Edward Abbey, a writer once described the outlooks of the Canyonland as the one of the most hostile, arid, grim, barren, lonesome, desolate, bleak and savage area in the state of Utah, which was ironically the best part of it.

The River Colorado has carried way, for over 20 millions years of the Canyon’s existent, the solid rocks from a large area and the depth is also as large. The canyons were crafted by the strong powers of the wind, frost and precipitation which formed a deep hollow, high buttes and stark mesas which were unlike any other on the earth. 

The impression on the stripe on the rocks shows the constant hostility of the natural sculpting driving forces. The underlying deposition of the salt also help shaped the perpendicular setting of the region. The salt is shaped into a like a huge dome and it eventually fractured the surface of the rock.

The Horseshoe Canyon Unit is a detached portion of the park and here you can view the pictographs. The archeologist believe that the life size pictographs to be 6000 years old. It is assumed that the pictographs were left on by some other earlier people before the Anasazi.

There are also some reminders which were left by the most recent inhabitants of the Canyonland. These people were believed to be related to the Mesa Verde’s Anasazi in Colorado and Chaco Canyon. They use to farm and gather plants in the Canyonland. When you take a look at the extraordinary landscape of the Canyonland, you might think that it is of uninhabitant type but, the Anasazi and the other inhabitants used to settle in that place.