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97-693: Cataract Canyon is cut by the Colorado River into the Colorado Plateau , a vast continental uplift comprising much of the American Southwest. Until approximately 80 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau was near sea level. Over millions of years, a series of inland oceans transgressed onto and regressed from the region, resulting in a series of horizontally deposited rock layers. Approximately 70 to 80 million years ago,

194-612: A continental margin throughout the late Precambrian and most of the Paleozoic era. Igneous rocks injected millions of years later form a marbled network through parts of the Colorado Plateau's darker metamorphic basement. By 600 million years ago North America had been leveled off to a remarkably smooth surface. Throughout the Paleozoic Era, tropical seas periodically inundated the Colorado Plateau region. Thick layers of limestone, sandstone, siltstone, and shale were laid down in

291-401: A cooler, wetter climate. This increased erosion at higher elevations with the introduction of alpine glaciers while mid-elevations were attacked by frost wedging and lower areas by more vigorous stream scouring. Pluvial lakes also formed during this time. Glaciers and pluvial lakes disappeared and the climate warmed and became drier with the start of Holocene epoch. The Colorado Plateau

388-675: A five-month out-and-back trip through much of the Plateau in 1776–1777. Despite having lost one arm in the American Civil War , U.S. Army Major and geologist John Wesley Powell explored the area in 1869 and 1872. Using wooden oak boats and small groups of men, the Powell Geographic Expedition charted this largely unknown region of the United States for the federal government. Construction of

485-537: A person or event, though unlike a National Historical Site, may or may not be placed at a specific historical location. Several national memorials are on the National Mall , such as the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial . National seashores and national lakeshores offer preservation of the national coast line, while supporting water–based recreation. Cape Hatteras National Seashore

582-676: A popular whitewater rafting destination today. The rapids in the canyon are generally considered "big water", with a character similar to those found in Grand Canyon . Cataract Canyon is rated on the Class I-VI International Scale of River Difficulty , unlike the Grand Canyon, which is rated on a scale of one to ten. Also, unlike Grand Canyon, the flow of the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon

679-454: A result of uplift bending the rock units. Eroded monoclines leave steeply tilted resistant rock called a hogback and the less steep version is a cuesta. Great tension developed in the crust, probably related to changing plate motions far to the west. As the crust stretched, the Basin and Range Province broke up into a multitude of down-dropped valleys and elongate mountains. Major faults, such as

776-659: A seaway along the passive western edge of the continent in the early Paleozoic. At the canyon rim is the Kaibab Formation, limestone deposited in the late Paleozoic (Permian) about 270 million years ago. A 12,000-to-15,000-foot high (3,700 to 4,600 m) extension of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains called the Uncompahgre Mountains were uplifted and the adjacent Paradox Basin subsided. Almost 4 mi. (6.4 km) of sediment from

873-831: A series of mountain-building events called the Laramide orogeny uplifted the entire region. The Colorado River subsequently cut through the rock layers, exposing them. The oldest rock layer visible in Cataract Canyon is the Paradox Formation, which was deposited approximately 320 million years ago. Indigenous peoples , most likely of the Fremont culture , inhabited the Canyonlands area long before European settlers arrived. Rock art and ruins, at least 800 years old, have been found in Cataract Canyon. Because of

970-537: A special resource study of a site to determine its national significance and suitability to be part of the National Park System. The NPS uses over 20 different titles for the park units it manages, including national park and national monument . National parks preserve nationally and globally significant scenic areas and nature reserves. National monuments preserve a single unique cultural or natural feature. Devils Tower National Monument

1067-533: 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 Colorado Plateau is largely made up of high desert, with scattered areas of forests. In the south-west corner of the Colorado Plateau lies

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1164-676: Is New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve at 1,164,025 acres (4711 km ). The smallest is Benjamin Franklin National Memorial at less than 0.01 acres (40 m ). While there are laws generally covering all units of the National Park System, they are subject to management policies of individual pieces of authorizing legislation or, in the case of national monuments created under the Antiquities Act , Executive Order . For example, because of provisions within their enabling legislation, Congaree National Park

1261-521: Is Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve , Alaska. At 13,200,000 acres (53,000 km ), it is over 16 percent of the entire system. The smallest unit in the system is Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial , Pennsylvania , at 0.02 acres (80 m ). In addition to administering its units and other properties, the NPS also provides technical and financial assistance to several affiliated areas authorized by Congress. The largest affiliated area

