1.
Backpacking (wilderness)
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Backpacking is the outdoor recreation of carrying gear on ones back, while hiking for more than a day. It is often but not always an extended journey, and may or may not involve camping outdoors, in North America tenting is common, where simple shelters and mountain huts found widely in Europe are rare. In New Zealand, tramping is an equivalent term though overnight huts are frequently used, hill walking is the equivalent in Britain, though backpackers make use of all kinds of accommodation, in addition to camping. Backpackers use simple huts in South Africa, similar terms used in other countries are trekking and bushwalking. Backpacking as a method of travel is a different activity, which mainly utilizes public transport during a journey which can last months, backpacking is an outdoor recreation where gear is carried in a backpack. This can include food, water, bedding, shelter, clothing, stove, backpacking trips consist of at least one night and can last for weeks or months, sometimes aided by planned resupply points or drops. A skilled backpacker minimizes their impact on the environment, including staying on established trails, not disturbing vegetation, the Leave No Trace movement ethos is direct, Leave nothing but footprints. Backpackers must always be prepared for difficulties, whether mishaps are experienced or not, the remoteness of backpacking locations can exacerbate any mishap. Survival gear and the skills to use it are paramount, backpacking camps are usually more spartan than campsites where gear is transported by car or boat. In areas with heavy traffic, a hike-in campsite might have a fire ring, an outhouse. Many hike-in camps are no more than level patches of free of underbrush. In remote wilderness areas hikers must choose their own site, established camps are rare and the ethos is to leave no trace when gone. In some regions, varying forms of accommodation exist, from simple log lean-tos to staffed facilities offering escalating degrees of service, beds, meals, and even drinks may be had at Alpine huts scattered among well-traveled European mountains. In the more parts of Great Britain, especially Scotland. On the French system of long distance trails, Grande Randonnées, backpackers can stay in gîtes detapes, there are some simple shelters and occasional mountain hut also provided in North America, including on the Appalachian trail. Another example is the High Sierra Camps in the Yosemite National Park, long distance backpacking trails with huts also exist in South Africa, including the 100 km plus Amatola Trail, in the Eastern Cape Province. Backpacking is also popular in the Himalayas, where porters and pack animals are often used, backpacking gear begins with a suitable backpack, proper both in size and fit. Next is clothing and footwear appropriate for expected conditions, third is an adequate amount and type of food
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Utah
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Utah is a state in the western United States. It became the 45th state admitted to the U. S. on January 4,1896, Utah is the 13th-largest by area, 31st-most-populous, and 10th-least-densely populated of the 50 United States. Utah has a population of more than 3 million, approximately 80% of whom live along the Wasatch Front, Utah is bordered by Colorado to the east, Wyoming to the northeast, Idaho to the north, Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. It also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast, approximately 62% of Utahns are reported to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS, which greatly influences Utahn culture and daily life. The LDS Churchs world headquarters is located in Salt Lake City, Utah is the only state with a majority population belonging to a single church. The state is a center of transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, in 2013, the U. S. Census Bureau estimated that Utah had the second fastest-growing population of any state. St. George was the metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah also has the 14th highest median income and the least income inequality of any U. S. state. A2012 Gallup national survey found Utah overall to be the best state to live in based on 13 forward-looking measurements including various economic, lifestyle, the name Utah is derived from the name of the Ute tribe. It means people of the mountains in the Ute language, according to other sources Utah is derived from the Apache name Yudah which means Tall. These Native American tribes are subgroups of the Ute-Aztec Native American ethnicity and were sedentary, the Ancestral Pueblo people built their homes through excavations in mountains, and the Fremont people built houses of straw before disappearing from the region around the 15th century. Another group of Native Americans, the Navajo, settled in the region around the 18th century, in the mid-18th century, other Uto-Aztecan tribes, including the Goshute, the Paiute, the Shoshone, and the Ute people, also settled in the region. These five groups were present when the first European explorers arrived, the southern Utah region was explored by the Spanish in 1540, led by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, while looking for the legendary Cíbola. A group led by two Catholic priests—sometimes called the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the coast of California, the expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. The Spanish made further explorations in the region, but were not interested in colonizing the area because of its desert nature, in 1821, the year Mexico achieved its independence from Spain, the region became known as part of its territory of Alta California. European trappers and fur traders explored some areas of Utah in the early 19th century from Canada, the city of Provo, Utah was named for one, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah was named after Peter Skene Ogden, in late 1824, Jim Bridger became the first known English-speaking person to sight the Great Salt Lake. Due to the salinity of its waters, Bridger thought he had found the Pacific Ocean
4.
