United States Utah

Canyonlands National Park

Expansive Utah reserve known for dramatic desert landscapes carved by the Colorado River with mesas, buttes, and Native American rock art.

Tips from the community

Canyonlands is a four-in-one wonderland. This incredibly vast national park is divided by the Green and the Colorado Rivers into four distinct regions with three districts, known as Island in the Sky, the Maze, and the Needles. Though they’re all technically “Canyonlands,” and the terrain throughout every inch of the park is worth viewing, most visitors choose to explore one district a day, as it can take hours to travel between the three. Because Canyonlands is also a quick 30 minutes from Arches National Park and located just outside the great little travel hotspot city of Moab, Utah, it’s the perfect place to spend a day or two sightseeing by car. Feeling crazy? Because both parks are so drivable, you can actually hit the highlights of both Arches and Canyonlands in one day. Island in the Sky is the closest to Moab, and it’s a fantastic name for an otherworldly place that’s still doable by car, with a 34-mile loop up thousand foot elevations and down into the valleys that run through red rock canyons. Along the way, you can stop off for scenic basin views like Grand View Overlook, which lies at the end of a one-mile sandstone staircase, or you can hike to beautiful and desolate Mesa Arch.  Don’t stop with a simple hike or car ride through Canyonlands. Other districts, like the Needles, offer more intense backcountry hikes but pay off with more remote and dazzling landscapes. Or, go west of the Green River at the Maze where you can four-wheel drive ATVs through the park, or take on some of Utah’s most intense hikes. Like the rest of Southern Utah, Canyonlands offers some of the best rock climbing in America, so our more confident canyoneers have plenty to do in this national park. 

savannah.whitmer 3 years ago

In Moab you get two for one: The Arches and the Canyonlands. This second part of the great Utah southeast is a true majesty of a reserve. It’s split into a few sectors all bisected by the snaking Colorado and Green rivers. The iconic area known as the Island in the Sky is best for sweeping views of the stunning White Rim ridge that stands more than 1,200 feet up. Beyond that are the pinnacles of The Needles area, followed by the inaccessible mesas and cliffs of The Maze.  

jrfrancis 2 years ago