Canyonlands National Park High Point Trip Report

on mesa rim (7,160+ ft)

Date: June 6, 2000
Author: Bob Packard

My companion, J.D.Green, and I had done 6 summits in the Blue Mtns (Abajo Mtns) west of Monticello, UT. We kept driving the back roads until we got to the Cathedral Butte area just S of the Canyonlands NP Boundary. A finger of land under BLM jurisdiction juts out into the NP, the rim forming the boundary between BLM land and NP land. I hiked the west rim of the finger for the 1.5 miles where the HP of the NP might be. There are metal posts driven into the rim rocks every few yards marking the park boundary. I went to each post as I came to it and made sure to swing out west of the post. If I saw a potential high rock be- tween 2 posts, I made sure to get out onto it. I'll bet I consciously made a point of getting out on a couple hundred rim points. Don't know if or when I hit the right one, but I'll challenge anyone to make a better claim at the Canyonlands NP HP.

Has anyone else had the Canyonlands HP experience? Next day J.D. and I climbed nearby Cathedral Butte and Bridger Jack Mesa, both of which had BM's with namesake names.