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82-886: The wash occupies a transition zone among the Colorado Plateau , the Great Basin , and the Mojave Desert ecosystems. Like all such zones, this area supports diverse vegetative communities and a rich array of wildlife. The wash begins in the Clover Mountains in Lincoln County, Nevada and flows south across very sparsely populated desert terrain. The area around the wash, including several protected wilderness areas , includes forests of Joshua trees along with other yuccas , cholla cactus , barrel cactus , Mormon Tea , and other grasses and shrubs,

164-679: 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

246-457: A common motivation for the continued protection of all national parks around the world. National parks are almost always accessible to the public. Usually national parks are developed, owned and managed by national governments, though in some countries with federal or devolved forms of government, "national parks" may be the responsibility of subnational, regional, or local authorities. The United States established Yellowstone National Park ,

328-401: 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

410-675: 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

492-514: A lower cost basis and a larger geographical coverage (in 1989 when created, it was the largest protected area in Asia). It includes four of the six tallest mountains in the world: Everest , Lhotse , Makalu , and Cho Oyu . The QNNP is contiguous to four Nepali national parks, creating a transnational conservation area equal in size to Switzerland. In 1993, the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park

574-488: A national park system, with the creation of the Nahuel Huapi National Park in 1934, through the initiative of Francisco Moreno . After World War II , national parks were founded all over the world. The United Kingdom designated its first national park, Peak District National Park , in 1951. This followed perhaps 70 years of pressure for greater public access to the landscape. By the end of

656-694: A national park. These include: While the term national park is now defined by the IUCN, many protected areas in many countries are called national park even when they correspond to other categories of the IUCN Protected Area Management Definition, for example: While national parks are generally understood to be administered by national governments (hence the name), in Australia, with the exception of six national parks, national parks are run by state governments and predate

738-546: A part of the Forest of Fontainebleau (France, 1861). Yellowstone was part of a federally governed territory . With no state government that could assume stewardship of the land, the federal government took on direct responsibility for the park, the official first national park of the United States. The combined effort and interest of conservationists, politicians and the Northern Pacific Railroad ensured

820-454: 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

902-659: 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

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984-401: Is a nature park designated for conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protected and owned by a government. Although governments hold different standards for national park designation, the conservation of 'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride is

1066-626: 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

1148-578: Is considered to be closer to a Park rather than a hunting preserve, is that Neapolitan government already considered the division into the present-day wilderness areas and non-strict nature reserves. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a "sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy." The painter George Catlin , in his travels through

1230-421: 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

1312-679: 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

1394-531: Is now Royal National Park was established just south of Sydney , Colony of New South Wales , on 26 April 1879, becoming the world's second official national park. Since Mackinac lost its national park status, the Royal National Park is, by some considerations, the second oldest national park now in existence. Banff National Park became Canada's first national park in 1885. New Zealand established Tongariro National Park in 1887. In Europe,

1476-411: Is perceived as a brand name that is associated with nature-based tourism and it symbolizes a "high quality natural environment with a well-designed tourist infrastructure". The duties of a park ranger are to supervise, manage, and/or perform work in the conservation and use of park resources. This involves functions such as park conservation; natural, historical, and cultural resource management; and

1558-585: Is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. The largest national park in the world meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park , which was established in 1974 and is 972,000 km (375,000 sq mi) in area. In 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a relatively large area with the following defining characteristics: In 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate

1640-1013: 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

1722-494: The 22nd United States Congress had enacted to set aside four sections of land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas , to protect the natural, thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides for the future disposal of the U.S. government. It was known as Hot Springs Reservation , but no legal authority was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877. The work of important leaders who fought for animal and land conservation were essential in

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1804-515: The American West , wrote during the 1830s that Native Americans in the United States might be preserved "(by some great protecting policy of government) ... in a magnificent park ... A nation's Park , containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty!" The first effort by the U.S. Federal government to set aside such protected lands was on 20 April 1832, when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation that

1886-568: The American frontier and were meant to be monuments to America's true history. Yet, in some instances, the lands that were to be set aside and protected in formerly colonized lands were already being inhabited by native communities, who were then removed off of these lands to create pristine sites for public consumption. Critics claim that the removal of people from national parks enhances the belief that nature can only be protected when humans do not exist within it, and that this leads to perpetuating

1968-530: The Federation of Australia ; similarly, national parks in the Netherlands are administered by the provinces. In Canada, there are both national parks operated by the federal government and provincial or territorial parks operated by the provincial and territorial governments, although nearly all are still national parks by the IUCN definition. In many countries, including Indonesia, the Netherlands, and