1358-626: Is a volcanic structure with a history similar to that of the San Francisco Peaks: a basalt flow closer to Grants was extruded only about 3000 years ago (see El Malpais National Monument ). These young igneous rocks may record processes in the Earth's mantle that are eating away at deep margins of the relatively stable block of the Plateau. Tectonic activity resumed in Mid Cenozoic time and started to unevenly uplift and slightly tilt

1455-491: Is almost entirely a wilderness area devoid of development, yet Yosemite allows unique developments such as the Badger Pass Ski Area and the O'Shaughnessy Dam within its boundaries. Such irregularities would not be found in other parks unless specifically provided for with exceptions by the legislation that created them. Most NPS units have been established by an act of Congress, with the president confirming

1552-668: Is an agency of the United States federal government , within the US Department of the Interior . The service manages all national parks ; most national monuments ; and other natural, historical, and recreational properties, with various title designations. The United States Congress created the agency on August 25, 1916, through the National Park Service Organic Act . Its headquarters

1649-421: Is covered with dry grasslands and shrublands, open pinyon-juniper woodland , and mountain woodlands and forests. Electrical power generation is one of the major industries that takes place in the Colorado Plateau region. Most electrical generation comes from coal fired power plants. The rocks of the Colorado Plateau are a source of oil and a major source of natural gas . Major petroleum deposits are present in

1746-432: Is essential to a National Park Service that is science-informed at all organizational levels and able to respond with contemporary strategies for resource management and ultimately park stewardship." The "Revisiting Leopold" report mentioned climate change three times and "climate refugia" once, but it did not prescribe or offer any management tactics that could help parks managers with the problems of climate change. Hence,

1843-728: Is far enough downstream from a dam that it is generally unregulated. The river can reach extreme levels during the spring runoff in years following plentiful snow throughout the Colorado River watershed. During an average spring runoff, the Colorado River will peak at approximately 52,000 cu ft/s (1,500 m/s). The maximum recorded flow of 114,900 cu ft/s (3,250 m/s) occurred on May 27, 1984. The rapids of Cataract Canyon become difficult at flows above 30,000 cu ft/s (850 m/s) and extreme at flows above 50,000 cu ft/s (1,400 m/s). Most rapids in Cataract Canyon are simply named from upstream to downstream as Rapid 1, Rapid 2, etc. However, some rapids within

1940-586: Is in Washington, D.C. , within the main headquarters of the Department of the Interior. The NPS employs about 20,000 people in 431 units covering over 85 million acres (0.34 million km ) in all 50 states , the District of Columbia, and US territories . In 2019, the service had more than 279,000 volunteers. The agency is charged with preserving the ecological and historical integrity of

2037-404: Is increasingly untenable, presenting practical and philosophical challenges for managers. As formerly familiar ecological conditions continue to change, bringing novelty, surprise, and uncertainty, natural resource managers require a new, shared approach to make conservation decisions.... The RAD (Resist-Accept-Direct) decision framework has emerged over the past decade as a simple tool that captures

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2134-489: Is not a complicated site. National historical parks are larger areas with more complex subjects. Historic sites may also be protected in other unit types. National military parks , battlefield parks , battlefield sites , and battlefields preserve areas associated with military history. The different designations reflect the complexity of the event and the site. Many of the sites preserve important Revolutionary War battles and Civil War battlefields. Military parks are

2231-679: Is not a natural lake but a reservoir impounded by Glen Canyon Dam . National parks (from south to north to south clockwise): National monuments (alphabetical): Wilderness areas (alphabetical): Other notable protected areas include: Barringer Crater , Dead Horse Point State Park , Glen Canyon National Recreation Area , Goblin Valley State Park , Goosenecks State Park , the Grand Gulch Primitive Area , Kodachrome Basin State Park , Monument Valley , and

2328-619: Is now covered by Lake Powell. The first organized exploration to travel the entire length of Cataract Canyon was the Powell Expedition in 1869, led by John Wesley Powell , a one-armed Civil War veteran who launched in wooden boats near Green River, Wyoming and traveled down the Green River to its confluence with the Colorado River at the top of Cataract Canyon. The rapids of Cataract Canyon terrified Powell and his men. The expedition portaged their boats around every rapid in

