Nathan Gilbert

White Rim Trail May 2026

18 min read 3,607 words

The newly established Canyonlands National Park. Most of the major points of interest in this park are presently accessible, over passable dirt roads, by car...Nevertheless the Park Service had drawn up the usual Master Plan calling for modern paved highways to most of the places named and some not named.

~Ed Abbey, Desert Solitaire

Preamble

This trip admittedly started out on the wrong foot, multiple feet really, but we stuck the landing and the judges gave us a respectful score anyways. We didn't get a gold medal, or even bronze, but it was more than a "hey, you showed up", trophy and closer to a "we actually competed". The goal was to complete the White Rim Trail in the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park in 2 days/2 nights time. The trail is about 100 miles long and back-country driving the whole way.

The first stumble out of the gate was missing the permitting deadline for the time we wanted to go, which was April. I woke up on the day the permits were to be released, logged on to recreation.gov at 8am MT only to find there were zero campgrounds open. I'm not sure how this is possible, but it's a troubling experience I've had with recreation.gov and had others tell me they've experienced the same phenomenon. Some mixture of campsite "hoarding", or usage of the "rolling window" hack, plus bots, and very low "no-show" fees appears to be the imperfect storm creating this frustration.

My friend, Dustin, the creator behind Explore Southwest, came to the rescue and was able to grab a permit for us and camping spots at the Airport and Murphy's campgrounds but for May. These are two prime locations that set a traveler up well for efficient use of time and miles. If you're going the traditional clockwise path through the trail, you'll reach the Airport campgrounds in the evening if you start around noon and take a leisurely pace. We figured it would be much hotter than doing the trail in April and more of a gamble, but it was the only time Dustin was able to secure. Our plan also included bookend nights in Moab, the quintessential desert recreation hub of Utah.

While possible, you shouldn't try to complete the whole trail in a single day. There's too much to see and ponder along the way. There's no promise of water outside of a few areas where you're close to the river. There are pit toilets at the campgrounds which are fairly spread out throughout the trail. Once you're past the Potash road, you'll definitely want a high clearance 4WD vehicle with a 4-Low capable transfer case.

The "there" of "there and back again"

We (Dustin, Alex, Sonya and I) started from the Shafer Switchbacks trailhead around 2pm and planned to end at Mineral Bottom. I should also mention I was in a physical state somewhere between "hung over" and "Salmonella sick" on the day we arrived in Moab and the first day of the White Rim trek. I'm not sure which, but there had been a lot of beers and questionable food consumed in the 36 hours prior to our departure for Moab as I was scrambling to fix a brake issue with my XJ. The fact that the TJ appears in these photos should tell you how all that work played out.

Shafer

Admittedly, the Shafer switchbacks look really worrisome from the canyon rim. Once you're on them though they are pretty easy. Yes, one wrong turn, or one mix-up of the gas and brake pedal and you're quickly approaching terminal velocity towards the canyon floor, but don't think about that on the trail, just focus on the road ahead. Breathe, catch a great view, don't pay any attention to the circling carrion birds overhead. You could use 4-Low here, but you really don't have to, in fact, if you do, you'll likely get bored by how long it takes to traverse the straight parts between the curves.

Musselman Arch

A weightlifting plate at the bottom of Musselman Arch.
Wrong muscle. A pun? Full image below in the gallery.

This arch doesn't look like your "typical" redrock Utah arch. It’s essentially a long, nearly flat slab of White Rim Sandstone spanning a deep cut in the rim, so from an angle it looks like a natural bridge or a piece of roadway hanging over the canyon than a big curved arch. It's literally part of the White Rim trail itself, at least made of the same thing. The resistant White Rim Sandstone forms the broad bench that the White Rim Road follows. That rock was deposited during the Permian period, roughly 275–290 million years ago, largely from wind-blown sand near the edge of an ancient dune field. Scientists have hooked up the arch to microphones to listen for harmonics that indicate erosion or even seismic activity. On an album of earth music, what instrument would this be listed as? "Yeah, I play the arch on that record, practiced for days..." The color of the trail wasn't always white, that coloration is relatively recent it seems.

In days of yore, before Instagram or even deviantart, White Rim travelers would often get a photo walking over the arch. That is discouraged these days since in modern times we've determined that the arch is actually really thin and a long ways down. Someone with a sense of humor has thrown a barbell plate down at the foot of the arch. Leave no trace and never skip leg day, ofc.

The name of the arch comes from an old rancher and tour-guide from the Moab area. You can find several references to him in these old desert magazines.

