the maze

This was our first stop on our last camping trip to the US, and what a stop it was! First of all we had the whole park to ourselves, no one in soght for miles around! We actually stayed at the Neck campground which I recommend among the different sights. The scenery was just awesome, like being at the top of the world, great sunsets and a wonderful sunrise. The day after we went down to Maze Overlook (remember 4WD HC). For all camping lovers a must!

Like the Needles district this is another place where you can blend in with nature and just marvel at the natural world.

The Maze is AMAZING. It takes a long time to get there. A long time to get home. You are in the wilderness. This is even hours further into the backcountry by Jeep than Aron Ralston was when he had to amputate his arm to save himself. I have never been back in The Maze when the trail hasn't had a mud/rock slide which closed at least part of the trail for days. You will be out there. It's beautiful!

First, the maze is no joke and you should take serious planning into consideration before heading to Hans Flat Ranger Station. When we and my friends took off to go we flew into Flagstaff and drove up over night. We got to the Ranger Station and got some solid advice. However, they told us all of the springs on the trails we were headed to were function, but none of them were. The first day we started at about 1pm went down the Golden Stairs and hit the Lizard Rock trail head, this trail was more of a climb than a hike. We hit the first spring and were ready to fill up, in other words we were out of water, but it was nothing more than a wet spot on the ground with 500 feet +/- on either side and no where to sleep. We decided to push on because of the fading light and luckily hit a plateau in time to set up camp. The plateaus location was breath taking with two valleys on either side. We had seen some standing water at the bottom of the canyon so we rappelled down to get that and then pushed on along the trail. Needless to say the next 4-5 days was as awe inspiring because of the incredible features as it was concerning because of our constant lack of water. We made it down to the Spanish bottom one night which was an incredible reprieve for our legs. We got to soak them in that cold water and sink into that incredible Colorado River mud. The hike back up the Spanish Bottom and the Golden Stairs was a lot in a day, but it was worth it to see the sunrise over that land day after day. I highly recommend this trip but always bring more water than you think you need.We saw one wolf, but no snakes or poisonous spiders. It could have been a cougar but it got out of there faster than any of us could turn around to see. If you want to see the Harvest Scene plan ahead and try to find its actual location we couldn't find with our maps because it was in two different locations on either one of them.

Per chi ha tempo e per chi ama il fuoristrada questa e' una meta da non mancare.Bisogna affidarsi ai ranger e alle agenzie che fanno esplorare con mezzi adatti il fondo del parco in un itinerario degno di nota. Dopo aver visto Canyonland dall'alto( entrata a Nord),la possibilita' di esplorarlo da sotto come se si fosse dei mandriani che portano il bestiame.