The name of Canyonlands national park is no coincidence. There are a huge number of canyons, gorges and caves in the park. Canyonlands National Park covers an area of 1,365 square kilometers. This makes it a fairly large park. The park has something to offer for everyone, from rafting to hiking.
General
Canyonlands National Park is located in Utah, near the town of Moab. The park is split into four different parts, all separated from each other thanks to the many gorges and canyons that run through the park. Canyonlands is a park with many gorges and canyons, which is why it is named after them. Special rock shapes and rocks also occur here, including table mountains. Table Mountains are rocks stacked on top of each other in such a way that they look like a table. Often the bottom rock is a rock that stands upright. There is often a flat rock on top of this.
Canyonlands National Park is 1,365 square kilometers in size. This makes it quite large, but it is not abnormally large. The park’s vegetation consists mainly of desert plants that can also withstand the cold. In summer it can easily reach thirty-five to forty degrees Celsius here, while in winter it can cool down to minus thirty degrees Celsius.
The four different areas of Canyonlands national park are:
- Island in the Sky
- Needles
- Maze
- Horseshoe Canyon Unit
The accessibility of the four different parts varies greatly. One cannot drive from one part to the other and must therefore detour far to get there. Island in the Sky and Needles are easily accessible with a simple car. Maze is only accessible with a good four-wheel drive car. Horseshoe Canyon Unit is only accessible by foot and horseback.
It almost never rains here. Only twenty-five millimeters of precipitation per year falls from the sky here. For comparison: In the Netherlands it rains an average of 800 millimeters per year. This is 80 buckets per square meter per year. In Canyonlands, therefore, only two and a half buckets of water falls per square meter per year.
History
The first Indians came here around the year 8000 BC. These Indians, the Paleo-Indians, came to live in this area and lived here for thousands of years. These Indians were hunters and gatherers. They hunted the animals that lived here and looked for edible berries, roots and plants. In the year 1300 they left this area, for unknown reasons.
European colonization only really got underway in this national park around the year 1775. This area used to belong to Spain, but after wars and conflicts it eventually belonged to the United States of America.
Fauna
The fauna of the park is very diverse. Only a few species of larger animals are found here, but the park is home to an abundance of insects in the summer months. There are beetles, grasshoppers, butterflies and many other types of insects. More annoying smaller animals such as bees, wasps and mosquitoes also occur here.
The bighorn sheep are found in the park. This bighorn sheep can survive well in cold conditions, but can also survive well in heat. In addition, it is so adapted to this nature reserve that they only need to drink sporadically, which is ideal for survival in a desert.
The largest common carnivore in the park is the coyote. Coyotes hunt rabbits, hares, bighorn sheep and other small animals present. Reptiles are not very popular with coyotes, although they will eat reptiles even when they are really hungry.
There are many lizards in the park. To see the lizards, a visit in summer is wise. Lizards here come in all shapes, colors and sizes. From five centimeters to fifty centimeters and from dull brown to cheerfully colored.
Island in the Sky
This area has only three stretches of roads. The starting section, approximately nine kilometers long, runs over the Neck”. This is a plate that is higher than its surroundings