Historic photograph a group of packhorses and vehicles in Canyonlands National Park, 1965

This historic photograph shows a group of packhorses and several vehicles moving upstream on Salt Creek just upstream from Peekaboo Arch. Taken at the time that Canyonlands was established as a national park, it shows a wide channel with flanking narrow, high floodplains and colluvial terraces resulting from rockfall and eolian distribution under the bedrock walls. Most of the vegetation in the channel is cottonwood with xerophytic shrubs, although a large Gambel oak is present under the shadowed cliff at middle right. Photo: Bates Wilson, 1965, Canyonlands National Park, National Park Service (NPS), stake (camera point) s6607. This image is the first in a series of repeat photographs.