Colorado Plateau Totally Explained

Everything about Colorado Plateau totally explained

The Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateaus Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. The province covers an area of 337,000 km² (130,000 mi.²) within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah, and northern Arizona. About 90% of the area is drained by the Colorado River and its main tributaries; the Green, San Juan and Little Colorado.
Geography The province is bounded by the Rocky Mountains, Uinta Mountains, Wasatch Mountains, Rio Grande Rift, Mogollon Rim and the Basin and Range. 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 the Colorado Plateau. It is composed of seven sections:

Uinta Basin Section
High Plateaus Section
Grand Canyon Section
Canyon Lands Section
Navajo Section
Datil-Mogollon Section
Acoma-Zuni Section.
Natural Resources
Petroleum The rocks of the Colorado Plateau are a source of oil and a major source of natural gas. Major petroleum deposits are present in 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.
Uranium The Colorado Plateau holds major uranium deposits. (See Uranium mining in Utah and Uranium mining in the United States).
Coal Major coal deposits are being mined in the Colorado Plateau in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Protected lands
This relatively high semi-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 the pueblos of the Anasazi culture. There are nine U.S. National Parks, a National Historical Park, sixteen 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, isn't a natural lake but a reservoir impounded by Glen Canyon Dam.
National parks (from south to north to south clockwise):
Petrified Forest National Park
Grand Canyon National Park
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Capitol Reef National Park
Canyonlands National Park
Arches National Park
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Mesa Verde National Park
Chaco Culture National Historical Park

National Monuments (alphabetical):

Aztec Ruins National Monument

Canyon De Chelly National Monument

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Colorado National Monument

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

El Malpais National Monument

El Morro National Monument

Hovenweep National Monument

Navajo National Monument

Natural Bridges National Monument

Rainbow Bridge National Monument

Sunset Crater National Monument

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument

Walnut Canyon National Monument

Wupatki National Monument Wilderness areas:

Kachina Peaks Wilderness

Strawberry Crater Wilderness

Kendrick Mountain Wilderness

Beaver Dam Mountains Wilderness

Pauite Wilderness

Grand Wash Cliffs Wilderness

Mount Logan Wilderness

Mount Trumbull Wilderness

Kanab Creek Wilderness

Cottonwood Point Wilderness

Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness

Saddle Mountain Wilderness

Mount Baldy Wilderness

Escudilla Wilderness

Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness

Flat Tops Wilderness

Uncompahgre Wilderness

Mount Sneffels Wilderness

Lizard Head Wilderness

Weminuche Wilderness

South San Juan Wilderness

Cebolla Wilderness

West Malpais Wilderness

Bisti-De-Na-Zin Wilderness

Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness

Ashdown Gorge Wilderness

Box Death Hollow Wilderness

Dark Canyon Wilderness

High Uintas Wilderness

Other notable protected areas include: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Dead Horse Point State Park, Goosenecks State Park, the San Rafael Swell, the Grand Gulch Primitive Area, Kodachrome Basin State Park, Goblin Valley State Park and Barringer Crater.

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Everything about Colorado Plateau totally explained

Natural Resources

Protected lands