...not to go to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

#1: Its 65 (or whatever) miles from Moab! That's an hour and a half --minimum-- hours of precious driving time, during which you have to go past the Cameo Cliffs and Muleshoe Canyon and a bunch of other essentially uninteresting areas while you could've gotten to Arches NP in a matter of minutes. Along with roughly 14,867 other people, all of whom are lined up at the TWO entrance booths Arches has to offer.

#2: After turning off the 'highway' (harrumph; all two lanes of it), you have to go past Marie's Place and through Photograph Gap under the disdainful eye of the Abajo Mountains (and, at dusk, herds of deer that number in the hundreds). Before long, you exit Hart's Draw and you drop into Indian Creek Canyon, a known yawner of a canyon with nothing whatsoever to see. Once it opens up, its all cow country, right up to the Park Boundary, and you know how dreadful that can be.

#3: The Needles is predominantly a backcountry place, and everybody knows: if its more than ten feet off the (paved) road, it isn't photogenic.

Attached are three images to illustrate ways I wasted a whole day. And didn't even go into the Park.

...not to go to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

#1: Its 65 (or whatever) miles from Moab! That's an hour and a half --minimum-- hours of precious driving time, during which you have to go past the Cameo Cliffs and Muleshoe Canyon and a bunch of other essentially uninteresting areas while you could've gotten to Arches NP in a matter of minutes. Along with roughly 14,867 other people, all of whom are lined up at the TWO entrance booths Arches has to offer.

#2: After turning off the 'highway' (harrumph; all two lanes of it), you have to go past Marie's Place and through Photograph Gap under the disdainful eye of the Abajo Mountains (and, at dusk, herds of deer that number in the hundreds). Before long, you exit Hart's Draw and you drop into Indian Creek Canyon, a known yawner of a canyon with nothing whatsoever to see. Once it opens up, its all cow country, right up to the Park Boundary, and you know how dreadful that can be.

#3: The Needles is predominantly a backcountry place, and everybody knows: if its more than ten feet off the (paved) road, it isn't photogenic.

Attached are three images to illustrate ways I wasted a whole day. And didn't even go into the Park.