Arizona
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Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western United States and the Mountain West states and it is the sixth largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, Arizonas border with Mexico is 389 miles long, on the northern border of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the states to be admitted to the Union. Historically part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain, after being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase, Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Alpine, in addition to the Grand Canyon National Park, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments. To the European settlers, their pronunciation sounded like Arissona, the area is still known as alĭ ṣonak in the Oodham language. Another possible origin is the Basque phrase haritz ona, as there were numerous Basque sheepherders in the area, There is a misconception that the states name originated from the Spanish term Árida Zona. See also lists of counties, islands, rivers, lakes, state parks, national parks, Arizona is in the Southwestern United States as one of the Four Corners states. Arizona is the sixth largest state by area, ranked after New Mexico, of the states 113,998 square miles, approximately 15% is privately owned. The remaining area is public forest and park land, state trust land, Arizona is well known for its desert Basin and Range region in the states southern portions, which is rich in a landscape of xerophyte plants such as the cactus. This regions topography was shaped by volcanism, followed by the cooling-off. Its climate has hot summers and mild winters. The state is well known for its pine-covered north-central portion of the high country of the Colorado Plateau. Like other states of the Southwest United States, Arizona has an abundance of mountains, despite the states aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern-day France or Germany. The worlds largest stand of pine trees is in Arizona
5.
Colorado River
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The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The 1, 450-mile-long Colorado River drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U. S. starting in the central Rocky Mountains in the U. S. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora. Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U. S. National Parks, the Colorados large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Intensive water consumption has dried up the lower 100 miles of the river, beginning with small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers, Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Most native peoples that inhabit the basin today are descended from groups that settled in the region beginning about 1,000 years ago. Europeans first entered the Colorado Basin in the 16th century, when explorers from Spain began mapping and claiming the area, early contact between Europeans and Native Americans was generally limited to the fur trade in the headwaters and sporadic trade interactions along the lower river. After most of the Colorado River basin became part of the U. S. in 1846, several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century – one of which, led by John Wesley Powell, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that would later be used to develop the river for navigation, lesser numbers settled in the upper basin, which was the scene of major gold strikes in the 1860s and 1870s. Large engineering works began around the start of the 20th century, with guidelines established in a series of international. The U. S. federal government was the driving force behind the construction of dams and aqueducts in the river system, although many state. Most of the dams in the river basin were built between 1910 and 1970, the system keystone, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, as demands for Colorado River water continue to rise, the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy. The Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, after a short run south, the river turns west below Grand Lake, the largest natural lake in the state. As it flows southwest, it gains strength from many tributaries, as well as larger ones including the Blue, Eagle. In a few areas, such as the marshy Kawuneeche Valley near the headwaters, arcing northwest, the Colorado begins to cut across the eponymous Colorado Plateau, a vast area of high desert centered at the Four Corners of the southwestern United States. In Utah, the Colorado flows primarily through the slickrock country and this is one of the most inaccessible regions of the continental United States. Here, the San Juan River, carrying runoff from the slope of Colorados San Juan Mountains, joins the Colorado from the east. S
6.
Lee's Ferry
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Lees Ferry is a site on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona in the United States, about 7.5 miles southwest of Page and 9 miles south of the Utah–Arizona border. Boat service at Lees Ferry continued for over 60 years before being superseded by a bridge in the early 20th century, which allowed for much more efficient automobile travel. Lees Ferry demarcates the boundary between the Upper and Lower Basins of the Colorado River, the states which make up each basin are legally allocated one-half of the natural flow. Glen Canyon Dam impounds the Colorado a short distance upstream and completely regulates the flow past Lees Ferry. Lees Ferry has long been a point of American Southwest water disputes. Today Lees Ferry is a fishing and boat launching point. Lees Ferry is located in northern Arizona, at the point where the Paria River joins the Colorado from the north. Lying in an open valley directly downstream from Glen Canyon and shortly above Marble Canyon and this made it an important crossing point before the construction of Navajo and Glen Canyon Bridges in the 20th century. Here, the Colorado River is also smoother and calmer than the stretches that lie above. In the past, another crossing was the former Glen Canyon reach, Lees Ferry is designated within the southwesternmost extreme of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and is considered the northernmost end of Grand Canyon National Park. It lies 689 miles upstream of the Colorados mouth at the Gulf of California and this area contains sandstone, siltstone, shale and limestone formed by the sediments on ancient seabeds and later alluvial deposits made by the Colorado and Paria Rivers. Because these are easily eroded than the rock layers that lie above and below them. The Anasazi, Paiute and Navajo peoples, who left evidence of habitation in the valley. However, Lees Ferry did later become a territory between the Navajos and Paiutes, who recognized it as a valuable livestock watering point. In late 1776, the party ran out of supplies in what is now southern Utah and their Native American guides told them of two regional fords of the river, one at the site of Lees Ferry and the other at Glen Canyon. When the explorers arrived at Lees Ferry in October, they found the river too wide and deep and had no choice, almost two weeks later they successfully crossed the river, and made it back to Santa Fe on January 2,1777. During the 19th century, Lees Ferry served as a gateway for the expansion of settlement from Utah south into Arizona. Most of the settlers were Mormons, who had long established in the Utah Valley near present-day Salt Lake City
7.
