Posts Tagged ‘utah’
Posted on July 29, 2026, 5:43 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
When President Trump reduced Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent in 2017, it was difficult to imagine a more drastic dismantling. The 1.35-million-acre monument established by President Obama in 2016 was cut to 201,876 acres. President Biden restored and slightly expanded it in 2021. On July 13, 2026, Trump reduced Bears Ears again. This […]
Posted on July 16, 2026, 3:29 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
On July 13, President Trump once again stripped national-monument protection from most of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in Utah. In 2017, his first administration reduced the monument by nearly half. Together with the drastic reduction of Bears Ears (just renewed, and even worse), the action was widely described as the largest rollback of federal land […]
Posted on December 20, 2022, 11:45 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Arches National Park is, of course, renowned for its more than 2,000 documented arches, as well as other sandstone rock formations. However, as always, there is more to discover than the main attractions. Follow me along the less-traveled Courthouse Wash route where besides experiencing an unexpected desert river environment, you are sure to get away […]
Posted on September 24, 2022, 5:05 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Last week, I marked the 26th anniversary of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by highlighting two sites along the Cottonwood Canyon Road. One of them, Yellow Rock, was part of the lands that lost protections when the former president
Posted on September 18, 2022, 10:51 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the largest national monument in the continental United States, was established on this day in 1996. Such a large, and mostly undeveloped area can be intimidating to explore. In this article, I take you along the easiest of the monument roads that explore its vast interior, the Cottonwood Canyon Road, along […]
Posted on August 12, 2022, 11:57 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Among the cornucopia of natural environments found on the American continent, maybe the most unusual are those of the Colorado Plateau, where a convergence of geology and climate has created landscapes without equal anywhere else. When asked about my favorite national parks, I’ve always felt the list would not be complete without one of the […]
Posted on February 5, 2021, 8:43 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Day 11 Zion National Park’s Virgin River Narrows is arguably the most famous canyon hike in the world. Being that Zion National Park is the 7th most crowded national park (per this way of evaluating the “crowd factor”), the Virgin Narrows can feel downright crowded (Five ways to photograph the Zion Narrows without people). The […]
Posted on January 21, 2021, 9:58 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Days 9,10 Just like in Treasured Lands, for my new national monuments book one of my goals was to cover each of the monument’s corners, providing photographs and information about each of its significant areas. I had visited Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument multiple times before, but the monument is so vast that there were […]
Posted on January 15, 2021, 12:47 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Days 7,8,9 Since 2018, each autumn found myself in Bears Ears National Monument. 2020 was no exception. This time, I had planned to start at Valley of the Gods, where I ended my previous visit. On that evening of November 2019, after a promising afternoon, clouds had blocked the western horizon at sunset time. About […]
Posted on January 8, 2020, 12:10 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon have the most famous massive multi-room Ancestral Puebloan ruins in the Southwest. However, when it comes to smaller structures, in addition to harboring the highest concentration of them anywhere, Bears Ears National Monument’s Cedar Mesa area is home to possibly the two most iconic of them: House of Fire and […]
