The 1,600-square-mile Kaiparowits Plateau rises thousands of feet from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area's Lake Powell to the south. In aerial imagery, it appears as a strip of slight green among the otherwise red rock landscape surrounding Lake Powell and the Colorado River in this region. The green is due to the pinyon-juniper woodland clinging to the high elevation of many plateau portions.
The Kaiparowits Plateau lies between the Grand Staircase region (to the west) and the Escalante Canyons region (to the northeast). The Paria River separates it from the proposed Grand Staircase National Monument.
This area is one of Utah's more scientifically significant landscapes due to its sedimentary rock formations containing an unbroken record of fossils spanning 30 million years of the Late Cretaceous Era. Life forms of all kinds are recorded here, including dinosaurs.
This monument includes the Grosvenor Arch, the Cottonwood Canyon Narrows, Hackberry Canyon, the Cockscomb, and the old Paria townsite. A small visitor center along the Scenic Byway in Cannonville, Utah, can be reached at 435-826-5640. This location is closed in the winter. See Escalante Canyons for nearby information.
