The Colorado and Green rivers, cutting deep into the red sandstone of Canyonlands, open up a wilderness of cliffs, canyons and stone formations. Surrounded by a great and solitary desert, isolated from civilization by a tortured and almost impassible terrain, Canyonlands is an ideal venue to enjoy the silence of nature, wonder at the powerful effects of erosion and ponder the geologic history of the earth.
In ancient times a vast inland sea covered the Canyonlands area. The water level fell, and a flat, verdent valley remained. In flat areas, rivers deposit sediment carried from distant mountains, filling up their channels and turning them out of their banks into loops and turns. As the river continued to erode its outlet, the water level continued to drop, the river could no longer overflow its banks, and it was frozen in its looping pattern.
An age of the world later, the rivers have cut through 2000 feet of stone, while parts of the original seafloor remain as high mesas, no longer green and verdant, as the ground water level continues to drop. Between cliff tops and the riverbanks an unlimited variety of terrain is waiting to be seen and explored.
The two rivers converge at the heart of Canyonlands and continue southward through gorges and canyons including Glen Canyon and the Grand Canyon, eventually draining into the Gulf of California.
Canyonlands was designated a National Park September 12, 1964 and covers 337,570 acres. Visits in 1999 totaled 446,160. The impassible rivers divide it into three districts, the Island in the Sky, the Needles and the Maze.
For More Information:
See the National Park Service's official Canyonlands National Park site, or Wikipedia's Canyonlands National Park article.