2425-955: The Uinta Mountains and Wasatch Mountains branches of the Rockies in northern and central Utah. It is also bounded by the Rio Grande rift , Mogollon Rim , and the Basin and Range Province (at the Hurricane Fault ). Isolated ranges of the Southern Rocky Mountains , such as the San Juan Mountains in Colorado and the La Sal Mountains in Utah, intermix into the central and southern parts of

2522-402: The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Much of the Plateau's landscape is related to the Grand Canyon in both appearance and geologic history. The nickname "Red Rock Country" suggests the brightly colored rock left bare to the view by dryness and erosion. Domes , hoodoos , fins , reefs , river narrows , natural bridges , and slot canyons are only some of the additional features typical of

2619-726: The Hoover Dam in the 1930s and the Glen Canyon Dam in the 1960s changed the character of the Colorado River. Dramatically reduced sediment load changed its color from reddish brown ( Colorado is Spanish for "red-colored") to mostly clear. The apparent green color is from algae on the riverbed's rocks, not from any significant amount of suspended material. The lack of sediment has also starved sand bars and beaches, but an experimental 12-day-long controlled flood from Glen Canyon Dam in 1996 showed substantial restoration. Similar floods are planned for every 5 to 10 years. One of

2716-456: The Mesozoic era the region was affected by a series of orogenies ( mountain -building events) that deformed western North America and caused a great deal of uplift. Eruptions from volcanic mountain ranges to the west buried vast regions beneath ashy debris. Short-lived rivers, lakes, and inland seas left sedimentary records of their passage. Streams, ponds and lakes produced formations such as

2813-711: The National Park Service sometimes establishes a camp below the big drops and uses a jetboat to facilitate rescues of capsized rafts and their passengers. However, it is generally understood that all river runners attempting Cataract Canyon at any river level should be capable of self-rescue and not depend on the NPS for support. Cataract Canyon historically contained several rapids, which are currently submerged beneath Lake Powell and have been buried in lake sediment. "Gypsum Canyon Rapid" and "Dark Canyon Rapid" were considered very difficult rapids to navigate. River trips that run Cataract Canyon must also run one of

2910-716: The National Wilderness Preservation System , which consists of federally managed lands that are of a pristine condition, established by the Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577) in 1964. The National Wilderness Preservation System originally created hundreds of wilderness zones within already protected federally administered property, consisting of over 9 million acres (36,000 km ). Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) began with Executive Order 13158 in May 2000, when official MPAs were established for

3007-728: The San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Colorado, the Uinta Basin of Utah, the Piceance Basin of Colorado, and the Paradox Basin of Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. The Colorado Plateau holds major uranium deposits, and there was a uranium boom in the 1950s. The Atlas Uranium Mill near Moab has left a problematic tailings pile for cleanup. As of 2019 , 10 million tons of tailings had been relocated out of an estimated 16 million tons. Major coal deposits are being mined in

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3104-624: The San Rafael Swell . Sedona, Arizona and Oak Creek Canyon lie on the south-central border of the Plateau. Many but not all of the Sedona area's cliff formations are protected as wilderness ( Red Rock State Park and Coconino National Forest ). The area has the visual appeal of a national park, but with a small, rapidly growing town in the center. 37°N 110°W  /  37°N 110°W  / 37; -110 National Park Service The National Park Service ( NPS )

3201-547: The pueblos of the Ancestral Puebloan culture. There are nine U.S. National Parks , a National Historical Park, nineteen U.S. national monuments and dozens of wilderness areas in the province along with millions of acres in U.S. National Forests , many state parks, and other protected lands. In fact, this region has the highest concentration of parklands in North America. Lake Powell , in foreground,

3298-861: The 2021 report specific to the need for climate adaptation : "Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD): A Framework for the 21st-century Natural Resource Manager." This "Natural Resource Report" has ten authors. Among them are four associated with the National Park Service, three with the US Fish and Wildlife Service , and two with the US Geological Survey — all of which are government agencies within the US Department of Interior. The report's Executive Summary, points to "intensifying global change." "... The convention of using baseline conditions to define goals for today's resource management

3395-605: The Basin and Range means that the Colorado Plateau receives six to sixteen inches (15 to 40 cm) of annual precipitation. Higher areas receive more precipitation and are covered in forests of pine, fir, and spruce. Though it can be said that the Plateau roughly centers on the Four Corners, Black Mesa in northern Arizona is much closer to the east–west, north–south midpoint of the Plateau Province. Lying southeast of Glen Canyon and southwest of Monument Valley at

