Canyonland National Park is divided into 4 sections: The Needles, Island in the Sky, The Maze and Horseshoe Canyon.
After leaving Newspaper Rock we headed for The Needles thinking we could grab a spot in the NPS Campground there. When we stopped and asked a person unloading his Mazda pick-up truck about where to check for campsites, he chuckled. Apparently you need to check for sites first thing in the morning. Late afternoon when we arrived had no sites available. We retraced our path back to BLM land and headed toward Hamburger Campground. Fortunately the road into the campsite, Lockhart Road, had several turnouts that we could use for camping. Our free camping spot came with an expansive view.
We traveled into the park the next day to see the needles and were not overly impressed with them.
That expansive view from the our campsite was more awe-inspiring.
Several days later on a rainy day we visited the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands. We did manage to snag some great pictures before the downpours over took us.
Looking at the map for Island in the Sky we wished we had a 4×4 so we could take the the White Rim Trail. They say to plan for two days to drive out it, camp and come back.