Canyonlands National Park Self-Guided Audio Tour
Description
Discover the dramatic landscapes of Canyonlands National Park on a self-guided audio tours with Shaka Guide. On this tour we’ll guide you through the park’s Island of the Sky District. You can visit scenic spots like Dead Horse Point, Green River Overlook and the famous Mesa Arch. Plus, we’ll recommend 6 of our favorite hiking trails including Upheaval Dome. What is Shaka Guide? It’s your personal tour guide, in an app! You get all the benefits of a guided tour with the freedom to explore on your terms. Along the way we’ll share stories about the places you’re visiting, give you important travel tips, and play music to keep you entertained the entire time. Shaka Guide Tours... • Never expire - take the tour when you want! • Work 100% offline - no data or wifi needed • Allow you to travel at your pace *After booking, you MUST follow the steps in your booking confirmation & download Shaka Guide*
Tour Options
Itinerary
Shaka Guide’s Canyonlands National Park tour will take you to the Island in the Sky district - a marvel of geology and scenic views that stretch on for hundreds of miles.
The two buttes you can see from this viewpoint, the Monitor and the Merrimac, were named for their resemblance to the first American made ironclad warships. Built during the Civil War, these ships helped usher in the modern era of Naval warfare.
Mountain biking is a popular activity at Canyonlands and the surrounding area. The Navajo Rocks trail is singletrack and varies in difficulty from flowy to technical. You’ll keep driving while we tell you about this spot.
Dead Horse Point State Park lies just off the road to Canyonlands, rests on the same mesa as Island in the Sky, but offers a wholly unique view. Learn about the history, ancient and modern, of this popular state park and scenic overlook.
The Canyonlands Island in the Sky Visitor Center is the only place in the district to find potable water and flushing toilets. Stop here to pay your entrance fee, talk to a ranger, and visit the bookstore.
From this viewpoint, you can look down on the Shafer Trail as it winds its way down the mountain via a series of narrow switchbacks. If you’re feeling adventurous and you have the right kind of vehicle, you might consider taking the Shafer Trail back to Moab after the tour.
The trail to Mesa Arch is an easy half-mile round trip over dirt and slickrock. The views at Mesa Arch, and the arch itself, are fantastic at sunrise. And this is a sentiment shared by many because the parking lot begins to fill up while it’s still dark outside. Get started early to make sure you get a spot! If you can’t find a spot, try stopping by in the afternoon after you complete the tour.
The next stop is another iconic formation in the park called the candlestick tower. The name comes from its shape, which resembles a melting candlestick. This 450-foot tower is a popular rock climbing spot. If you visit during fall or winter, you might be able to catch a glimpse of a brave soul or two making their way up the tower.
Buck Canyon Overlook offers an amazing canyon view of the gorgeous geological layers in Canyonlands and the beautiful mountains in the distance.
At the White Rim Overlook, you can hike a relatively flat,1.8-mile round-trip trail and see a stunning 360 degree view of the canyon. But if you're not feeling up to it, there's also an overlook that requires just a short walk from the parking lot. From this overlook, you can see the handiwork of the Colorado river carving out the landscape.
From this overlook, you can see the orange cliff section of Glen canyon recreational area which borders Canyonlands. You can also see the maze district, the most remote part of the park.
Looking down from the grand viewpoint, you can see a complex network of canyons carved by the Colorado and green rivers. If you're feeling up for a two-mile round-trip hike, follow the trail to the tip of the island in the sky, mesa. This is one of the best hikes in the entire park.
This overlook offers yet another breathtaking view of the canyon over a thousand feet below the road, carved out by the peaceful yet powerful Green River. The river shaped much of the landscape in this part of the country, originating from Wyoming on the left side of the continental divide.
Aztec Butte Trail is a 1.7-mile round-trip hike that leads to some ancestral Puebloan stone granary structures with some amazing views. The granary was built roughly 800 years ago, around 1200 AD.
The name Whale Rock comes from the rock’s resemblance to a blue whale. It does take a little imagination for you to see it though. There is a one-mile round-trip hike up to the giant rock with great views on top that’s rated as easy to moderate.
Known by several nicknames including Utah’s Belly Button, this structure is the biggest mystery of Canyonlands because scientists can’t agree on how it was formed. There are two ways to explore the dome. The first is to follow a one-mile round-trip trail to the overlooks (our recommendation). The second is to hike an eight-mile trail that wraps around the Ridge of the crater. It's not only challenging, but it's also where most of the rescues in the park happen.
