Visiting Canyonlands National Park In Utah: Better Than The Grand Canyon?

After arriving in Monticello, UT, it was time to hit the ground running as we had a lot we wanted to fit in during our six days there. Our first port of call was Canyonlands National Park.

Canyonlands National Park is 60-90 minutes from Monticello, depending on which part of the park you want to visit. That’s because Canyonlands National Park is split into three main sections:

• Island in the Sky
• The Maze
• The Needles

Although the three districts bump up against each other, they’re not as easy to travel between as you might expect because the Colorado River and Green River are what separate the three districts.

The Maze requires a four-wheel drive vehicle which we don’t have, so that part of the part was out. That left us with Island in the Sky and The Needles; doing a bit of research online, it seemed like Island in the Sky had the most stuff to see so we picked that, even though the Needles was closer to our Airbnb.

There was a bit of a line to get in the day we visited, so we had to wait about 25 minutes until we reached the entrance. If you have a National Parks annual pass, it’s free to enter Canyonlands. If you don’t have an annual pass, it costs $30 per vehicle, $25 for motorcycles or $15 per person if on foot and your ticket is valid for seven days.

Once we’d shown our annual pass, we headed to the Island in the Sky visitor center. This is worth stopping at because there are several exhibits that include information about how the canyon layers were formed as well as how the canyons themselves were carved.

Opposite the visitor center is an overlook that provided some of the best views of the day. There was something special about seeing the red rock canyon juxtaposed with the snow-capped La Sal Mountains in the distance.

The Island in the Sky district has a paved road running from the visitor center down to Grand View Point Overlook. About 2/3 of the way down that road, there’s another road that branches off to the right at Mesa Arch which leads to Upheaval Dome.

Along the two roads there are several official overlooks you can stop at. A number of them have hiking trails you can take – here’s the 2022 Island in the Sky map showing the layout.

After hopping back in the car, the first place we stopped was the Green River Overlook.

It’s called the Green River Overlook because you can see the Green River which helped carved some of the canyons in the park. You can also see White Rim Road which is the road in the Maze district you need the four-wheel drive cars for.

In addition to the official overlooks, there are a number of pull-offs that are worth stopping at because they can offer excellent views too. For example, this was the view from a pull-off on Upheaval Dome Road (the road that branches off from the main Grand View Point Road in the park).

Back on Grand View Point Road, there were several more official overlooks, including this one that faced out at Candlestick Tower.

A short distance down the road was White Rim Overlook and then Orange Cliffs Overlook.

At the end of Grand View Point Road is Grand View Point and Grand View Point Overlook which, as the names might indicate, do indeed provide some grand views of the canyonlands below.

We’d initially skipped past a couple of places on the drive through the park to hit them on the way back out. The first of those was Mesa Arch; this is on a half mile loop trail, but it’s not strenuous. Seeing as dogs aren’t allowed on trails in Canyonlands National Park, we stayed with Truffles while my parents went to check out the arch, then they stayed with Truffles while we went to see it.

Mesa Arch nicely frames the La Sal Mountains in the distance.

Our final spot on the way back was Shafer Canyon Overlook which is near the Island in the Sky visitor center we’d stopped at on the way in. This is an overlook that has a short trail leading out to the overlook – you can see some of the people out on the overlook in the photo below where the white rock is.

The overlook has a section with a somewhat narrow (but not too narrow) ledge that provides a great photo opportunity.

Is Canyonlands National Park Better Than Grand Canyon National Park?

Based on our experience at Canyonlands National Park and our past experiences at Grand Canyon National Park, I think Canyonlands is my favorite National Park of the two. There was something that was extra-magical about having the La Sal Mountains as a backdrop to the vast canyons beneath.

I will add a caveat to that viewpoint though – there’s far more of the Grand Canyon that we’d need to see and experience to give a full opinion. We’ve only ever been to the South Rim, so perhaps seeing it from the North Rim would give us a different perspective. We’ve also never hiked down into the Grand Canyon, so I imagine that experiencing it from the canyon floor would give us an even better appreciation of its vastness.

Are Dogs Allowed In Canyonlands National Park?

We all loved Canyonlands National Park, but there’s a downside if you’re traveling with a pup – it’s not very dog-friendly. Dogs are allowed in Canyonlands National Park, but there are very strict restrictions as to where they can go.

They’re not allowed on any trails or the backcountry, nor at any overlooks or unpaved roads, apart from Potash/Shafer Canyon Road between Moab and Island in the Sky. They are allowed on paved roads, parking lots and in the campground.

The restriction that they’re not allowed at any overlooks makes it particularly hard to visit Canyonlands with your dog if traveling solo. Thankfully there were four of us, so we sent my parents off to check out the overlooks while we looked after Truffles, then they’d stay with her while Shae and I went to look at the views.

Final Thoughts

Canyonlands National Park was a great introduction to Utah’s five National Parks. Would it end up being our favorite overall though? You’ll have to wait and see as we’ll be sharing more about the other four National Parks and then ranking them from best to not-as-best (it won’t be from best to worst as there wasn’t a worst as such).