Directions to Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park is located close to Moab, Utah. The park has two separate paved entrances, leading to two of the separate districts of the park.

• Highway 313 is the road to take to the Island in the Sky – this is by far the most accessible district and without doubt the easiest destination to head for if you can only visit for a relatively short period of time – there’s a great view of the other districts from the Island in the Sky
• Highway 211 is the road to take you to the Needles
• Dirt tracks lead you to the Maze – but you’ll need a 4WD, and in the wet these tracks are sometimes impassable

NB – if you want to visit the Needles or the Maze districts you’ve gotta’ prepared to put more than a little effort into it. In order to visit the best bits of each district you’ve gotta’ do a little hiking, boating, or 4 wheel driving at the very least.

You do need a car to get to Canyonlands National Park, public transport is not available, but public transport is available to get you into the right general area, then you can hire a car if you need to!

Be prepared to be amazed!

Flying to Canyonlands National Park

There are commercial flights available to Grand Junction, CO, and also to Salt Lake City, UT. Bear in mind that although these’ll get you pretty close to Canyonlands National Park, you’ll still be a 2 or 4 hour car journey away (respectively) from the Island of Sky which is the nearest park entrance. There is a commercial air service available between Moab and Denver.

Travelling to Canyonlands National Park by Train

Like I said, you can’t actually travel to Canyonlands National Park by public transport, the closest Amtrak can get you by train is to Green River, UT, or alternatively to Grand Junction, CO. There are some commercial van services which operate between Grand Junction and Moab.

Travelling to Canyonlands National Park by Bus

You can jump on a Greyhound bus on I-70 which will stop at both Grand Junction, CO and Green River, UT. There are also commercial services operating between Moab, Salt Lake City and Grand Junction.

That’s one of those mud tracks I was telling you about before!