2050-708: 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 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

2132-726: 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

2214-619: 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 a tiny fraction in the extreme southeast of Nevada . About 90% of the area is drained by the Colorado River and its main tributaries :

2296-456: 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

2378-728: 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

2460-597: 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 A national park

2542-637: The Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias (later becoming Yosemite National Park ) to the state of California. According to this bill, private ownership of the land in this area was no longer possible. The state of California was designated to manage the park for "public use, resort, and recreation". Leases were permitted for up to ten years and the proceeds were to be used for conservation and improvement. A public discussion followed this first legislation of its kind and there

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2624-547: 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,

2706-572: The 431 sites managed by the National Park Service of the United States, only 63 carry the designation of National Park. Countries with a large ecotourism industry, such as Costa Rica, often experience a huge economic effect on park management as well as the economy of the country as a whole. Tourism to national parks has increased considerably over time. In Costa Rica for example, a megadiverse country , tourism to parks has increased by 400% from 1985 to 1999. The term national park

2788-605: 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

2870-795: 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

2952-540: 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

3034-466: 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

3116-489: 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

3198-528: 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

3280-538: 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

3362-501: 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

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3444-798: 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

3526-749: 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 ,

3608-607: 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

3690-652: The United Kingdom, national parks do not adhere to the IUCN definition, while some areas which adhere to the IUCN definition are not designated as national parks. As many countries do not adhere to the IUCN definition, the term "national park" may be used loosely. In the United Kingdom , and in some other countries such as Taiwan , a "national park" simply describes a general area that is relatively undeveloped, scenic, and attracts tourists, with some form of planning restrictions to ensure it maintains those characteristics. There may be substantial human settlements within

3772-619: 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

3854-408: The air is low in humidity and dry. Windy conditions also are common throughout the year. At 2,179.8 feet (664.4 m) elevation, Beaver Dam Wash is the lowest point in the state of Utah . 37°00′00″N 113°59′36″W  /  37.00000°N 113.99333°W  / 37.00000; -113.99333 Colorado Plateau The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic and desert region of

3936-484: The best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst." The first area to use "national park" in its creation legislation was the U.S.'s Mackinac National Park , in 1875. (The area was later transferred to the state's authority in 1895, thus losing its official "national park" status. ) Following the idea established in Yellowstone and Mackinac, there soon followed parks in other nations. In Australia, what

4018-448: The bounds of a national park. Conversely, parks that meet the criteria may be not be referred to as "national parks". Terms like "preserve" or "reserve" may be used instead. Starting in 1735 the Naples government undertook laws to protect Natural areas, which could be used as a game reserve by the royal family; Procida was the first protected site; the difference between the many previous royal hunting preserves and this one, which

4100-631: 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 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

4182-411: The creation of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and nearly 37 other national parks and monuments, another 44 years passed before an agency was created in the United States to administer these units in a comprehensive way – the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). The 64th United States Congress passed the National Park Service Organic Act , which President Woodrow Wilson signed into law on 25 August 1916. Of

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4264-429: The decade a further nine national parks had been designated in the UK. Europe has some 359 national parks as of 2010. The Vanoise National Park in the Alps was the first French national park, created in 1963 after public mobilization against a touristic project . In 1971, Lahemaa National Park in Estonia was the first area to be designated a national park in the former Soviet Union . In 1973, Mount Kilimanjaro

4346-519: The development and operation of interpretive and recreational programs for the benefit of the visiting public. Park rangers also have fire fighting responsibilities and execute search and rescue missions. Activities also include heritage interpretation to disseminate information to visitors of general, historical, or scientific information. Management of resources such as wildlife, lake shores, seashores, forests, historic buildings, battlefields, archaeological properties, and recreation areas are also part of

4428-506: The development of legal action. Some of these leaders include President Abraham Lincoln, Laurance Rockefeller, President Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson to name a few. John Muir is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" due to his work in Yosemite. He published two influential articles in The Century Magazine , which formed the base for the subsequent legislation. President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on 1 July 1864, ceding

4510-452: The dominion parks under the administration of the Dominion Park Branch (now Parks Canada ), within the Department of the Interior. The branch was established to "protect sites of natural wonder" to provide a recreational experience, centred on the idea of the natural world providing rest and spiritual renewal from the urban setting. Canada now has the largest protected area in the world with 450,000 km of national park space. Even with