Airport Tower

We made it to the Airport C & D campgrounds by early evening with plenty of sun to set up camp and made dinner. Airport Tower is interesting because the whole “airport” theme is a visual joke taken from the landscape. There was never an airport there. The NPS says the broad bench around the campsites is so wide, flat, and open that it looks like a place where an airplane could land, and the nearby butte looks remarkably like an airport control tower, hence the names. The campsites are on the open, exposed desert bench rather than a sheltered canyon-bottom camp or mesa-top fortress. This is quite a bit different from the landscape you've traversed so far or will for the remainder of the journey.

Airport Tower is part of a whole cluster of striking formations. Nearby this area are Monster Tower, Washer Woman, and Tiki Tower,[1] so as you travel around Buck Canyon the skyline becomes one of the more recognizable sections of the White Rim. Mesa Arch, far above on Island in the Sky, actually looks out toward this same collection of towers; if you've seen the classic sunrise view through Mesa Arch, these are some of the formations in the landscape beyond it on the canyon floor.

The next morning, I was feeling great, thankfully despite a rough 48 hours. The driving this day would be pretty easy until we made it to the next campsite on top of Murphy's mesa.

Murphy's Hogback

The hogback is a long, narrow, elevated tongue of Moenkopi-age rock rising a few hundred feet above the surrounding White Rim platform. The road has to climb up and over it rather than staying on the comparatively level White Rim Sandstone, which is why you suddenly get that steep ascent, a high flat ridge, and then the dramatic descent on the other side. You definitely should use 4-Low going up and down. You need to take your time as there are blind curves both on the ascent and descent where someone traveling in the opposite way from you could meet you at a place that is very difficult to turn around or back up. I found going down a little more stressful than the drive up, but luckily Dustin pulled first duty up and ensured no opposite way traffic were coming before the blind turns. Going down, there are several sharp turns that are hard to make in 4-Low, but the low gearing definitely controls your descent in this steep terrain. Right after the Hogback I remember there being some relatively smooth driving for the next few miles, I think we might have reached 15 mph during this section which felt quite speedy.

The name comes from the Murphy brothers (Tom, Otho, and Felix) who constructed the Murphy Trail in 1914 so they could move livestock between the Island in the Sky country and grazing land south of the hogback. Imagine trying to herd cattle down that route? Parts of that historic trail still form today's Murphy Loop hiking trail. The campsites are special largely because the NPS put them on top of the hogback rather than down on the White Rim bench. Murphy has only three sites, A–C. Whichever you stay at, you're out of earshot of the others. C is nearest the pit toilet for good or ill. At roughly mile 45 clockwise, Murphy also falls close to the natural midpoint of the route.

Definitely try to snag one of these campsites. They offer sweeping 360-degree desert vistas with dramatic drop-offs all around. On a clear night, the amount of stars you can see make you feel really insignificant but lucky.

Black Crack

A Whipple's Fishhook cactus found by the Black Crack.
Sclerocactus parviflorus or Sclerocactus whipplei var. roseus, called a Whipple's Fishhook cactus. Named after Amiel Weeks Whipple, who discovered this species. He was a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, who took two scientific expeditions to the Southwest, from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Los Angeles, California. His treks basically surveyed what eventually became Route 66.

The Black Crack of the White Rim is an interesting geological feature near the end of our journey. It's an enormous dark fissure in the White Rim sandstone. It's visible from satellite images via the vegetation growing in a straight line in its shallower parts. At its deepest, you'd fall at least 65 feet if you misjudged your jump over the 3 foot wide crack. In those high areas, the crack is mostly shadow, you can't even tell it goes that far down. There are some areas where the gaps underneath the crack allow you to lay on your stomach and see the canyon floor many feet below. It's a disorienting experience to be honest. In other areas, near the "wings" of the crack, it can be as shallow as a few feet deep.

The biggest geological fact here is that Black Crack is a joint, not a fault. There is no evidence that one side moved relative to the other; the sandstone simply fractured. This could also help explain the vegetation we noticed. A joint creates a protected slot where soil, windblown debris and moisture can accumulate, so plants can trace a fracture that is otherwise surprisingly hard to see from above.

Hardscrabble Hill

"I walked up Hardscrabble Hill" was a funny idea we all had for a shirt/sticker for a Moab retailer. It gives a knowing wink to those who've been there and didn't really want to experience the drive up after looking it over.