3492-795: The Chinle, Moenave, and Kayenta in the Mesozoic era. Later a vast desert formed the Navajo and Temple Cap formations and dry near-shore environment formed the Carmel (see geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area for details). The area was again covered by a warm shallow sea when the Cretaceous Seaway opened in late Mesozoic time. The Dakota Sandstone and the Tropic Shale were deposited in

3589-540: The Colorado Plateau in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, though large coal mining projects, such as on the Kaiparowits Plateau , have been proposed and defeated politically. The ITT Power Project, eventually located in Lynndyl, Utah , near Delta, was originally suggested for Salt Wash near Capitol Reef National Park. After a firestorm of opposition, it was moved to a less controversial site. In Utah

3686-466: The Colorado Plateau region and the region to the west some 20 million years ago (as much as 3 kilometers of uplift occurred). Streams had their gradient increased and they responded by downcutting faster. Headward erosion and mass wasting helped to erode cliffs back into their fault-bounded plateaus, widening the basins in-between. Some plateaus have been so severely reduced in size this way that they become mesas or even buttes . Monoclines form as

3783-489: The Colorado Plateau, but others do not. The mostly flat-lying sedimentary rock units that make up these plateaus are found in component plateaus that are between 4,900 to 11,000 feet (1,500 to 3,350 m) above sea level. A supersequence of these rocks is exposed in the various cliffs and canyons (including the Grand Canyon ) that make up the Grand Staircase . Increasingly younger east–west trending escarpments of

3880-528: The Colorado Plateau. It is composed of six sections: As the name implies, the High Plateaus Section is, on average, the highest section. North-south trending normal faults that include the Hurricane , Sevier, Grand Wash , and Paunsaugunt separate the section's component plateaus. This fault pattern is caused by the tensional forces pulling apart the adjacent Basin and Range Province to

3977-538: The Grand Staircase extend north of the Grand Canyon and are named for their color: Within these rocks are abundant mineral resources, including uranium, coal, petroleum, and natural gas. A study of the area's unusually clear geologic history (laid bare due to the arid and semiarid conditions) has greatly advanced that science. A rain shadow from the Sierra Nevada far to the west and the many ranges of

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4074-501: The Hurricane Fault, developed that separate the two regions. The dry climate was in large part a rainshadow effect resulting from the rise of the Sierra Nevada further west. Yet for some reason not fully understood, the neighboring Colorado Plateau was able to preserve its structural integrity and remained a single tectonic block. A second mystery was that while the lower layers of the Plateau appeared to be sinking, overall

4171-583: The Interior Stewart Udall . This report came to be referred to in later years by its chairman and principal author, A. Starker Leopold . The Leopold Report was just fourteen pages in length, but it set forth ecosystem management recommendations that would guide parks policy until it was revisited in 2012. The Leopold Report was the first concrete plan for managing park visitors and ecosystems under unified principles. Park management issues and controversies addressed in this report included

4268-494: The Interior bureau or program. The NPS budget is divided into two primary areas, discretionary and mandatory spending. Within each of these areas, there are numerous specific purposes to which Congress directs the services activities. The NPS budget includes discretionary spending which is broken out into two portions: the direct operations of the National Parks and the special initiatives. Listed separately are

4365-535: The NPS could not meet. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the NPS and began to bring park facilities up to the standards that the public was expecting. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower , Wirth began Mission 66 , a ten-year effort to upgrade and expand park facilities for the 50th anniversary of the Park Service. New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as

4462-749: The NPS, the United States Forest Service , and the Bureau of Land Management are Bears Ears , Rainbow Bridge , Dinosaur , Hovenweep , Wupatki , Sunset Crater Volcano , Grand Staircase–Escalante , El Malpais , Natural Bridges , Canyons of the Ancients , Chaco Culture National Historical Park and the Colorado National Monument . This province is bounded by the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and by

4559-568: The National Park Service before embarking on a Cataract Canyon trip. 37°52′39″N 110°17′38″W  /  37.87750°N 110.29389°W  / 37.87750; -110.29389 Colorado Plateau 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 km (130,000 mi ) within western Colorado , northwestern New Mexico , southern and eastern Utah , northern Arizona , and

4656-472: The National Park Service, which have a wide variety of titles or designations. The system as a whole is considered to be a national treasure of the United States, and some of the more famous national parks and monuments are sometimes referred to as " crown jewels ". The system encompasses approximately 85.1 million acres (0.344 million km ), of which 2.6 million acres (0.011 million km ) remain in private ownership. The largest unit

