Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands encompasses a vast sandstone wilderness cut by great chasms and gorges. From all appearances this us is one of the most arid places on earth. The wild array of arches, sandstone pillars and needles, canyon mazes and scarps. A landscape of deep shadowed canyons, bright orange mesas, great buff colored pinnacles and maroon

buttes. An intense pallet of natural colors that comes alive in the rays of the setting sun. This place was forged by water surging through the terrain in two unusually abrasive rivers, the Colorado and Green Rivers. They meet in the heart of the park at a spectacular site, called the Confluence. The rivers form a great I cut 1,000 feet into the brilliantly hued sandstone. With three sections created, the north a high mesa, called the Island in the Sky, rises as a great scarp 2,000 feet above the Confluence. In the east is the district known as the Needles. The Needles began as rectangular blocks of Cedar Mesa sandstone. Over time erosion widened the gaps between the blocks, creating giant pinnacles banded with alternating white and red stone that rise 400 feet above the grassy floors of valleys ringed by perpendicular cliffs. Across the conjunctions of the rivers to the west lies the Maze, and isolated wedge of canyon country. At the end of a 14 mile trail, the Maze Overlook offers a spectacular vista of rivers, spires, clefts, and canyons. Many people argue that this is the finest view in the Southwest. Here from the Confluence the rivers roll on as one. Over the 20 million years of its existence, the combined Colorado River has carried away solid rock from an area the size of Texas and two miles deep. The abrasive power of this sediment, helped by wind, precipitation, and frost, has carved out deep canyons, stark mesas, and high buttes unlike any seen elsewhere on earth. Remarkable strips that run through the unbelievable shape of the figures are the results of the way in which different kinds of stone have resisted the constant aggression of these natural sculpting agents. The perpendicular landscape of the region was also shaped by underlying deposits of salt. Under great pressure from the rock above, the salt is formed into huge domes that eventually fracture the surface.

Jeep roads and 4X4 trails lead into some of its most scenic and geologically flamboyant places for sight seeing. They meander along the rims of high plateaus, then plunge dramatically down steep canyon walls where the descent or ascent can be as great as 40 percent. As you drop into Canyonlands, the ground falls away from you in giant stair steps; flat benchlands end abruptly in rock

walls. As described by writer Edward Abbey "most arid, most hostile, most lonesome, most grim bleak barren desolate and savage quarter of the state of Utah--the best part by far."

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.

Travel an 18 mile long paved road through Squaw Flat. A grassy area with pinon trees and junipers.

Take a hike through Pothole Point. An area made up of rock depressions filled with rain water. These little lakes are an important source of water in canyon country and are accompanied by small life such as snails, fairy shrimp, and worms. From Pothole Point you can follow the road to its destination at Big Spring Canyon. This point is the

beginning of the trail that leads to Confluence Overlook, one of the most spectacular trails in the Southwest. Climbing the side of a canyon by ladder, leads to a site more than 900 feet above the point where the Green and Colorado Rivers merge.

Canyonlands pictographs lie in a detached section of the park, called the Horseshoe Canyon Unit. At Ghost Gallery ancient figures painted in red ocher stare at you through the centuries with hollow eyes. Archaeologists believe that these life-size pictographs may be 6,000 years old.

More recent inhabitants of Canyonlands have also left behind reminders of their presence. In the Needles area, you can still see a small but well-preserved granary used to store corn 700 years ago. All of these intriguing sites are just an everyday adventure in Moab Utah.