This is a rough 12-mile round-trip hike with a steep descent into the canyon. There, you’ll find two 500-foot rock towers named Moses and Zeus.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Travelers must have a smartphone compatible with the Shaka Guide app.
- The app must be downloaded and the tour redeemed before arrival.
- Strong Wi-Fi or cellular data is required to download the tour in advance.
- Location services (GPS) must be enabled on the device
- Travelers are responsible for securing any required entrance passes, reservations, or permits before starting
- This tour covers Island in the Sky only — Needles and Maze districts are 2–3 hours from Moab and require high-clearance AWD
- Park open 24 hours; entrance fee $30/vehicle, valid for 7 days
- Island in the Sky Visitor Center open 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m., with extended hours spring through fall
- Cell service is spotty — public Wi-Fi available at the Visitor Center
- Payment accepted at the visitor center, bookstore, and front gate: cash, check, and major credit cards
- All Shaka Guide tour roads are 2WD-friendly; some park roads (e.g. Shafer Trail) require 4WD/high clearance
- Only potable water is at the Island in the Sky Visitor Center — plan ahead
- Picnic area between Buck Canyon Overlook and Grand View Point — pack a lunch if you'd like ••••••
Reviews(11)
It gave excellent guidance on trip
Aloha Friend, Canyonlands is so vast and rugged, so we're incredibly glad we could help you navigate all that beautiful desert scenery smoothly! Mahalo for letting us ride shotgun with you, and we can't wait to join you on your next big adventure! With warm aloha, Shaka Guide Team 🤙
It was very informative as well as having an amusing take on some things. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour!
Beautiful day. Great sights. Spent the day viewing and hiking.
This was a good alternative to paying a lot more for a live person and riding in a van with strangers . . . we could go at our own speed, get out of truck just for things we wanted a closer look at, it skipped over things we didn't turn to do and we took breaks when we wanted. It was very informative and interesting. The only 2 suggestions: when we were told about bathrooms at visitor's center, I would have appreciated knowing that almost every trail head had a restroom, too. No need to stand in line like that was the last we'd see for a long while. Also, since we had to take our own food in if we wanted lunch, it would have been nice to be told where picnic areas were. Otherwise, good enough that we're using audio for our next park, too.
Not at all user friendly. Waste of money. When trying to load the app there was too many questions to answer which really didn't apply. We headed into canyonlands only to realize we did not have reception and the tour did not load. Waste of time and money.
Aloha Nicholas, Our heart sank reading about your experience, and it truly sounds like things went sideways, which is definitely not the chill, easy adventure we want for our 'ohana. We really aim to make sure everyone gets to experience the aloha we share, and we're concerned that this wasn't your experience. Since you snagged your tour through Viator, the best and quickest path to help or a refund is usually right through your Viator ticket. But please, know that our 'ohana is always here. If you ever want to dive deeper into what happened, don't hesitate to reach out to us directly at aloha@shakaguide.com. We'd truly be grateful for the opportunity to connect and see what we can do to make things right. Mahalo for letting us know, Shaka Guide Support
This app was great. It pointed out sites we would have missed and provided great background info.
This was a fabulous audio tour. The narration was upbeat and interesting and the GPS feature was spot on. The guide was knowledgeable and entertaining.
We’re so glad you had a fabulous time! Happy to hear you enjoyed the upbeat narration, spot-on GPS, and entertaining stories. Thanks for sharing your experience!
We purchased audios for all our national parks. We were enjoying the narrator on the trip but half way through we lost the narrative. So for the second half we had no narration.
Thank you for providing your valuable feedback. We're sorry to hear you seem to have not enjoyed your Shaka Guide tour. Please reach out to us at aloha@shakaguide.com to provide us with a more detailed briefing of your experience.
Amazing audio tour! You do it at your own pace, stop where you want to stop, and the app’s GPS knows where you are and gives you the right portion of the audio! Of course, you need to download when you have internet, but once you have it, no network is needed. It was so good that I’m downloading another park right away! So much learned.
Thank you for your kind words! We're thrilled to have you as a satisfied user of our app, and we look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.
No Wi-Fi in Canyonlands so I could not use the app or whatever it is. Glad I only paid $9.99 as I never got to use it.
Mahalo for providing your valuable feedback. We're sorry to hear you seem to have not enjoyed your Shaka Guide tour. Please reach out to us at aloha@shakaguide.com to provide us a more detailed briefing of your experience and email us a copy of your receipt so we can help you get a refund on your purchase