4753-590: The Navajo Volcanic Field, produced about 25 million years ago. The Hopi Buttes in northeastern Arizona are held up by resistant sheets of sodic volcanic rocks, extruded about 7 million years ago. More recent igneous rocks are concentrated nearer the margins of the Colorado Plateau. The San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff , south of the Grand Canyon , are volcanic landforms produced by igneous activity that began in that area about 6 million years ago and continued until 1064 CE, when basalt erupted in Sunset Crater National Monument . Mount Taylor , near Grants, New Mexico ,

4850-482: The Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery and unique natural features to making parks accessible to the public. Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas . A 1963 report titled "Wildlife Management in the National Parks" was prepared by a five-member advisory board on Wildlife Management, appointed by United States Secretary of

4947-486: The Plateau was rising. The reason for this was discovered upon analyzing data from the USARRAY project. It was found that the asthenosphere had invaded the overlying lithosphere , as a result of an area of mantle upwelling stemming from either the disintegration of the descending Farallon Plate , or the survival of the subducted spreading center connected to the East Pacific Rise and Gorda Ridge beneath western North America, or possibly both. The asthenosphere erodes

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5044-415: The Plateau. The Colorado Plateau has the greatest concentration of U.S. National Park Service (NPS) units in the country outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Among its nine national parks are Grand Canyon , Zion , Bryce Canyon , Capitol Reef , Canyonlands , Arches , Black Canyon , Mesa Verde , and Petrified Forest . Among its 18 national monuments and other protected areas managed by

5141-418: The Wasatch Fault that lies along the Wasatch Range form the boundaries between the plateaus in the High Plateaus Section. The Uinta Basin, Uncompahgre Uplift, and the Paradox Basin were also formed by movement along structural weaknesses in the region's oldest rock. In Utah, the province includes several higher fault-separated plateaus : Some sources also include the Tushar Mountain Plateau as part of

5238-401: The action by signing the act into law. The exception, under the Antiquities Act , allows the president to designate and protect areas as national monuments by executive order. Regardless of the method used, all parks are to be of national importance. A potential park should meet all four of the following standards: Before creation of a new unit, Congress typically directs the NPS to conduct

5335-436: The canyon have separate names due to their location or notoriety. Particularly notorious are the "Big Drops", a set of three rapids in short succession named "Big Drop 1", "Big Drop 2" and "Big Drop 3". During high water, these three rapids essentially run together to form one very large rapid. These rapids contain many large hydraulic features, including "Little Niagara", "Satan's Gut", and "The Claw". During times of high runoff,

5432-454: The canyon in 1894. Galloway would later pioneer rowing techniques still used by river runners today. Brothers Emery and Ellsworth Kolb traveled through the canyon in 1911. The Kolb brothers eventually established a studio on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, where they featured videos of their exploits running the rapids of the Colorado River. Buzz Holmstrom made a solo trip through Cataract Canyon and Grand Canyon in 1937, eventually ending at

5529-423: The canyon, a difficult and arduous task. Because of the difficulty of the rapids, Powell named the canyon Cataract Canyon. After exiting Cataract Canyon, Powell continued his trip downstream through Glen Canyon, now submerged by Lake Powell , and ultimately the Grand Canyon before ending his trip near the mouth of the Virgin River . Other river runners soon followed. Nathanial Galloway made numerous trips through

5626-410: The concession-run campgrounds (1.42 million). In 2019, the NPS had an annual budget of $ 4.085 billion and an estimated $ 12 billion maintenance backlog. On August 4, 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act was signed into law reducing the $ 12 billion maintenance backlog by $ 9.5 billion over a 5-year period beginning in FY 2021. As of 2022, the NPS had the largest budget allocation of any Department of

5723-415: The creation of the NPS. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act that mandated the agency "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations". Mather became the first director of

5820-474: The difficulties of managing elk populations in Yellowstone National Park and how "overprotection from natural ground fires" in California's Sequoia National Park , Kings Canyon National Park , and Yosemite National Park had begun to threaten groves of Giant Sequoia with catastrophic wildfires. The report also established a historical baseline that read, "The goal of managing the national parks and monuments should be to preserve, or where necessary to recreate,

