50 Fun Facts About Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands lies just outside which Utah town, also the base for visiting Arches?

It is the largest national park in Utah, sprawling across the southeast corner of the state.

Which two rivers meet inside the park and divide it into districts?

Their confluence splits the land into three: Island in the Sky to the north, the Needles to the east and the Maze to the west.

Which president signed the law creating Canyonlands National Park in September 1964?

A Utah senator's bill was struck down, revised and reintroduced many times over four years before it passed.

Which Arches superintendent lobbied for Canyonlands and became its first superintendent?

He is often called the 'Father of Canyonlands'; his explorations expanded the plan to include the Confluence, the Maze and Horseshoe Canyon.

What reportedly sparked Interior Secretary Stewart Udall's interest in the park in 1961?

He was en route to speak at Grand Canyon National Park; the view from the plane turned him into the proposal's champion.

Which writer called Canyonlands 'the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth'?

The Desert Solitaire author was a frequent visitor; the park's boundaries were a political compromise conservationists still hope to extend to the sandstone rims.

The Island in the Sky is what kind of landform?

Its viewpoints look down 1,200 feet to the White Rim bench and another 1,000 feet to the rivers below that.

How far below the Island in the Sky is the White Rim sandstone bench?

The rivers run roughly another 1,000 feet below the White Rim, giving the mesa-top overlooks their layered views.

The Needles district is named after what?

Its arches, grabens and potholes mostly lie deep in the backcountry, reached by long hikes or four-wheel-drive, unlike the roadside arches of Arches.

The Maze district is known for what?

It lies west of both rivers and drew only about 1.5 percent of visitors in 2016.

Horseshoe Canyon, a detached park unit, was formerly known by what name that also labels its rock-art style?

The unit was added in 1971 to protect pictographs made by Late Archaic hunter-gatherers; images of horses postdate the Spanish reintroduction after 1540.

The Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon is a rock-art panel roughly how long?

It holds around 20 life-sized human figures, the largest over 7 feet tall; the Holy Ghost panel has been dated to between AD 400 and 1100.

Which culture made the Great Gallery paintings?

They predate both the Fremont and the Ancestral Puebloans; the WPA made a full reproduction that hangs in the Natural History Museum of Utah.

The petroglyph-covered Newspaper Rock, on the road into the Needles, is called what in Navajo?

'Tse' Hone'' carries hundreds of carvings from Archaic, Basketmaker, Fremont, Pueblo, Navajo and Anglo hands.

Mesa Arch, the park's most photographed feature, is best known for what?

A half-mile trail leads to the pothole arch, which frames Washer Woman Arch, Monster Tower and the La Sal Mountains.

After 1990s seismic studies, Upheaval Dome became most widely explained as what?

The rival salt-dome theory lost ground after 1990s seismic studies, and a tell-tale impact mineral was announced there in 2008.

What was discovered at Upheaval Dome in 2008 that supported the impact theory?

The ring syncline around its centre is about two miles across, and beds near the middle stand almost vertical.

Below the Confluence, the Colorado enters which canyon famous for big rapids?

With no big dam upstream, flows depend on snowmelt, and in heavy snow years it offers the largest whitewater in North America.

Who led the first expedition to run the whole canyon below the Confluence in 1869?

The one-armed Civil War veteran and his men were so frightened they portaged around every rapid; a fur trapper had carved his name there in 1836.

The three notorious rapids below the Confluence that merge into one at high water are called what?

Their features carry names like Little Niagara, Satan's Gut and The Claw; the Park Service sometimes stations a rescue jetboat below them.

What was the record flow through the canyon below the Confluence, recorded on 27 May 1984?

An average spring peak is around 52,000 cfs; the rapids turn extreme above 50,000.

The lower half of the whitewater canyon below the Confluence vanishes under which reservoir when full?

The 46-mile canyon ends at the Dirty Devil River; the trapper Denis Julien's 1836 inscription is now under water.

Before 1921, what was the Colorado River above its meeting with the Green called?

A Colorado congressman got the name changed over objections from Wyoming, Utah and the USGS, which noted the Green drains a bigger basin.

Which government body built the White Rim Road in the 1950s, and why?

The mines along it produced almost no uranium and were abandoned; the 71-mile Jeep road is now so popular that access is rationed.

How long is the White Rim Road loop below the Island in the Sky?

Its landmarks include Musselman Arch, Monster Tower, Turks Head in an oxbow of the Green, and the Murphy Hogback at the halfway point.

