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.
John Wesley Powell was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He is famous for his 1869 geographic expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, including the first official U.S. government-sponsored passage through the Grand Canyon.
The Narrows is the narrowest section of Zion Canyon in Zion National Park, Utah, United States. Situated on the North Fork of the Virgin River and upstream of the main canyon, The Narrows is one of the premier hikes in the park and on the Colorado Plateau. The Narrows refers to both the 3.6-mile (5.8 km) bottom-up hike from the Temple of Sinawava to Big Springs, as well as the 16-mile (26 km) top-down hike from Chamberlain's Ranch back to the Temple of Sinawava.
The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This plateau covers an area of 336,700 km2 (130,000 mi2) within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southern and eastern Utah, northern Arizona, and a tiny fraction in the extreme southeast of Nevada. About 90% of the area is drained by the Colorado River and its main tributaries: the Green, San Juan, and Little Colorado. Most of the remainder of the plateau is drained by the Rio Grande and its tributaries.
The Escalante River is a tributary of the Colorado River. It is formed by the confluence of Upper Valley and Birch Creeks near the town of Escalante in south-central Utah, and from there flows southeast for approximately 90 mi (140 km) before joining Lake Powell. Its watershed includes the high forested slopes of the Aquarius Plateau, the east slope of the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the high desert north of Lake Powell. It was the last river of its size to be discovered in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. The average discharge is approximately 146 cfs.
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.
The Roan Cliffs are a series of desert mountains and cliffs in eastern Utah and western Colorado, in the western United States that are distinct from the Book Cliffs.
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.
Kokopelli's Trail is a 142-mile (229 km) multi-use trail in Grand County, Utah, and Mesa County, Colorado, in the western United States. The trail was named in honor of its mythic muse, Kokopelli. The trail was created by the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA) in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the United States Forest Service (USFS) in 1989.
Ninemile Canyon is a canyon, approximately 40 miles (60 km) long, located in Carbon and Duchesne counties in eastern Utah, United States. Promoted as "the world's longest art gallery", the canyon is known for its extensive rock art, most of it created by the Fremont culture and the Ute people. The rock art, shelters, and granaries left behind by the Fremont make Ninemile Canyon a destination for archaeologists and tourists alike.
The San Juan Expedition was a group of Mormon settlers intent on establishing a colony in what is now southeastern Utah, in the western United States. Their difficult passage through the deep canyons of the Colorado River represents the ingenuity and determination needed during the country's era of western exploration and settlement.
The Canyons of the Escalante is a collective name for the erosional landforms created by the Escalante River and its tributaries—the Escalante River Basin. Located in southern Utah in the western United States, these sandstone features include high vertical canyon walls, numerous slot canyons, waterpockets, domes, hoodoos, natural arches and bridges. This area—extending over 1,500 square miles (3,885 km2) and rising in elevation from 3,600 ft (1,097 m) to over 11,000 ft (3,353 m)—is one of the three main sections of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, and also a part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, with Capitol Reef National Park being adjacent to the east.
Fortymile Gulch and Willow Gulch are tributaries of the Escalante River, located in Kane County in southern Utah, in the western United States. With a combined length of over 20 miles (30 km), they exhibit many of the geologic features found in the Canyons of the Escalante, including high vertical canyon walls, water pools, narrow slot canyons, domes, and arches. Popular recreational destinations, they are located within the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument.
The Canyon Lands Section of the Colorado Plateau is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division in the Western United States
Harper is a ghost town located in Ninemile Canyon in Carbon and Duchesne counties in Utah, United States. This stagecoach town came into existence in 1886. The nearest inhabited town is Wellington. The remaining buildings are located mostly on private property and permission must be granted before accessing them.
Desolation Canyon is a remote canyon on the Green River in eastern Utah, United States that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is said to be one of the most remote areas in the contiguous United States.
Cataract Canyon is a 46-mile-long (74 km) canyon of the Colorado River located within Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in southern Utah. It begins at Colorado's confluence with the Green River, and its downstream terminus is the confluence with the Dirty Devil River. The lower half of the canyon is submerged beneath Lake Powell when the lake is at its normal high water elevation of 3,700 feet (1,100 m).
Almon Harris Thompson, also known as A. H. Thompson, was an American topographer, geologist, explorer, educator and Civil War veteran. Often called "The Professor" or simply "Prof", Thompson is perhaps best known for being second in command of John Wesley Powell's Second Geographical Expedition (1871–1875), a federally funded scientific expedition that retraced the route of Powell's original expedition in order to further explore and map the drainages and canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers in what is now southern Utah and northern Arizona. Thompson's diary of the expedition was originally published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in 1939. Through his work on the Powell expeditions and later as a geographer at the U.S. Geological Survey, he was responsible for naming many geographic locations in the Western United States. Thompson is also known for being a founding member of the National Geographic Society.
Laguña Creek also formerly also known as Tyende Creek, is a stream in the Navajo and Apache Counties of Arizona. Laguña Creek has its source at 36°41′15″N110°30′36″W, at the confluence of Long Canyon and Dowozhiebito Canyon at an elevation of 6,325 feet at the head of Tsegi Canyon. Its mouth is in the Chinle Valley at its confluence with Chinle Wash which together forms Chinle Creek, at an elevation of 4,774 feet. Chinle Creek is a tributary of San Juan River which is in turn a tributary of the Colorado River.
Steamboat Mountain is a 7,410-foot-elevation (2,260-meter) summit located in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of northern Arizona, US. It is situated four miles northwest of Holy Grail Temple, and 2.5 miles west-southwest of Timp Point on the North Rim. George Wharton James described it as a "majestic butte", nearly encircled by Galloway and Saddle Canyons. Topographic relief is significant as it rises over 5,400 feet above the Colorado River in three miles. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Steamboat Mountain is located in a Cold semi-arid climate zone, with precipitation runoff draining west to the Colorado River via Tapeats Creek and Stone Creek. This feature's name was officially adopted in 1932 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