5917-413: The ecologic scene as viewed by the first European visitors." This baseline would guide ecological restoration in national parks until a climate change adaptation policy, "Resist-Adapt-Direct", was established in 2021. National Parks director Jonathan Jarvis charged the twelve-member NPS Advisory Board Science Committee to take a fresh look at the ecological issues and make recommendations for updating

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6014-587: The entire decision space for responding to ecosystems facing the potential for rapid, irreversible ecological change." Here, the iconic species of Joshua Tree National Park is a leading example. The three RAD options are: The "Resist-Accept-Direct" Framework is first described in a July 2020 paper published in Fisheries Eighteen researchers from federal and state agencies and universities collaborated in this effort, which included short case studies of where and how this framework has already been applied. The National Park System includes all properties managed by

6111-404: The first time. The initial listing of U.S. areas was presented in 2010, consisting of areas already set aside under other legislation. The NPS has 19 park units designated as MPAs. The National Park System received over 325 million recreation visits in 2023. Park visitation grew 64 percent between 1979 and 2015. The 10 most-visited units of the National Park System handle around 30 percent of

6208-439: The flatwater sections above the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. Most groups launch at Potash (on the Colorado River) or Mineral Bottom (on the Green River) and spend up to five days on the river before entering Cataract Canyon. Motorized trips can make the trip into Cataract Canyon in less time, often one day. In addition to the flatwater at the beginning of the trip, all groups must traverse Lake Powell before reaching

6305-404: The interval from 20 to 31 million years: some igneous intrusions in these mountains form laccoliths , a form of intrusion recognized by Grove Karl Gilbert during his studies of the Henry Mountains . Ship Rock (also called Shiprock ), in northwestern New Mexico, and Church Rock and Agathla , near Monument Valley , are erosional remnants of potassium-rich igneous rocks and associated breccias of

6402-739: The largest deposits are in aptly named Carbon County. In Arizona the biggest operation is on Black Mesa , supplying coal to Navajo Power Plant. Perhaps the only one of its kind, a gilsonite plant near Bonanza, southeast of Vernal, Utah , mines this unique, lustrous, brittle form of asphalt, for use in "varnishes, paints,...ink, waterproofing compounds, electrical insulation,...roofing materials." This relatively high, semi-arid to arid province produces many distinctive erosional features such as arches, arroyos , canyons, cliffs, fins, natural bridges , pinnacles, hoodoos , and monoliths that, in various places and extents, have been protected. Also protected are areas of historic or cultural significance, such as

6499-488: The lower levels of the Plateau. At the same time, as it cools, it expands and lifts the upper layers of the Plateau. Eventually, the great block of Colorado Plateau crust rose a kilometer higher than the Basin and Range. As the land rose, the streams responded by cutting ever deeper stream channels. The most well-known of these streams, the Colorado River , began to carve the Grand Canyon less than 6 million years ago. The Pleistocene epoch brought periodic ice ages and

6596-440: The most geologically intriguing features of the Colorado Plateau is its remarkable stability. Relatively little rock deformation such as faulting and folding has affected this high, thick crustal block within the last 600 million years or so, although there are some newer features such as the Waterpocket Fold of Capitol Reef (estimated 50–70 million years old). In contrast, provinces that have suffered severe deformation surround

6693-428: The most popular areas do charge entrance fees. Fees vary site to site and are charged either on a per-vehicle or per-person basis, with most passes valid for 7 days. The America the Beautiful Pass series waives the per-vehicle fee or per-person fee for the holder and up to 3 other adults (children age 15 and younger are admitted for free at most sites). Annual passes for single areas are also available for those who visit

6790-402: The mountains and evaporites from the sea were deposited (see geology of the Canyonlands area for detail). Most of the formations were deposited in warm shallow seas and near-shore environments (such as beaches and swamps) as the seashore repeatedly advanced and retreated over the edge of a proto-North America (for detail, see geology of the Grand Canyon area ). The province was probably on

6887-499: The newly constructed Hoover Dam . The first commercial outfitter to offer trips through Cataract Canyon was Norman Nevills in 1938. The advent of rubber rafts came about in the early 1950s with the availability of surplus rubber rafts from World War II . River runners found the rubber rafts easier to maneuver and much more forgiving than their wooden counterparts. With this newer equipment, many commercial outfitters began running Grand Canyon and Cataract Canyon. Cataract Canyon remains

