rivers merge.

Canyonlands National Park features thousands of unusual rock formations, including Druids Arch.
©2006 National Park Services
The Druid Arch got its name because
visitors believed it looked like
Stonehenge, whose construction
has been credited to druids by some.

Canyonlands National Park Photo Opportunities

Formerly occupied by the Anasazi, the land encompassed by Canyonlands National Park is a geological and archaeological wonderland. Photo opportunities abound, and here are some of the most spectacular:
  • Confluence Overlook: The Green River and Colorado River wind through the park, creating two deep canyons. Both are calm upstream of the Confluence, but their joined waters crash over Cataract Canyon with tremendous power.

  • Druid Arch: Beginning at Elephant Hill Trailhead, this trail offers one of the most spectacular views in the Needles region. Because the massive rock formation reminded many visitors of Stonehenge, they dubbed it Druid Arch.

  • Tower Ruin: The Anasazi's ancient cliff dwellings are epitomized in the structures built into the cave wall in Horse Canyon. On the main building there, one can see the well-preserved roof and support timbers.

  • Great Gallery: Pictographs can be found in the detached Horseshoe Canyon Unit region at Great Gallery. From the stone walls, ancient figures painted in red ocher stare at you through the centuries with hollow eyes.

  • Grand View Point: From Grand View Point, a vast panorama of rocks and canyons stretches out toward the horizon.
As evidenced by the fascinating pictographs in Horseshoe Canyon, the Canyonlands region was occupied hundreds of years ago. We will examine the land's rich geological and anthropological past on the following page.