What makes Hardscrabble feel worse than Murphy is the combination of difficulties rather than one spectacular obstacle. Murphy is very steep and exposed, but relatively concentrated. Hardscrabble is a longer, more complicated climb with steep grades, loose rock and sand, rocky shelves, tight switchbacks, blind turns and considerable exposure. It feels steeper or more demanding than Murphy, sometimes requiring multi-point turns at the tighter switchbacks.

At Murphy the challenge is very obvious, you see the big climb and then just do it. At Hardscrabble, you keep thinking you're nearly through it and then get another steep turn, another rock shelf, another narrow bit. After Dustin took his truck up, I waited till I couldn't see him anymore and then several more minutes before trying to raise him on our radios to see if the coast was clear for us to come up. Alex answered that they weren't even halfway up yet which really surprised me.

On this part of the trail, you have to manage line choice, traction, momentum and vehicle placement for longer. The surface of Hardscrabble is loose rock, sand and softer fine-grained material, so storms can rearrange it substantially. Once you're past this climb, you've cleared the last real 4WD test of the route. You'll run into some shelf roads and switchbacks that might make your seat sweaty, but nothing technically as challenging as this hill.

By this point in a clockwise trip, the White Rim Road has dropped from its sandstone bench and is traveling remarkably close to the Green River, through Potato Bottom. Hardscrabble forces the road up and over higher terrain before it can return to the river near Hardscrabble Bottom/Labyrinth. It's almost a mountain pass in miniature: river bottom, a steep ~400-foot climb, a high point, a steep descent, and then river bottom again.

The views from the top of Hardscrabble of the Green are amazing and fulfilling whether you walked up or drove. This is almost a dividing line between two kinds of White Rim terrain: the high desert road we've been traveling and the low, river-dominated country around Labyrinth, Upheaval Bottom and Mineral Bottom we are just getting into.

There's something else cool immediately at the top: Fort Bottom. This is the long, narrow mesa projecting into an enormous bend of the Green River. A roughly 3.4-mile round-trip trail leaves the White Rim near the top of Hardscrabble and crosses the mesa to an Ancestral Puebloan stone tower overlooking the river. People have been standing here looking over the Green River for a very long time.

Mineral Bottom

Mineral Bottom is a pretty neat place to end the White Rim because it is more than just the point where the road climbs back to the mesa. It is a junction between Canyonlands' road, river, and mining history.

Traveling clockwise, the dramatic feature was obviously the Mineral Bottom switchbacks. After following the Green River through the Labyrinth Canyon country, the road suddenly climbs the canyon wall in a stack of tight, exposed switchbacks. NPS treats Mineral Bottom as one of the White Rim's major steep/exposed sections, along with Shafer, Murphy Hogback, and Hardscrabble. In a sense, it's the bookend to Shafer, as we began the trip by dropping dramatically off the Island in the Sky country and finished it with another huge switchback climb back out.

There's a great bit of very recent geological history there, too. On August 19, 2010, a severe storm sent flash floods and rockfalls through the area and obliterated substantial portions of the switchback road. Photos from the event are remarkable and show the road simply disappears where the canyon wall collapsed. The damage made a complete White Rim loop impossible for more than seven months. The rebuilt switchbacks reopened in March 2011. This episode illustrates something easy to forget while driving these roads. Canyonlands looks ancient (and it is) and static, but the landscape is still actively dismantling itself. A road carved into a steep wall of sedimentary rock can be erased in a single storm.

The bottom itself is also an important Green River access point. Mineral Bottom lies just outside Canyonlands National Park on BLM land and is the normal takeout for people floating Labyrinth Canyon from Green River or Ruby Ranch. It's also a launch point for boaters continuing downstream through Stillwater Canyon and into Canyonlands. So where our 4x4 trip was ending, another classic Canyonlands journey of traveling by raft was beginning for some. We saw a lot of people in the bottoms just partying or getting ready to load up their raft and cast off.

There's even still a backcountry airstrip at Mineral Bottom (maybe it should be named Airport, instead)? It dates to the Cold War, uranium mining era and was used to support mining operations; many of southeastern Utah's primitive airstrips have similar uranium-boom origins. So here within a very small area we have a 4WD road, the Green River boat ramp, a primitive airstrip, several abandoned mine workings, and the remnants of Cold War atomic history.

The "back again"

Once you climb out of Mineral Bottom on the switchbacks, you're on Mineral Bottom Road. From the top of the switchbacks to UT-313, it's about 13 miles of graded dirt road. BLM gives the full distance from UT-313 down to Mineral Bottom as roughly 15–16 miles, with the steep switchbacks making up the last couple of miles.