6984-671: The newly formed NPS. On March 3, 1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933. The act gave the president the authority to transfer national monuments from one governmental department to another. Later that summer, new president Franklin D. Roosevelt made use of this power after NPS Deputy Director Horace M. Albright suggested that the NPS, rather than the War Department , should manage historic American Civil War sites. President Roosevelt agreed and issued two executive orders to implement

7081-597: The north end of the Hopi Reservation, this remote coal-laden highland has about half of the Colorado Plateau's acreage north of it, half south of it, half west of it, and half east of it. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists divides the Colorado Plateau into four geologic provinces. These are: The Ancestral Puebloan People lived in the region from roughly 2000 to 700 years ago. A party from Santa Fe led by Fathers Dominguez and Escalante , unsuccessfully seeking an overland route to California, made

7178-483: The oldest ages recorded by these rocks fall from 1950 to 1680 million years. An erosion surface on the Vishnu Basement Rocks is covered by sedimentary rocks and basalt flows, and these rocks formed in the interval from about 1250 to 750 million years ago: in turn, they were uplifted and split into a range of fault-block mountains . Erosion greatly reduced this mountain range before the encroachment of

7275-553: The original Leopold Report. The committee published their 23-page report in 2012, titled, "Revisiting Leopold: Resource Stewardship in the National Parks". The report recommended that parks leadership "manage for change while confronting uncertainty." "... New and emerging scientific disciplines — including conservation biology, global change science, and genomics — along with new technological tools like high-resolution remote sensing can provide significant information for constructing contemporary tactics for NPS stewardship. This knowledge

7372-400: The overall visits. The top 10 percent of parks (43) handle over 64 percent of all visits, leaving the remaining more than 380 units to accommodate around 36 percent of visits. (Note that only 380 sites recorded visitors during 2021 due to COVID-19-related closures). Most areas of the National Park System do not charge entrance fees and are completely supported by tax dollars, although some of

7469-533: The places entrusted to its management and with making them available for public use and enjoyment. Artist George Catlin , during an 1832 trip to the Dakotas, was perhaps the first to suggest the concept of a national park. Indian civilization, wildlife, and wilderness were all in danger, wrote Catlin, unless they could be preserved "by some great protecting policy of government   ... in a magnificent park   ... A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all

7566-594: The plateau. Mountain building thrust up the Rocky Mountains to the north and east and tremendous, earth-stretching tension produced the Basin and Range Province to the west and south. Sub ranges of the Southern Rocky Mountains are scattered throughout the Colorado Plateau. The Precambrian and Paleozoic history of the Colorado Plateau is best revealed near its southern end, where the Grand Canyon has exposed rocks with ages that span almost 2 billion years. The oldest rocks at river level are igneous and metamorphic and have been lumped together as Vishnu Basement Rocks ;

7663-464: The region, which acted as a rigid crustal block. The Colorado Plateau Province was uplifted largely as a single block, possibly due to its relative thickness. This relative thickness may be why compressional forces from the orogeny were mostly transmitted through the province instead of deforming it. Pre-existing weaknesses in Precambrian rocks were exploited and reactivated by the compression. It

7760-405: The remote location, it was some time before European explorers and settlers reached the area. The Colorado River and its canyons were more of an obstacle to travel than a destination to be explored. The first recorded European to reach Cataract Canyon was a fur trapper named Denis Julien in 1836. Julien carved his name into a rock wall in the lower section of Cataract Canyon, though this inscription

7857-582: The reorganization. These two executive orders transferred to the NPS all of the War Department's historic sites as well as national monuments that the Department of Agriculture had managed and parks in and around Washington, D.C. that an independent federal office had previously operated. The popularity of the parks after the end of the World War II left them overburdened with demands that

7954-429: The same site often. Over 15 million visitors spent a night in one of the national park units during 2015. The largest number (3.68 million) were tent campers. The second largest group (3.38 million) stayed in one of the lodges, followed by miscellaneous stays (on boats, group sites—2.15 million). The last three groups of over-night visitors included RV campers (2.26 million), backcountry campers (2.02 million) and users of

8051-519: The sandstone is predominantly of eolian origin and locally more than 500 meters thick. The Chuska Sandstone caps the Chuska Mountains , and it lies unconformably on Mesozoic rocks deformed during the Laramide orogeny . Younger igneous rocks form spectacular topographic features. The Henry Mountains , La Sal Range , and Abajo Mountains , ranges that dominate many views in southeastern Utah, are formed about igneous rocks that were intruded in

