The Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is a United States national monument protecting the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante in southern Utah. It was established in 1996 by President Bill Clinton under the authority of the Antiquities Act with 1.7 million acres of land, later expanded to 1,880,461 acres (7,610 km2). In 2017, the monument's size was reduced by half in a succeeding presidential proclamation, and it was restored in 2021. The land is among the most remote in the country; it was the last to be mapped in the contiguous United States.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is an American national park located in western Colorado and managed by the National Park Service. There are two primary entrances to the park: the south rim entrance is located 15 miles (24 km) east of Montrose, while the north rim entrance is 11 miles (18 km) south of Crawford and is closed in the winter. The park contains 12 miles (19 km) of the 48-mile (77 km) long Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. The national park itself contains the deepest and most dramatic section of the canyon, but the canyon continues upstream into Curecanti National Recreation Area and downstream into Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. The canyon's name owes itself to the fact that parts of the gorge only receive 33 minutes of sunlight a day, according to Images of America: The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. In the book, author Duane Vandenbusche states, "Several canyons of the American West are longer and some are deeper, but none combines the depth, sheerness, narrowness, darkness, and dread of the Black Canyon."
Lake Powell is an artificial reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It is the second largest artificial reservoir by maximum water capacity in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing 24,322,000 acre-feet (3.0001×1010 m3) of water when full. However, Lake Mead has fallen below Lake Powell in size several times during the 21st century in terms of volume of water, depth and surface area.
The City of Rocks National Reserve, also known as the Silent City of Rocks, is a United States National Reserve and state park in south-central Idaho, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the border with Utah. It is widely known for its enormous granite rock formations and excellent rock climbing.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is a national recreation area and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyon in Utah and Arizona, covering 1,254,429 acres (5,076.49 km2) of mostly rugged high desert terrain. The recreation area is named for Glen Canyon, which was flooded by the Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966, and is now mostly submerged beneath the waters of Lake Powell.
Glen Canyon is a natural canyon carved by a 169.6-mile (272.9 km) length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends, at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty Devil River. A small part of the lower end of Glen Canyon extends into northern Arizona and terminates at Lee's Ferry, near the Vermilion Cliffs. Like the Grand Canyon farther downstream, Glen Canyon is part of the immense system of canyons carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries.
Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River located near the town of Page, Arizona, United States. It is also referred to as the "east rim of the Grand Canyon."
The Old Spanish Trail is a historical trade route that connected the northern New Mexico settlements of Santa Fe, New Mexico with those of Los Angeles, California and southern California. Approximately 700 mi (1,100 km) long, the trail ran through areas of high mountains, arid deserts, and deep canyons. It is considered one of the most arduous of all trade routes ever established in the United States. Explored, in part, by Spanish explorers as early as the late 16th century, the trail was extensively used by traders with pack trains from about 1830 until the mid-1850s.
Hole-in-the-Rock or Hole in the Rock may refer to:
Mount Carmel Junction and Mount Carmel are unincorporated communities located 12 miles (19 km) east of Zion National Park and 17 miles (27 km) north of Kanab in Kane County, Utah, United States. They lie in close proximity to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.
Angels Landing, known previously as the Temple of Aeolus, is a 1,488-foot (454 m) tall rock formation in Zion National Park in southwestern Utah, United States. A renowned trail cut into solid rock in 1926 leads to the top of Angels Landing and provides panoramic views of Zion Canyon.
The Hole in the Rock Trail is a historic trail running east-southeast from the town of Escalante in southern Utah in the western United States. The Mormon trailblazers who established this trail crossed the Colorado River and ended their journey in the town of Bluff. The Hole-in-the-Rock expedition established the trail in 1879. The trail is located within the borders of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, the adjacent Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public land to the east of the Colorado River. A geologic feature called the Hole in the Rock gave the trail its name. A modern unpaved road called the Hole-in-the-Rock Road closely follows this historic trail to the point where it enters the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The modern road is an important access route for visiting the Canyons of the Escalante and the Devils Garden. The trail is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, being added to that list in 1982.
The Bridger Trail, also known as the Bridger Road and Bridger Immigrant Road, was an overland route connecting the Oregon Trail to the gold fields of Montana. Gold was discovered in Virginia City, Montana in 1863, prompting settlers and prospectors to find a trail to travel from central Wyoming to Montana. In 1863, John Bozeman and John Jacobs scouted the Bozeman Trail, which was a direct route to the Montana gold fields through the Powder River Country. At the time the region was controlled by the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho, who stepped up their raids in response to the stream of settlers along the trail.
The Great Western Trail is a north-south long distance multiple use route that runs from Canada to Mexico through five western states in the United States. The trail has access for both motorized and non-motorized users and traverses 4,455 miles (7,170 km) through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. It was designated a National Millennium Trail in 1999.
Buttes of the Cross is two sandstone summits located in the northern reach of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, in Wayne County of Utah, United States. The larger and higher south butte reaches an elevation of 5,642 feet, whereas the north butte rises to 5,569 feet, with approximately 0.6 miles (0.97 km) separation between them. When viewed from the north-northeast near Labyrinth Canyon, they align to form the shape of a cross, creating the appearance of a single butte. The name "Butte of the Cross" was first applied by John Wesley Powell during the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869. A few miles further down the Green River, Powell finds that this geographical feature is two buttes when viewed from the east, so it was renamed Buttes of the Cross. Buttes of the Cross towers over 1,400 feet above its surrounding terrain. It is situated 6.8 miles west of Candlestick Tower, and one-half mile outside the boundary of Canyonlands National Park.
