Existing comment:
The High Plateaus of Utah:
Stairway to the Clouds:
The Paunsaugunt Plateau where you are standing was once connected to the Aquarius Plateau, 30 miles (50 km) across the valley. When the entire Rocky Mountain region began rising 16 million years ago, north-south faults split the vast tableland into seven separate plateaus. (Though most uplift occurred in the unimaginably distant past, recent seismograph readings indicate minute but ongoing activity.) Here at the southern end of the park the Paunsaugunt Plateau is 8,105 feet (2776cm) above sea level, almost 2,000 feet (600m) lower than the Aquarius.
"Of this vast region of unexcelled scenery in Utah and Arizona, Bryce Canyon National Park is but a short, narrow strip along the southeastern rim of the Paunsaugunt Plateau and this plateau is only one of the seven great tables that dominate the landscape of southern Utah."
-- Herbert E. Gregory, "A Geologic and Geographic Sketch of Bryce Canyon National Park, 1940 |