8148-462: The shallow marine waters. During times when the seas retreated, stream deposits and dune sands were deposited or older layers were removed by erosion. Over 300 million years passed as layer upon layer of sediment accumulated. It was not until the upheavals that coincided with the formation of the supercontinent Pangea began about 250 million years ago that deposits of marine sediment waned and terrestrial deposits dominate. In late Paleozoic and much of

8245-425: The site. Big Cypress National Preserve and Big Thicket National Preserve were created in 1974 as the first national preserves. National reserves are similar to national preserves, but the operational authority can be placed with a state or local government. New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve was the first to be established in 1978. National historic sites protect a significant cultural resource that

8342-506: The sites of larger actions, such as Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park , Vicksburg National Military Park , Gettysburg National Military Park , and Shiloh National Military Park —the original four from 1890. Examples of battlefield parks , battlefield sites , and national battlefields include Richmond National Battlefield Park , Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site , and Antietam National Battlefield . National memorials are areas that officially memorialize

8439-517: The start of the Cenozoic era and were accompanied by some basaltic lava eruptions and mild deformation. The colorful Claron Formation that forms the delicate hoodoos of Bryce Amphitheater and Cedar Breaks was then laid down as sediments in cool streams and lakes (see geology of the Bryce Canyon area for details). The flat-lying Chuska Sandstone was deposited about 34 million years ago;

8536-533: The take-out at the Dirty Devil River or Hite Marina . Depending on the water level in Lake Powell, up to 35 miles (56 km) of lake water may be encountered by groups exiting the canyon. Several commercial outfitters offer guided trips through Cataract Canyon. These trips vary between one and six days and utilize both motorized and non-motorized vessels. Private groups must obtain a permit from

8633-423: The warm shallow waters of this advancing and retreating seaway. Several other formations were also produced but were mostly eroded following two major periods of uplift. The Laramide orogeny closed the seaway and uplifted a large belt of crust from Montana to Mexico, with the Colorado Plateau region being the largest block. Thrust faults in Colorado are thought to have formed from a slight clockwise movement of

8730-553: The west, making this section transitional. Occupying the southeast corner of the Colorado Plateau is the Datil Section. Thick sequences of mid- Tertiary to late- Cenozoic -aged lava covers this section. The development of the province has, in large part, been influenced by structural features in its oldest rocks. Part of the Wasatch Line and its various faults form the province's western edge. Faults that run parallel to

8827-451: The wild[ness] and freshness of their nature's beauty!" Yellowstone National Park was created as the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no state government to manage it (Wyoming was a U.S. territory at that time), so the federal government managed it directly through the army, including the famed African American Buffalo Soldier units. The movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands

8924-589: Was along these ancient faults and other deeply buried structures that much of the province's relatively small and gently inclined flexures (such as anticlines , synclines , and monoclines ) formed. Some of the prominent isolated mountain ranges of the Plateau, such as Ute Mountain and the Carrizo Mountains , both near the Four Corners , are cored by igneous rocks that were emplaced about 70 million years ago. Minor uplift events continued through

9021-420: Was created in 1937. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore , created in 1966, were the first national lakeshores. National rivers and wild and scenic riverways protect free-flowing streams over their length. The riverways may not be altered with dams, channelization, or other changes. Recreational pursuits are encouraged along the waterways. Ozark National Scenic Riverways

9118-684: Was created in 1968 and consists of two major components: National scenic trails are long-distance trails through some of the most scenic parts of the country. They received official protection in 1968. The Appalachian Trail is the best known. National historic trails commemorate the routes of major historic events. Some of the best known are the Trail of Tears , the Mormon Trail , and the Santa Fe Trail . These trails are administered by several federal agencies. Wilderness areas are part of

9215-504: Was established in 1964. National recreation areas originally were units surrounding reservoirs impounded by dams built by other federal agencies, the first being Lake Mead National Recreation Area . Some national recreation areas are in urban centers, such as Gateway National Recreation Area and Golden Gate National Recreation Area , which encompass significant cultural as well as natural resources. The National Trails System preserves long-distance routes across America. The system

9312-401: Was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather . With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard , Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior . They wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in

9409-509: Was the first in 1906. While the National Park Service holds the most national monuments, a monument may be managed or co-managed by a different entity such as the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service . National preserves are for the protection of certain resources and operate similar to many National Parks, but allow limited resource extraction. Activities like hunting, fishing, and some mining may be allowed depending on

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