Grand View Point

Grand View Point is the southern end of the Island in the Sky scenic drive, a rim-top overlook at 6,080 feet above a broad maze of canyons. A short paved sidewalk from the parking area reaches the main viewpoint, where the pale White Rim, Monument Basin, and distant mountain ranges spread below you. If you only want the signature panorama, this is enough; the longer walk adds a second viewpoint and changing rim views.

The trail continues along the rim to a second viewpoint. It is 1.8 miles round trip, with the park estimating about 1.5 hours. It is rated easy, but uneven rocky ground and stone steps make it rougher than the paved approach; it is not wheelchair accessible. The paved viewpoint and the rim trail are separate experiences, so you can turn around after the main panorama. Dogs are not allowed on the trail.

A vault or composting restroom is listed at the overlook. Food and water are not among the site's listed amenities, so plan those before the drive.

Monument Basin is cut into long walls, columns, and narrow pinnacles. The 305-foot Totem Pole is its tallest spire. The pale White Rim bench runs below the overlook, with lower canyons and the White Rim four-wheel-drive road far beneath it.

The canyon's stair-step shape comes from layers that wear at different speeds. Water works into cracks in the sandstone and gravity breaks slabs loose; softer clay and mudstone erode faster than the harder layers. The result is a landscape of cliffs, ledges, mesas, and buttes rather than one smooth slope.

White Rim Sandstone formed from ancient coastal dunes. It is about 1,300 feet below the viewpoint, a resistant band that makes a pale rim above the lower canyon country.

The Colorado River is too deeply entrenched to see from this overlook. Before 1921, the stretch above the Green River was known as the Grand River, which is the name behind Grand View Point. The Green and Colorado meet at the distant Confluence; an interpretive panel notes that John Wesley Powell mapped it in 1896.

Some straight marks on the distant plateaus are old access roads cut by uranium trucks and bulldozers before Canyonlands became a national park in 1964. The desert recovers slowly from that kind of disturbance, and the scars can last for decades.

From the main viewpoint, frame a Monument Basin spire with the pale White Rim bench and the canyons below it. The white band helps show the drop and scale; the NPS interpretive panels can help you pick out Totem Pole and the far mountain ranges.