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The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is remote; located far from cities, towns and highways, allowing the Kaibab Plateau to remain pristine and primitive. Although this is ideal for a national park, it does have its downfalls.
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Arches National Park is a United States National Park that is in Utah's Canyon Country near the town of Moab. It is home to the world's greatest concentration of natural arches, including the famous Delicate Arch that was seen all over the world during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Arches National Park preserves over 2,000 natural sandstone arches. This area contains the largest concentration of arches found any where in the world, including the world-famous Delicate Arch as seen on the Utah state license plate, in addition to a variety of unique geological resources and formations. In some areas, faulting has exposed millions of years of geologic history.The extraordinary features of the park, including balanced rocks, fins and pinnacles, are highlighted by a striking environment of contrasting colors, landforms and textures.
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The Bureau of Land Management established the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in 1996, and it covers a large section of southern Utah. It is named after striking features along Scenic Byway 12 region of southern Utah. “Grand Staircase” refers to a series of captivating cliffs and plateaus that rise from the Grand Canyon, beyond Bryce Canyon National Park to the Aquarius Plateau. “Escalante” stems from the extensive canyon system in the Escalante River Drainage which was named after an early Spanish explorer of the region. The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is one part of the most scenically diverse area in the world.
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Lake Powell is a storage facility for the Upper Basin states of the Colorado River Compact (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico). The Compact specifies that the Upper Basin states are to provide a minimum annual flow of 7,500,000 acre feet (9.3 km3) to the Lower Basin states (Arizona, Nevada, and California).
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