Canyonlands National Park

geology · desert · utah · canyons

Carved by water. Two mighty rivers, the Colorado and the Green River, have spent millions of years slicing through rock and creating the incredible canyons, mesas, and buttes you see today. It's like nature's slowest and most powerful sculptor.

Recently protected. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law creating Canyonlands National Park on September 12, 1964. This means it's one of America's younger national parks, protecting a landscape that people hadn't fully appreciated until relatively recently.

Rainbow rocks. The landscape is famous for its colorful layers of red, orange, and brown stone that glow differently depending on the time of day. These colors come from different minerals and layers of rock that formed over hundreds of millions of years.

Near Moab, Utah. The park sits in southeastern Utah close to the small town of Moab, a region known for its incredible natural scenery and outdoor adventures. Visitors come from all over the world to hike, raft, and explore the dramatic terrain.

Layers of time. If you look at the canyon walls, you can see different bands of rock stacked on top of each other like a geological layer cake. Each layer tells a story about what happened in Utah millions of years ago.