That stretch is very different from the White Rim itself as it's generally wide, fast, well-graded dirt across the open mesa, and in dry conditions it's usually straightforward. You'll feel really weird driving so fast after days of sub-10-mph driving. Once you're out of the Mineral Bottom switchbacks there are some pit toilets with a large parking area where you can have a pit stop to regroup. I'm very glad we had friends to travel with on this journey, that made it more robust and fun. We didn't seem any other vehicles during this trip, maybe 1 Grand Cherokee we passed going counter-clockwise before Murphy's.

The rest of the drive, while is decently long, it is on a well-maintained gravel road till you hit the main road in the park, which is paved. As to the White Rim Trail, I'm glad they never got around to paving it.

Double Arch in Arches National Park, its two openings side by side in one massive sandstone dome, under a heavy grey overcast.
We went into Arches on the first evening we were in Moab, stopped by Double Arch. The sky was amazing.
A view out between two red sandstone walls to a wide slickrock basin dotted with juniper, storm clouds stacked above the far mesas.
View out from the arch hole.
Looking out from inside a sandstone alcove over the Windows Section, visitors small on the sand trail below and dark clouds over the fins beyond.
View from the arch back towards the trail.
The same gap between two rock walls, framing a valley of slickrock and sagebrush with a distant road and cloud-shadowed cliffs.
People scrambling on the boulders below a sandstone alcove, with sandstone fins and towers spread across the valley under a grey sky.
The line doesn't stop.
A wide canyon seen from the Island in the Sky rim, its benches falling away in steps to a green wash, potholes of rainwater in the slickrock in front.
View from the top of the Island in the Sky rim right before heading towards the Shafer Switchbacks and down into the trail, which you can see far off in the distance below.
A rim of red slickrock and juniper above a broad canyon, with a towering bank of grey and white cloud filling the sky.
A dark, storm-lit basin stretching to a flat horizon, junipers clinging to the rim rock in the foreground.
Shafer Canyon from the rim, its stepped red walls and talus slopes dropping to a canyon floor, white clouds scattered across blue sky.
A sloping slickrock rim above Shafer Canyon, the canyon's layered walls curving away to the left.
A flat slab of red sandstone at the rim, with Shafer Canyon opening out below and mesas ranked to the horizon.
The switchbacks of the Shafer Trail cut into the canyon wall far below the rim, the dirt road doubling back on itself down the cliff.
Shafer Switchbacks below
The banded cliffs across Shafer Canyon, layers of red and grey rock stepping up to a flat mesa top under cumulus clouds.
A broad slickrock ledge at the canyon rim, the canyon and its side drainages spread out beyond under a bright cloudy sky.
A desert flat of sparse grass below a long red mesa, dark storm clouds massing above it.
Layered cliffs and a low dark ridge across a sagebrush flat, a towering bank of cloud overhead.
A slab of caprock balanced on the rim above a rubble slope, the snow-covered La Sal Mountains on the horizon behind.
A delicate balance
The Colorado River winding green through its inner gorge below the White Rim, buttes and mesas ranged along the skyline.
The Colorado River
The Colorado River seen from the White Rim bench, its muddy channel curving between pale rock terraces under a broken sky.
A tilted slab of the White Rim in the foreground, the Colorado River running below it through a wide red canyon.
A bend of the Colorado River far below the rim, stepped cliffs on both banks and towers on the distant skyline.
A Jeep and a pickup parked on a slickrock flat below a long banded cliff, storm clouds overhead.
Someone from a different party tried to buy my half-doors right here. I declined to the sell them.
The flat sandstone deck of Musselman Arch, wide enough to walk across, with a dark void dropping away on the left and the canyon on the right.
The flat deck of Musselman Arch. I wouldn't walk on it.
Broken red ledges and boulders below the White Rim, mesas and a distant butte on the skyline.
A rubble-strewn rim of pale rock above a red canyon, with buttes strung along the far horizon.
Looking straight down a steep talus slope of broken red rock and brush, a lost barbell weight lying among the boulders.
Someone thought this was really funny. Underneath Musselman Arch.
A dirt two-track crossing a wide desert flat, a dark butte at the left and a long line of cliffs on the horizon.
The road is marked by rocks in some places.
A long banded mesa rising from a sagebrush flat, its rim broken into small towers, under a mottled sky.
The White Rim road running away across open desert, cliffs on the right and a bright cloud-streaked sky above.
