Less than an hour’s drive from Moab, Utah, the Island in the Sky District is the most frequented of Canyonlands National Park’s four sections. What squiggly canyons and spindly knobs are to the nearby Needles District, sweeping overlooks are to Island in the Sky. While hiking is the most encouraged activity of this blog, Island …
Continue reading Island in the Sky District, Canyonlands National Park (photo collection)
Pictures of iconic Mesa Arch, often photographed in the early morning glow, frequently grace the pages of calendars and coffee table books. There is something about the arch, maybe the most popular destination in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, which catches the eye. Perhaps it is the setting—the rare instance in which a natural arch is …
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Upheaval Dome—a deep, circular depression containing sharp, chalky badlands—is one of Utah’s Canyonlands National Park’s, or even the American Southwest’s, greatest geological mysteries. How did this peculiar feature form? Geologists continue today to debate the answer. To some, Upheaval Dome is a hollowed crater, evidence of a meteorite strike some 200 million years ago. To …
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Though just up the road from Grand View Point in Canyonlands National Park’s Island in the Sky District, the White Rim Overlook Trail receives far fewer visitors. The hike, an easy and quick jaunt out to the southeast tip of the “Island” plateau, offers unobstructed vistas to the north, south, and east—some of the best …
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Grand View Point, one of the finest overlooks in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, is situated at the end of the principal drive through the park’s iconic Island in the Sky District. Visitors in search of a rather casual stroll can venture even farther, hiking from Grand View Point to the very southern tip of the …
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Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District comprises more than a hundred square miles of spindly spires, dizzying canyons, and colossal views. It also boasts some of Utah’s best hiking and backpacking opportunities, including the Chesler Park Trail, the Big Spring – Squaw Canyon Loop, and the Confluence Overlook Trail. Yet visitors making the 1 ½-hour drive …
Continue reading Utah Highway 211 to Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District
Utah’s Canyonlands National Park is sliced into three quadrants by the deep cuts of the Colorado River and the Green River: Island in the Sky, Needles, and The Maze. Yet due to the deep incisions formed by the two rivers, very few roadside overlooks, or even backcountry trails, offer a glimpse of either. An exception …
Continue reading Confluence Overlook Trail (Canyonlands National Park, UT)
One of the principal advantages of hiking in Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District is the abundance of loop hikes. At 7.2 miles, the moderately strenuous Big Spring Canyon to Squaw Canyon loop is one of the shortest. While arguably not the most scintillating hike in the Needles (that distinction belongs to the jaw-dropping Chesler Park …
Continue reading Big Spring Canyon – Squaw Canyon Loop Trail (Canyonlands National Park, UT)
The Needles District in eastern Utah’s Canyonlands National Park features a maze of towering pinnacles, winding canyons, and mushroom rocks—and the Chesler Park Loop winds through perhaps the best of it. The roughly 11-mile stem-and-loop circumnavigates a grassy plain flanked by slickrock spires, while a short section of the “Joint Trail” edges through a narrow …
Continue reading Chesler Park Loop Trail, including Joint Trail (Canyonlands National Park, UT)
Live and Let Hike 