4592-526: The first "public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people," in 1872. Although Yellowstone was not officially termed a "national park" at the time, in practice it is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. However, the Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve (in what is now Trinidad and Tobago; established in 1776) and the area surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Mountain (Mongolia, 1778), which were restricted from cultivation to protect surrounding farmland, are considered

4674-413: The first national parks were a set of nine parks in Sweden in 1909, followed by the Swiss National Park in 1914. Africa's first national park was established in 1925 when Albert I of Belgium designated an area of what is now Democratic Republic of Congo centred on the Virunga Mountains as the Albert National Park (since renamed Virunga National Park ). In 1895, the Groenkloof Nature Reserve

4756-404: 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

4838-707: The job of a park ranger. Since the establishment of the National Park Service in the US in 1916, the role of the park ranger has shifted from merely being a custodian of natural resources to include several activities that are associated with law enforcement. They control traffic, manage permits for various uses, and investigate violations, complaints, trespass/encroachment, and accidents. National parks in former European colonies have come under criticism for allegedly perpetuating colonialism . National parks were created by individuals who felt that pristine, natural sections of nature should be set aside and preserved from urban development. In America, this movement came about during

4920-739: 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

5002-488: 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

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5084-461: The mid-50s to 60s degrees Fahrenheit. Winter lows are usually in the 40s to high 20s Fahrenheit. Summer highs are commonly over 100 °F (38 °C) Fahrenheit with lows in the mid-80s Fahrenheit. Flash floods are common in the area when heavy summer monsoon thunderstorms dump heavy amounts of rain in short times, causing water to fill washes and gulleys in the area. Most precipitation comes in concentrated storms that are infrequent. Generally,

5166-440: 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

5248-402: 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

5330-530: 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

5412-410: 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

5494-414: The oldest legally protected areas . Parks Canada , established on May 19, 1911, is the world's oldest national park service. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) have defined "National Park" as its Category II type of protected areas . According to the IUCN, 6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006. IUCN

5576-417: The passage of enabling legislation by the United States Congress to create Yellowstone National Park. Theodore Roosevelt and his group of conservationists, the Boone and Crockett Club , were active campaigners and were highly influential in convincing fellow Republicans and big business to back the bill. Yellowstone National Park soon played a pivotal role in the conservation of these national treasures, as it

5658-594: 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 ;

5740-421: The primary vegetation in the area. Animal life in the area consists of a variety of lizards, mammals, birds, insects, and other creatures found in the Mojave Desert. The lower elevations provide designated critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise and other native species, such as desert bighorn sheep , gila monster , and mojave rattlesnake . Winters are mild, with temperatures reaching highs from

5822-404: 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

5904-574: 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

5986-462: 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

6068-517: 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;

6150-423: 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

6232-553: 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

6314-645: Was a heated debate over whether the government had the right to create parks. The perceived mismanagement of Yosemite by the Californian state was the reason why Yellowstone was put under national control at its establishment six years later. In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States' first national park, being also the world's first national park. In some European and Asian countries, however, national protection and nature reserves already existed - though typically as game reserves and recreational grounds set aside for royalty, such as

6396-529: 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

6478-602: Was classified as a National Park and was opened to public access in 1977. In 1989, the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve (QNNP) was created to protect 3.381 million hectares on the north slope of Mount Everest in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. This national park is the first major global park to have no separate warden and protection staff—all of its management consists of existing local authorities, allowing

6560-515: Was established as the first game sanctuary in Africa. In 1926, the government of South Africa designated Kruger National Park as the nation's first national park, although it was an expansion of the earlier Sabie Game Reserve established in 1898 by President Paul Kruger of the old South African Republic , after whom the park was named. Argentina became the third country in the Americas to create

6642-601: Was established in Jamaica to conserve and protect 41,198 hectares, including tropical montane rainforest and adjacent buffer areas. The site includes Jamaica's tallest peak ( Blue Mountain Peak ), hiking trails and a visitor center. The Park was also designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. The world's first national park service was established May 19, 1911, in Canada. The Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act placed

6724-595: Was suffering at the hands of poachers and others who stood at the ready to pillage what they could from the area. Theodore Roosevelt and his newly formed Boone and Crockett Club successfully took the lead in protecting Yellowstone National Park from this plight, resulting in laws designed to conserve the natural resources in Yellowstone and other parks under the Government's purview. American Pulitzer Prize -winning author Wallace Stegner wrote: "National parks are

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