Canyonlands National Park - A Quick Guide to Photography

Surprise Valley, Colorado River, Maze District, mid-morning
Canyonlands National Park is a wilderness of rock rivaling the Grand Canyon in richness and complexity. What makes the park special is the opportunity to view its red canyons from above and then travel into them relatively easily, experiencing the profound silence of some of the most remote terrain in the lower 48 states.
The park is divided by the Colorado and Green Rivers into three distinct districts: Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze. The detached Horseshoe Canyon is near the Maze. Isolated from one another, each section is accessed by a dead-end road, the distances between which are quite vast—camping in Island in the Sky or the Needles, rather than staying in nearby Moab or Monticello, will save a lot of driving time. The only great views situated near paved roads are found in Island in the Sky, which also has its share of primitive roads, most notably the 100-mile White Rim Road. To see what the Needles Distr...