Canyonlands National Park

Monument Valley

Bryce

Zion

Grand Canyon, North Rim

Grand Canyon, South Rim

Geological Information

The uniqueness of these parks is due to their unique geology. If you are interested in geology, I recommend examining the following references before you go (or take them with you):
  1. http://www.und.edu/instruct/mineral/104parks/04-colopl.pdf
    National Parks of the Colorado Plateau. Page 12 has a nice diagram for Canyonlands
  2. http://www.navtec.com/pdf/info_geology.pdf
    Canyonlands Geology
  3. http://www.utahgeology.org/road_logs/uga-29_first_edition/OP_guide/mvtribar.pdf
    A geological walk-through of Monument Valley. Page 29 has a copy of a 1969 geological map of the park.
  4. http://www.astrobio.nau.edu/~koerner/ast184l/park_guides/ziontrai.pdf
    Geological trail guide to Zion
  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion_National_Park
    Wikipedia’s entry on Zion has some helpful geological information
  6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Grand_Canyon_area
    Wikipedia has a special entry for Grand Canyon Geology
  7. http://www.bobspixels.com/kaibab.org/geology/gc_geol.htm
    Grand Canyon Geology
  8. http://www.rockhounds.com/grand_hikes/geology/overview.shtml
    About three-quarters of the way down the page is an excellent annotated picture of the Grand Canyon’s geological layers.