Canyonlands National Park is a wilderness of rock located at the heart of the Colorado Plateau. Water and gravity have cut flat layers of sedimentary rock into hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches and spires. Two canyons were carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers and surrounding the rivers are three very different and vast regions: The Island in the Sky in the north; the Maze in the west and the Needles in the east. When the park was established in 1964, very few people were familiar with this area of Utah. The roads are mostly unpaved and the trails are very primitive but the views are indescribable. From the Shafer Canyon Overlook you can see Shafer Trail, a steep switchback that falls down a cliff wall to connect with the hundred- mile White Rim Road. Only four-wheel-drive vehicles and mountains bikes can navigate these trails. In the far distance you can see the La Sal Mountain Range. |
