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Grand Staircase

Much of southern Utah and a bit of northern Arizona were folded into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in the Fall of 1996. The monument includes a great deal of land, much of which comprises what has come to be called the "Grand Staircase," a series of cliffs and rock layers distinct enough to be able to be seen from space.

The top of the staircase starts in the area of Bryce Canyon and travels downward and south to the Grand Canyon (see area map for place locations). Each of the various rock layers forming the staircase are spread out over large distances and have been durable enough to form cliffs as erosion washed away the softer layers. What is striking is that each of these layers has a typically distinctive color.

Starting from the top of the staircase and working southward we find:

• Pink Cliffs. Bryce Canyon National Park is probably the best example of this step. Much of the park itself is etched into the side of these cliffs.
• Gray Cliffs. These are located in the middle of the monument and are largely sediment deposits from streams and swamps. They also contain fossil fuel deposits.
• White Cliffs. Basically deposits of sand in ancient sand dunes, these cliffs can be seen in the Escalante and Calf Creek areas.
• Vermillion Cliffs. These reddish cliffs are at the south end of the monument and can be seen near Kanab, Utah. They are composed of deposited silt and desert dunes.

The base of the staircase is the Grand Canyon.

This virtual tour will look at Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, and parts of St. George, Utah, a city central to the area.

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Copyright © 2002 Tom Simondi, All Rights Reserved