Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument (Back to Landscapes Program Index)

View looking North up Escalante River below Horse Canyon © by James Kay

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument was established by presidential proclamation during the Clinton Administration in 1996. It is one of the crown jewels of the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) encompassing 1.9 million acres of spectacular lands over three distinct geographic regions; the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau and the Canyons of the Escalante. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the flagship monument of the NLCS.

Grand Canyon Trust works to ensure that this magnificent national treasure is managed in a way affording the highest levels of protection for its biological, paleontological, archaeological and wilderness resources.

The National Landscape Conservation System was established in 2000 to include public lands with special conservation designations administered by the Bureau of Land Management. It covers more than 40 million acres of National Monuments, National Scenic and Historic Trails, Wild and Scenic Rivers and Wilderness Study Areas.

Grand Canyon Trust is a member of the National Landscape Conservation System Coalition whose mission is to protect and expand the landscape-scale units contained in the NLCS.

In 2000, Grand Canyon Trust purchased 50,000 acres of oil and gas leases within the monument on the Kaiparowits Plateau, permanently retiring them and protecting those lands from development. In 2004, the Trust completed the purchase of a 34 acre private inholding in the monument located where scenic Highway 12 descends Calf Creek Canyon to cross the Escalante River at its confluence with Calf Creek. These former state lands were slated for commercial development in one of the most scenic areas in the heart of the monument. This project was launched thanks to a loan from the George F. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, if funding is provided by the Land and Water Conservation Fund these lands can be absorbed into Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument where they belong.

For more information please visit:

Calf Creek Land Purchase - The Heart of Grand Staircase-Escalante

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument website

Conservation System Alliance

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