The loaded interior of the Jeep from the front seat: cooler, water bottle, stuffed packs and a red toolbox, desert beyond the glass.
Not the best packing job, but for a Jeep Wrangler we made the most of the space we had.
A green dome tent pitched alone on a red dirt flat, a small butte to the right and a heavy evening overcast above.
Our campsite at Airport D
The Jeep and a pickup parked at camp, camp chairs and a folding table set out beside them, mesas on the horizon at dusk.
More of the airport campsite.
A flat, empty campsite of red dirt and low brush, layered mesas standing along the skyline under a grey evening sky.
It's really flat here, but getting our tent stakes in the ground was challenging.
Airport Tower rising from a broad talus pedestal above the desert flat, dark clouds behind it.
Airport Tower in the cloudy evening.
Airport Tower the next morning under a clear deep blue sky, its fluted upper tower catching the sun.
Airport Tower the next morning under clear skies.
A flat pan of slickrock and red dirt, with Monster Tower and Washer Woman Arch small on the distant cliff line.
Airport Tower from the road, its banded pedestal spreading into a low bench of pale rock.
Monster Tower standing tall on the ridge above a banded cliff line, with the lower fin of Washer Woman Arch and its opening just to the right.
Monster Tower with Washer Woman Arch. Somehow missed Tiki Tower around here.
A broken rim of red rock in the foreground, with a long flat-topped mesa across the canyon under a cloudless sky.
A canyon of stubby red towers and ledges below the White Rim, with mesas and buttes ranked along the skyline.
A deep, narrow slot cut into the rim, its rubble-filled bottom in shadow, open desert beyond.
A boulder-strewn rim above a side canyon, with a squat sandstone tower on the mesa across the way.
A muddy pothole in the slickrock at the edge of a desert flat, a snow-capped mountain range low on the horizon.
A rugged side canyon dropping away from the White Rim, its walls broken into ledges, distant mesas beyond.
A cross-bedded sandstone wall curving along the rim of a small canyon, its swirling layers exposed in the sun.
A dense clump of hedgehog cactus growing on the slickrock rim, canyon and distant mesas behind it.
These cacti have a great view.
A rough side canyon full of red ledges and boulders, with a flat white-capped mesa on the far horizon.
The fluted red spires of Monument Basin standing below the White Rim, with flat-topped mesas on the skyline beyond.
Monument Basin area.
A cluster of tall, deeply fluted rock towers rising from the floor of Monument Basin, the White Rim bench running behind them.
A curving alcove in the rim above Monument Basin, with towers and buttresses stepping down into the basin.
Monument Basin's spires seen along the rim, a mesa with a stepped profile closing the view behind.
A row of dark, weathered pinnacles below the rim of Monument Basin, distant mountains faint on the horizon.
Keyhole Arch, a party favorite.
A sweep of red slickrock in the foreground, the towers of Monument Basin dropping away behind it, a contrail crossing the blue sky.
A prickly pear cactus in bloom with several bright yellow flowers, growing low in the red sand.
Prickly Pear still in bloom! Probably _Opuntia polyacantha_
A wide, shallow basin of eroded red benches below the rim, mesas and mountains faint on the far horizon.
A broad dome of pale slickrock at the rim, with the desert and a distant butte stretching away beyond it.
Cracked white slickrock and a small sagebrush at the canyon edge, a vast open basin below.
A person in a red shirt standing at the edge of a sheer-walled rim, a butte on the horizon behind them.
Squat fluted towers standing in a side canyon below the rim, with a long mesa wall behind.
More Monument Basin spires and towers.
The Jeep and a pickup parked on a red dirt flat, low sandstone ledges and a broken skyline behind them.
Natural Habitat
A slickrock rim in the foreground above a shadowed canyon, with a solitary butte standing on the distant horizon.
A row of blocky red towers along the far wall of a side canyon, a pothole of water on the slickrock in front.
Slickrock and shallow potholes at the rim, with a long banded mesa across the canyon under scattered clouds.
A broad desert bench below two flat-topped mesas, with a rubble of pale slabs in the foreground.
A wide basin of eroded red benches with a prominent flat-topped butte at the left, canyons cutting through the middle distance.
The White Rim road curving around a rocky point, dropping toward a broad flat with a long cliff line beyond.
Looking back down the ascent up Murphy's Hogback, this is the blind curve at the top.
Afternoon sun over a sagebrush flat scattered with juniper, a low line of cliffs on the horizon.
Afternoon with the Junipers up on top of Murphy's
A sagebrush and juniper flat under scattered cumulus, with mesas and a distant tower along the skyline.
