Wild places in Utah

Navajo Tribal Park, Utah / Arizona

Red buttes standing like ships on a sea of sage.

37.0° N · 110.1° WOpen plate →

Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah

A desert of windows punched through red rock.

38.7° N · 109.6° WOpen plate →

Zion National Park, Utah

A river walking through a cathedral of red walls.

37.3° N · 113.0° WOpen plate →

Paunsaugunt Plateau, Utah

A frozen congregation of stone, lit from within at sunrise.

37.6° N · 112.2° WOpen plate →

Island in the Sky, Canyonlands, Utah

A stone eyelid that opens onto the whole plateau.

38.4° N · 109.9° WOpen plate →

San Rafael Desert, near Hanksville, Utah

A valley of stone figures that look as if they might walk at dusk.

38.6° N · 110.7° WOpen plate →

Canyonlands National Park, Needles District, Utah

A city of stone towers with almost no one in the streets.

38.1° N · 109.8° WOpen plate →

Canyonlands National Park, north mesa, Utah

A tableland with two rivers cutting the floor out from under it.

38.5° N · 109.8° WOpen plate →

Dead Horse Point State Park, near Moab, Utah

A peninsula of stone hanging over a river that has nowhere to hurry.

38.5° N · 109.7° WOpen plate →

Capitol Reef National Park, north district, Utah

A desert nave with two red temples and no congregation.

38.5° N · 111.1° WOpen plate →

Markagunt Plateau, Utah

A Bryce that kept the altitude and lost the crowds.

37.6° N · 112.8° WOpen plate →

San Juan River, near Mexican Hat, Utah

A river that refused to straighten, and cut down instead.

37.2° N · 109.9° WOpen plate →

White Canyon, Cedar Mesa, Utah

A quieter Arches, cut by water instead of frost.

37.6° N · 110.0° WOpen plate →

Ashley National Forest, Utah

A range that refused to run north–south.

40.7° N · 110.8° WOpen plate →

Cedar Mesa, Utah

The valley the buses forgot.

37.3° N · 109.9° WOpen plate →

Grand Staircase–Escalante, near Big Water, Utah

A choir of white stone in an empty wash.

37.1° N · 111.5° WOpen plate →

Factory Bench, near Hanksville, Utah

A butte that looks like it belongs to another planet.

38.3° N · 110.9° WOpen plate →

Grand Staircase, near Cannonville, Utah

Stone chimneys named for a color of film.

37.5° N · 112.0° WOpen plate →

south of Mount Carmel Junction, Utah

Sand that is still the mountain, walking.

37.0° N · 112.7° WOpen plate →

Grand Staircase–Escalante, Utah

A waterfall the canyon kept for itself.

37.8° N · 111.4° WOpen plate →

west of Wendover, Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah

A lake that dried into a sheet of light.

40.8° N · 113.8° WOpen plate →

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Utah / Wyoming

A red gorge the river turned into a lake.

40.9° N · 109.4° WOpen plate →

Fishlake National Forest, Utah

One tree that learned to be a forest.

38.5° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Henry Mountains, Utah

A mountain that rose alone from the desert floor.

38.1° N · 110.8° WOpen plate →

House Range, west of Delta, Utah

A limestone wall the desert stood on end.

39.1° N · 113.4° WOpen plate →

Sevier Desert, Utah

A small Sahara the basin kept.

39.7° N · 112.3° WOpen plate →

Twin Peaks Wilderness, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Sundial held in a still bowl.

40.6° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

A fall the rock learned to pour through a hole.

40.6° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Timpanogos Basin, Utah

A green bowl under the Timp wall.

40.4° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Albion Basin, Utah

A secret the basin spelled its own way.

40.6° N · 111.6° WOpen plate →

Bear River Range, Utah

Limestone over a still northern lake.

41.9° N · 111.6° WOpen plate →

High Uintas Wilderness, Utah

A quartzite keep above its own lake.

40.8° N · 110.5° WOpen plate →

Dinosaur National Monument, Jensen, Utah

A mountain the river learned to cut in two.

40.4° N · 109.3° WOpen plate →

Green River, Utah

A river that kept its own distance.

39.5° N · 110.0° WOpen plate →

Utah–Idaho line, Utah

A lake that learned a Caribbean blue.

41.9° N · 111.4° WOpen plate →

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

Red stone and a black river of rock.

37.2° N · 113.6° WOpen plate →

Strike Valley Overlook, Capitol Reef, Utah

A hundred miles of stone stood on edge.

37.8° N · 111.0° WOpen plate →

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

An arch you look down through.

38.3° N · 111.2° WOpen plate →

Paria Canyon–Vermilion Cliffs, Utah

A slot that does not end soon.

37.0° N · 112.0° WOpen plate →

Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch, GSENM, Utah

A window the slot kept for itself.

37.5° N · 111.2° WOpen plate →

Neon Canyon, Glen Canyon NRA, Utah

A room the potholes lit from above.

