Science in Practice Portal

A magic land of wild canyons, high windswept plateaus, rugged volcanic mountains, arid sand deserts, and bizarre shale badlands, the Colorado Plateau encompasses some 130,000 square miles between the Rocky Mountain and Basin and Range physiographic provinces (see Map). There, even the casual observer can understand many of the well exposed and dramatic geological features, and aridity and inaccessibility have preserved an abundance of archeological sites dating to prehistoric times.