A wide panorama across a juniper-dotted bench to the mesas and cliffs on the horizon.
Panorama on top of Murphy's
A long red mesa wall across a sagebrush flat, clouds building above it in late afternoon light.
A low, even line of red cliffs behind a wide flat of pale desert grass and scattered brush.
Boulders and juniper on a slickrock bench with the sun high above, canyon country receding to a flat horizon.
A rocky bench in backlit afternoon sun, the canyon and its far mesas hazy in the distance.
A hazy view over a deep canyon system, its benches and mesas fading into layers toward the horizon.
A juniper-studded rim above a wide canyon, buttes standing along the skyline in the afternoon haze.
A broken rock rim in the foreground above a broad basin, a flat-topped mesa at the left and clouds overhead.
Two flat-topped mesas standing above a wide desert basin, seen across a rocky rim under scattered cloud.
A line of red mesas across a bench of pale rock, afternoon clouds strung across the blue sky.
A dark rock spur in the foreground, with rolling red benches and distant mesas stretching away beyond it.
A flat-topped butte above rolling desert benches, the White Rim slickrock in the foreground.
Dusk over the canyon from a high point, the sky fading to yellow behind silhouetted mesas, a rough road below.
A narrow dirt road running along a steep ridge at sunset, the sky glowing orange over the dark canyon.
The road down Murphy's we'll take the next morning.
A wide basin at last light, buttes and mesas dark against a pale gold sky, a rock buttress at the right.
Early morning sun raking across a slickrock ridge, its layers thrown into sharp relief above a shadowed basin.
Morning up on Murphy's, the road out to the left.
Long morning shadows across a red basin, with mesas and a spire on the sunlit skyline.
A slab of pale rock at the rim in morning light, the canyon and its far mesas spread out beyond.
A deep side canyon cut into the White Rim, its sheer walls and rubble floor in shadow, mesas beyond.
A sheer, dark red canyon wall curving below the rim, with a butte and a long mesa on the horizon.
A wide pavement of pale slickrock with shallow potholes, red buttes standing across the flat beyond.
The Green River running green between its banks far below, a slickrock bench with a water-filled pothole in the foreground.
The Green River
The Green River winding through the canyon bottom, seen across sculpted white slickrock from the rim.
A tight horseshoe bend of the Green River wrapped around a low green island, the muddy water enclosing it almost completely.
Big Horseshoe bend (but not _that_ one) of the Green River.
A person standing alone on a wide desert flat photographing the cliffs, sparse brush all around.
Checking out the Black Crack. You can kinda see the vegetation all lined up.
An open flat of red dirt and low brush under a cloudless sky, mesas low on the horizon.
The road switchbacking through a gap between sheer red cliffs, with buttes visible on the skyline beyond.
The Green River flowing wide and muddy between willow-lined banks, red mesas rising on both sides.
Broken red and white rock in the foreground, the Green River and its green banks below a long banded cliff wall.
The "I drove up Hardscrabble Hill" shot
The Green River running along the base of a long banded cliff, seen across a bench of pale slickrock.
More views from the top of Hardscrabble Hill.
A brown park sign reading "Entering Canyonlands National Park" beside a closed metal gate on the dirt road, red cliffs behind.
Out of the park, but not out of the canyon. Still have a many switchbacks to climb.
The Jeep parked on red dirt with an orange air hose running to a front tire, airing back up after the trail.
It was very satisfying to wash all that red dirt off the TJ later at home in Salt Lake.

Addendum

The weather was great in May which we were surprised by. You can see several holes with a decent amount of water in them in my photos. It rained in Moab/Canyonlands the day before our trip began. The first day was cloudy but the second and third were beautiful bluebird days with little cloud cover and nice spring temperatures. We really couldn't have asked for a better weather experience of the drive. If we had gone in April like originally planned it might have been too cold.

Williams, David B., and Damian Fagan. A Naturalist’s Guide to the White Rim Trail and Williams, David B., and Damian Fagan. Island in the Sky Road Guide: Canyonlands National Park. 2017. Two good books for this trip.
Decent books for some additional info for points of interest on this trip.

Whipple's Fishhook are listed as uncommon in Canyonlands. They are somewhat related to the much rarer (and not appearing in this trip report, or even in this part of Utah) Uinta Basin hookless cactus. Someday, I'll find one of those.

Notes

  1. I can't find who named it that, or why. Its first named appearance shows up in climbing logs from the early 1990s. ↩︎