The Geologic Story of Canyonlands National ParkLohman, Stanley William
Science
The Geologic Story of Canyonlands National Park
Lohman, Stanley William
Canyonlands National Park (Utah) -- Guidebooks; Geology -- Utah -- Canyonlands National Park -- Guidebooks
The north entrance to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands
National Park used to be 6 miles south of the junction with the paved
road to Dead Horse Point, but since the land additions of November 1971,
it is only 4½ miles south of this junction. A temporary trailer-housed
entrance station marks the old boundary.
SHAFER AND WHITE RIM TRAILS
During the early 1950’s a remarkable but hair-raising road known as
Shafer Trail was cut down the face of the cliffs below The Neck to reach
the C Group of uranium claims near the head of Lathrop Canyon. It
branches southward from the park road a mile south of the new entrance,
then descends in a series of switchbacks. The aerial view (fig. 11)
shows the upper trail and The Neck before the park road was graded and
widened, and a view from near The Neck (fig. 16) shows the precipitous
cliffs the trail descends. It follows the general route of an old foot
trail.
[Illustration: SHAFER TRAIL, from just south of The Neck (fig. 1,
fig. 11). Navajo Sandstone is above road at left, Kayenta Formation
forms upper half of cliff below road, and Wingate Sandstone forms
lower, vertical half of cliff; lower part of road is in Chinle
Formation. (Fig. 16)]
Shafer Trail connects with the White Rim Trail, which, as the name
suggests, is built mainly on the White Rim, after which the White Rim
Sandstone was named. The White Rim Trail can be followed northeastward
to join the pavement at Potash, or it can be followed southward along
the Colorado River canyons to Junction Butte, thence northward along
Stillwater and Labyrinth Canyons of the Green River to and beyond the
northern boundary of the park. At Horsethief Bottom, you can leave the
canyon by Horsethief Trail and rejoin the paved road leading northward
to U.S. 163. At Lathrop Canyon, 8 or 10 miles south of where Shafer
Trail meets the White Rim Trail, a branch of the White Rim Trail leads
downward to the Colorado River, where picnic tables and sanitary
facilities are provided. This is used as a lunch stop by some boating
groups.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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