Utah Canyons

Utah Facts Page

What’s in a Name?
The name “Utah” comes from the Native American “Ute” tribe and means people of the mountains.

The Mountain Ranges
Utah peaks, on average, are the tallest in the country. The average elevation of the tallest peaks in each of Utah’s counties is 11,222 feet higher than the same average in any other state.

The Uinta mountain range, named after the Ute Indians who lived in the basin, is the only East-West axis mountains in North America.

Utah's four mountain ranges include the Ouachitas, Arbuckles, Wichitas and the Kiamichis. The National Monuments Sixty percent of Utah's land is owned by the federal government.

Utah has seven national monuments:
Cedar Breaks, Natural Bridges, Dinosaur, Rainbow Bridge, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Timpanogos Cave and Hovenweep. Utah is a great vacationland with 11,000 miles of fishing streams and 147,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

Dinosaurs
The biggest dinosaur footprints in the world are in Utah. The prints belonged to a hadrosaurid (duckbill). The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is one of the world's foremost dinosaur fossil sources. Includes more than 30 complete skeletons, several thousand individual bones, intact dinosaur eggs, and tons of other remains.

Cool Facts
The controversy surrounding the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell is often cited as the beginning of the modern-day environmental movement.

Kanab is called "Park Central" because it is located only minutes away from a grand array of three (3) national parks, three (3) national monuments, one (1) national recreation area and two (2) state parks. Two (2) national forests and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wilderness areas also surround Kanab. It is also known as Utah's Little Hollywood because of the large number of motion pictures that are filmed in the area.

Because of the state's inland location Utah's snow is unusually dry. Earning it the reputation of having the world's greatest powder. 14 Alpine ski resorts operate in Utah.