Canyon Rims, the free view of the Needles from Monticello

On the mesa called Hatch Point, off US-191 between Monticello and Moab. The signed turnoff is about 20 miles north of Monticello, the mesa covers 100,273 acres, and the Bureau of Land Management's Moab Field Office runs it. The main roads inside are designated Utah Scenic Backways.

No. Needles Overlook sits on Bureau of Land Management ground rather than inside a national or state park, so there is no entrance station, no fee and no timed entry. It is at the end of 22 miles of pavement running west from the signed Canyon Rims turnoff on US-191, and it carries an interpretive display under a ramada. The two campgrounds on the mesa do charge, at 20 dollars a site a night.

The Needles district of Canyonlands National Park to the southwest, which is the district Monticello sits closest to, and Junction Butte and Grandview Point to the northwest. An interpretive display under a ramada at the rim explains the geology of the canyons below and the earliest recorded ventures into them. The most rewarding way to use it is at the end of a day spent in the Needles rather than instead of one.

For two of the four overlooks, yes. Needles Overlook is paved the whole way and Hatch Point Campground and Anticline Overlook are reached on graded gravel that an ordinary car handles carefully in dry conditions. Canyonlands Overlook and Minor Overlook both require high clearance four wheel drive over steep rocky terrain and sandstone potholes. The Bureau of Land Management treats every other dirt road on the mesa as four wheel drive as well.

No single figure is reliable, and that is worth knowing before you set off. The Bureau of Land Management's current directions give 8 miles of pavement and then 9 miles of gravel, while older published figures put the overlook 31 or 32 miles in, with the gravel turn around mile 15. Reset the trip meter at the highway, follow the signs rather than a number, and allow more time than the shortest figure implies.

Two. Windwhistle Campground sits six miles in on the paved road at roughly 6,000 feet, with 15 individual sites plus one reservable group site at 20 dollars a site a night, a one mile nature trail and notably dark skies. Hatch Point Campground is about 24 to 25 miles in on the gravel road toward Anticline Overlook, at the same nightly fee, first come and first served. Both carry a 14 night limit in 30 consecutive days.

At a self service fee station, in exact cash or by check. There is no card facility, no ranger station and no mobile signal to sort it out with afterwards, so the money has to come from town with you. Windwhistle charges 20 dollars a site a night for sites taking up to ten people, and Hatch Point charges the same on a first come, first served basis with a 14 day limit.

One developed trail, plus a one mile nature trail at Windwhistle Campground. The Trough Springs Canyon Trail begins at an abandoned drill pad off the gravel road toward Anticline Overlook and winds about two and a half miles down the canyon to the Kane Springs Canyon Road, marked with stone cairns. The Bureau of Land Management rates it easy to moderately difficult, puts the round trip at about five hours, and advises two to three quarts of water per person.

They do different things and the comparison is not really the useful one. Dead Horse Point is a state park north of here with an entrance fee, developed facilities and a famous view of a gooseneck in the Colorado River. Canyon Rims is free BLM ground looking the other way, onto the Needles district, with far fewer people on it and far fewer services. Dead Horse Point is Moab's ground and is covered on the Moab city guide rather than here.