37.7° N · 111.0° WOpen plate →

Devil's Garden, Grand Staircase–Escalante, Utah

A blade of stone the wind left standing.

37.6° N · 111.4° WOpen plate →

Grand Staircase–Escalante, Utah

Two windows in one cream wall.

37.5° N · 111.8° WOpen plate →

Zion National Park, north, Utah

Zion’s north wall, fingered into the plateau.

37.4° N · 113.2° WOpen plate →

Left Fork of North Creek, Zion, Utah

A tunnel the creek carved and kept.

37.3° N · 113.1° WOpen plate →

Paria Rimrocks, Utah

Capstones the rimrocks learned to balance.

37.5° N · 111.9° WOpen plate →

Circle Cliffs, Utah

A backway that looks down on its own hills.

37.9° N · 111.3° WOpen plate →

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

A cream bridge the wash walked under.

38.3° N · 111.2° WOpen plate →

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

A chimney the Reef stood alone.

38.3° N · 111.3° WOpen plate →

North Fork Virgin River, Zion, Utah

A cathedral you walk in the river.

37.3° N · 112.9° WOpen plate →

Zion National Park, east, Utah

A hill the stone ruled into squares.

37.2° N · 112.9° WOpen plate →

Zion Canyon, Utah

A ridge that keeps only as much path as it must.

37.3° N · 112.9° WOpen plate →

Castle Valley, Utah

Towers the valley kept like a skyline.

38.7° N · 109.3° WOpen plate →

Moab backcountry, Utah

A crown the cliff wore and opened.

38.6° N · 109.6° WOpen plate →

The Maze, Canyonlands, Utah

A room of stone figures the Maze kept.

38.2° N · 109.9° WOpen plate →

Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands, Utah

Figures the canyon has held for a very long time.

38.5° N · 110.2° WOpen plate →

San Rafael Swell, Utah

A narrow walk the Swell cut for a horse.

38.6° N · 110.8° WOpen plate →

San Rafael Swell, Utah

A little Grand Canyon the Swell kept.

39.1° N · 110.7° WOpen plate →

Mule Canyon, Utah

Rooms the ceiling still seems to warm.

37.5° N · 109.7° WOpen plate →

Cedar Mesa rim, Utah

A rim that looks past the river’s turns.

37.2° N · 110.0° WOpen plate →

Hovenweep National Monument, Utah

Towers a community set on the rim.

37.4° N · 109.1° WOpen plate →

Lucin, Utah

Four tunnels that keep the sun’s appointments.

41.3° N · 113.9° WOpen plate →

Wide Hollow, Escalante, Utah

A small forest the desert turned to stone.

37.8° N · 111.6° WOpen plate →

Manti-La Sal NF, southeast of Moab, Utah

Snow peaks standing out of a desert sea.

38.4° N · 109.2° WOpen plate →

Canyon Rims Recreation Area, Hatch Point, Utah

A Hatch Point balcony over a city of striped stone.

38.3° N · 109.7° WOpen plate →

Canyon Rims Recreation Area, Hatch Point, Utah

A river fold read from the opposite rim.

38.5° N · 109.6° WOpen plate →

Canyon Rims Recreation Area, Hatch Point, Utah

Island country read from the east rim.

38.4° N · 109.7° WOpen plate →

Scenic Byway 12, east of Escalante, Utah

Slickrock falling away under a black highway thread.

37.7° N · 111.5° WOpen plate →

Scenic Byway 12, Escalante River, Utah

A red canyon the highway has to cross.

37.8° N · 111.4° WOpen plate →

Scenic Byway 12, west of Escalante, Utah

Gray hills under a pink table of stone.

37.6° N · 111.8° WOpen plate →

Skyline Rim, Factory Bench (approx), Utah

Gray benches the Mancos kept after the sea left.

38.5° N · 110.8° WOpen plate →

Padre Bay cape, Glen Canyon NRA (approx), Utah

A stone table over a drowned canyon.

37.1° N · 111.3° WOpen plate →

Utah 261, Cedar Mesa switchbacks, Utah

A mesa wall the road learned to descend.

37.3° N · 109.9° WOpen plate →

Comb Wash at UT-95, San Juan County, Utah

A stone comb standing over its own wash.

37.5° N · 109.7° WOpen plate →

Burr Desert, Dirty Devil rim, Utah

A desert rim over a named dirty river.

38.2° N · 110.5° WOpen plate →

Wasatch saddle, Salt Lake and Wasatch counties, Utah

A high saddle the canyon road has to cross.

40.6° N · 111.6° WOpen plate →

American Fork fee area, Alpine Loop, Utah

Cold water building its own stone stairs.

40.5° N · 111.5° WOpen plate →

Utah 150, Kamas to the Wyoming line, Utah

The paved road that reads the west Uintas.

40.7° N · 110.9° WOpen plate →

US-89, Logan Canyon, Utah

Limestone windows in the canyon wall.

41.8° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Dark Canyon Wilderness, Manti-La Sal NF, Utah

A quiet cut behind the Needles.

37.9° N · 110.1° WOpen plate →