Canyon Lands

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[1] The Canyon Lands are a desolate, but spectacularly scenic sandstone area of southeastern Utah and northeastern Arizona.

From the Wasatch Range and Aquarius Mountains on the west come other, but lesser, silt-laden streams, all carving the deep, winding canyons which have given this country its name and developed a weirdly dissected landscape.

Here the rocks show gorgeous colors in strata that are gently inclined and present a series of cliffs that are slowly migrating as weathering and erosion proceed.

There are bold escarpments bordering some of these plateaus, canyons with steep walls, and a group of mesas called the Tables of the Sun, and several national monuments containing natural bridges.

The Canyon Lands terminate, approximately, at a third, intermittent barrier formed by the Paria Plateau, Black Mesa, and the Chuska Mountains mass.