Since 2015 what has been required to drive or bike the White Rim Road?

The rule was brought in to protect the wilderness feel as traffic grew; the park also bans all hunting.

Druid Arch in the Needles is named for its resemblance to what?

The 150-foot Cedar Mesa Sandstone fin stands at the head of Elephant Canyon; the hike from Elephant Hill involves a scramble and one ladder.

In which slot canyon near Canyonlands' Horseshoe Canyon unit was Aron Ralston of 127 Hours trapped?

An 800-pound boulder pinned his right hand in April 2003; after five days he amputated his forearm, rappelled 65 feet and hiked 7 miles to rescue.

Who directed 127 Hours, the 2010 film of Ralston's story?

He called it 'an action movie with a guy who can't move'; James Franco earned a Best Actor nomination and the film was up for Best Picture.

What was the record number of visitors to the park, set in 2021?

Numbers have topped 400,000 every year since 2007; the park closed briefly in March 2020 during the pandemic.

A cliff-ringed 200-acre area in the park has been closed since 1993 for what reason?

Its 62 acres of grass may be the largest undisturbed grassland in the Four Corners; scientists have surveyed it every two years since the mid-1990s.

At least how many bird species live in the park?

Raptors range from Cooper's hawks and northern goshawks to golden and bald eagles and the Mexican spotted owl.

Which small venomous snake is among the park's eight snake species?

The park also has eleven kinds of lizard and six confirmed amphibians, from red-spotted toads to tiger salamanders.

What is described as 'the foundation of life' in the park, and can be destroyed by a single footprint?

The living crust fixes nitrogen and holds moisture for seeds; decades of growth vanish under one boot.

How much precipitation does the park average in a year?

The Neck station averages 9.33 inches and the Needles 8.49; the wettest year on record at the Neck was 1984 with 13.66 inches.

What is the highest temperature ever recorded in the park, at the Needles station in July 1971?

The Needles record low is −16 °F from January of the same year; the Neck's extremes are 105 °F and −13 °F.

By how much did the park's mean annual temperature rise between 1916 and 2018?

If the trend continues, summer highs are projected to average over 100 °F by 2100, and Upper Colorado flows are already down 300,000 acre-feet a year.

The Grabens in the Needles formed when overlying rock slid toward the river canyon over what?

The salt was left by seawater trapped in a subsiding basin in Pennsylvanian time and flowed for tens of millions of years.

The Green, which meets the Colorado in the park, rises in which mountains?

It runs 730 miles, is slightly smaller than the Colorado where they meet but usually carries more silt.

Which park next to Island in the Sky is named for a natural corral where horses died?

Cowboys reportedly penned mustangs on the narrow point in the 19th century; films from Con Air to Mission: Impossible 2 and Westworld have shot there.

Which Utah senator first introduced legislation to create the park?

His bill tried to satisfy both preservationists and commercial developers, which is why it took four years to pass.

Which nickname is given to Bates Wilson, the park's first superintendent and chief advocate?

He began exploring south and west of Moab in the early 1950s while running Arches National Monument.

As of 2016, roughly what share of Canyonlands visitors went to the Island in the Sky district?

The Needles drew about 21%, the remote Maze only 1.5%, and river users about 1%.

Why can Cataract Canyon offer North America's biggest whitewater in heavy snow years?

Flow through the Confluence is set by snowmelt, not management, and the canyon's graben geology adds to the drops.

How far below the White Rim bench do the Green and Colorado rivers flow?

The White Rim itself sits about 1,200 feet below the Island in the Sky mesa.

Which people built the well-preserved stone and mud dwellings found in the Needles district?

Looters removed most of their tools, but their petroglyphs survive at Newspaper Rock.

Images of horses in Horseshoe Canyon's rock art must date from after which year?

That is when the Spanish reintroduced horses to the Americas; the older Late Archaic art dates from 2000–1000 BC.

How many cactus species grow in Canyonlands?

The park also has 20 moss species, plus trees such as Utah juniper, pinyon pine and Fremont's cottonwood.

How many amphibian species are confirmed in the park?

They include the red-spotted toad, Great Basin spadefoot and tiger salamander; the canyon tree frog is unconfirmed.

Which mountain uplift, starting 70 million years ago, raised the Canyonlands region and intensified erosion?

When the Colorado cut down to the Paradox salt beds, the overlying strata slid toward the river, forming The Grabens.