Canyon lands is a really big park The off road trails can take weeks to navigate in a jeep.
There are about 16 miles of paved road and several hundred miles of roads that require a high-clearance four-wheel drive vehicle.
These back-country gravel, bedrock and dirt roads run around the rims of deep canyons, up loose-gravel narrow switch-back mountain trails and back down though narrow canyons. It can take several days to traverse the park circumference.
The Green River and Colorado River confluence is inside the park. You may recall the 1869 exploration of the Green and Colorado rivers by John Wesley Powell, the one-armed Civil War veteran.
Driving these roads is an exciting experience. When the going got really scary Mrs. Phred took over the driving.
Once the rear wheels started to spin and slide toward the edge of a 3,000-foot drop, so she coolly engaged the 4WD and continued slowly upward. We spent about nine hours bouncing over tiny rugged trails on canyon rims and hiking short hikes to see arches, deep canyons and 'upheaval dome', site of a possible large meteorite strike.
We only met two other vehicles during the day. The silence was as immense as the landscapes.
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