
Bears Ears National Monument
Explore Bears Ears
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Greater Cedar Mesa
The Cedar Mesa area encompasses up to 1.9 million acres and is home to more than 100,000 archaeological sites. For adventurers with a love of solitude, archaeology and geographic beauty, this area has it all.
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Indian Creek
Indian Creek, in the north of Bears Ears National Monument, is known as a rock climbing mecca. Whether you get up on the wall or decide to drive, it's easy to appreciate the scenery from a lower vantage point as you cruise the 41-mile state scenic byway.
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Shash Jaa
Shash Jaa is another name for "Bears Ears" and refers to the area surrounding the Bears Ears buttes, full of cliff dwellings and other remnants of ancient people.
Know Before You Go
Getting to Bears Ears
Drive time from:
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Salt Lake City International Airport — Five hours
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Moab — 75 minutes (Bluff, Blanding and Monticello are the closest cities)
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Monument Valley — 30 minutes
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Grand Junction Regional Airport, Colorado — Three hours
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Four Corners Monument — One hour
Visitor Information
There is no official visitor center in the area, but these resources will help you prepare. We recommend every trip to the area start with a visit to the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding or the Bears Ears Education Center in Bluff for helpful context and resources.
Bears Ears National Monument Day Hiking passes are required year-round for day hiking in the Bears Ears National Monument, visit recreation.gov to obtain a pass. If you go, consider traveling with a guide. There are many native-owned guide companies and outfitters in the region.
Monument Designation
On Oct. 8, 2021, President Biden issued a presidential proclamation modifying the boundaries for Bears Ears National Monument, which is made up of 1.36 million acres of public lands administered jointly with the BLM and U.S. Forest Service.
Basecamp Cities
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Blanding
Blanding mixes cowboy culture with Native American and prehistoric.
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Bluff
Rich in human and natural history, Bluff is a central point along the Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway. It is a gateway to Monument Valley, Bears Ears National Monument, Valley of the Gods and Hovenweep National Monument.
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Moab
Moab is surrounded by a sea of buckled, twisted and worn sandstone sculpted by millennia of sun, wind and rain
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Monticello
The southeastern Utah town of Monticello lies on the sheltered eastern slope of the Abajo Mountains, overlooking a maze of sandstone canyons and plateaus.
What's Nearby?
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Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands is home to many different types of travel experiences, from sublime solitude in the more remote stretches of the park to moderate hikes through the Needles district to the opportunity to create your own version of one of the West's most photographed landforms, Mesa Arch.
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Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum
Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding, Utah, is the site of a prehistoric Native American village. Explore history here!
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Four Corners Area
Visit the Four Corners area of Utah and learn about each of the Four Corners states--Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Plan your visit now!
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Goosenecks State Park
Located north of Mexican Hat, Goosenecks State Park is an easy-to-get-to area with a million-dollar view. The San Juan River begins in the mountains of Colorado and travels to its junction with the Colorado River at Lake Powell.
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Hovenweep National Monument
Hovenweep, the Ute Indian word meaning ‘deserted valley,' stands as a sentinel of Ancestral Puebloan ruins in a landscape of sage and juniper. Info from VisitUtah.com.
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Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
Monument Valley, Utah, an iconic symbol of the American West, is the sacred heart of the Navajo Nation and the ideal setting for your next adventure in the warm, high desert climate of southeastern Utah.
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Natural Bridges National Monument
As you start to descend toward Natural Bridges National Monument, the groundcover becomes more luxuriant and the trees taller. You cannot see the chaotic landscape of Natural Bridges from the highway, tucked away as it is off to the north.
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Newspaper Rock & Indian Creek Corridor
You’ll find the largest collection of Utah petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock along Indian Creek Scenic Byway west of US 191. Learn more!