Parking
Use the roadside Stone Storehouse Trailhead on the paved Needles Access Road, about 0.3 mile west of the Needles Visitor Center. The parking area is small, and the number of open spaces varies.
Overview
About Stone Storehouse Trail
Why go
- A quick loop reaches a protected Indigenous storehouse beneath an alcove.
- Numbered plant markers give the short route a clear interpretive thread.
Heads up
- The walk is brief, and the destination is a small structure.
- The roadside trailhead has limited parking, with availability varying.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Canyonlands map
Full mapElevation4,932–4,960 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Best time to go
Safety
2 active Canyonlands alerts
- ClosureRain-damaged Needles backcountry roads impassableRecent rains have made several Needles backcountry roads impassable; do not drive these routes.Official details
- CautionMaze access roads require high-clearance 4WDOnly use high-clearance 4WD to reach Hans Flat or Horseshoe Canyon in The Maze; low-clearance vehicles are not recommended on these damaged, rutted, muddy routes.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Canyonlands Tour Guide
Your drive to Stone Storehouse Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Canyonlands National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Canyonlands audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Stone Storehouse0:00 / 0:26
“You're nearing the Stone Storehouse trailhead, a twenty-minute stop for a small Indigenous storage building tucked beneath a sandstone alcove.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Canyonlands Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Needles Visitor Center
- Cave Spring and Cowboy Camp
- A Lizard on Two Legs
- Lower Salt Creek Gate and Angel Arch
- 43 audio storiesacross Canyonlands’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bighorn Sheep, Mule Deer, Coyote, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 63 trails, 65 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Stone Storehouse Trail
Is this your kind of stop?Stone Storehouse Trail is a 0.
Stone Storehouse Trail is a 0.3-mile interpretive loop in The Needles, an easy 20-minute walk to a small Indigenous storage structure beneath a sandstone alcove and back. It’s a good quick stop if you want a close look at an archaeological site and context for how people used native plants here; the destination is small and the route stays brief.
Follow the numbered interpretive guide to stay in sequence. At the first split, take the right-hand branch; near the far end, go right for the short storehouse spur, then return to the junction and take the loop back.
The walkThe path begins fairly flat, then goes up and down a rocky hill over uneven ground and stone…
The path begins fairly flat, then goes up and down a rocky hill over uneven ground and stone steps. NPS rates it short and easy. The rocky steps and uneven ground make it unsuitable for wheelchairs. Give yourself time to stop at the plant markers instead of rushing through the short distance.
A storehouse under the alcoveThe structure may be more than 1,000 years old and is one of the park’s best-preserved ancient…
The structure may be more than 1,000 years old and is one of the park’s best-preserved ancient structures. It was built by Indigenous people for storage. Markers along the loop explain native plants and their uses; NPS also describes ancestral Puebloan and Fremont communities farming corn, beans, squash, and cotton and gathering seeds, roots, and fruits in the region.
View the storehouse from a distance. Do not enter, touch, or climb on its fragile walls.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Canyonlands
48 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
47 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
12 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
30 sightingsWestern RattlesnakeMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
18 sightingsTurkey VultureMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
18 sightingsWild TurkeyMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Canyonlands. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