Slot canyon
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A slot canyon is a narrow canyon, formed by the wear of water rushing through rock. A slot canyon is significantly deeper than it is wide, some slot canyons can measure less than 1 metre across at the top but drop more than 30 metres to the floor of the canyon. Many slot canyons are formed in sandstone and limestone rock, although slot canyons in other types such as granite. Even in sandstone and limestone, only a small number of creeks will form slot canyons due to a combination of the particular characteristics of the rock. Slot canyons are found in parts of the world, predominantly in areas with low rainfall. Some of the most well known slot canyons are to be found in the Southwestern United States, other significant areas include the Sierra de Guara in northern Spain, the Pyrenees on the border of France and Spain, and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia. The largest known area of canyons in Australia is in the Blue Mountains. They occur in a band of sandstone that runs roughly 30 kilometres from east to west. The majority of these canyons are in the Wollemi Wilderness, and are difficult to access, a small number are regularly visited by canyoners on weekends in summer. The Grand Canyon, near Blackheath, has a tourist track along its rim, Southern Utah has the densest population of slot canyons in the world with over one-thousand slot canyons in the desert lands south of Interstate 70. Many more slot canyons are located on public Bureau of Land Management and state-owned lands in southern Utah, in surrounding the aforementioned parks. Buckskin Gulch—one of the longest slot canyons in the world—begins in southern Utah, the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monuments slot canyon trail in New Mexico is unique as it was carved into tuff. In California, several slot canyons are located within Death Valley National Park, local as well as distant storms can cause dangerous flash flooding in slot canyons, and hikers should not enter them if there is any sign of rain in the surrounding area. In many slot canyons, it can be miles before an exit or rescue is possible. On August 12,1997, eleven tourists, including seven from France, one from the United Kingdom, one from Sweden and two from the United States, were killed in Lower Antelope Canyon by a flash flood. Very little rain fell at the site that day, but an earlier thunderstorm had dumped a large amount of water into the canyon basin, the lone survivor of the flood was tour guide Francisco Poncho Quintana, who had prior swift-water training. At the time, the system consisted of amateur-built wood ladders that were swept away by the flash flood. Today, ladder systems have been bolted in place, and deployable cargo nets are installed at the top of the canyon, a NOAA Weather Radio from the National Weather Service and an alarm horn are stationed at the fee booth
8.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
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The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a U. S. National Monument protecting 1,880,461 acres of land in southern Utah. President Bill Clinton designated the area as a monument in 1996 using his authority under the Antiquities Act. Grand Staircase-Escalante encompasses the largest land area of all U. S. National Monuments, the Monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management rather than the National Park Service. This was the first National Monument managed by the BLM, visitor centers are located in Cannonville, Big Water, Escalante, and Kanab. The Monument stretches from the towns of Big Water, Glendale and Kanab, Utah on the southwest, to the towns of Escalante, encompassing 1.9 million acres, the Monument is slightly larger in area than the state of Delaware. The western part of the Monument is dominated by the Paunsaugunt Plateau and the Paria River and this section shows the geologic progression of the Grand Staircase. Features include the slot canyons of Bull Valley Gorge, Willis Creek, the center section is dominated by a single long ridge, called Kaiparowits Plateau from the west, and called Fifty-Mile Mountain when viewed from the east. Fifty-Mile Mountain stretches southeast from the town of Escalante to the Colorado River in Glen Canyon, the eastern face of the mountain is a steep,2200 foot escarpment. The western side is a slope descending to the south. East of Fifty-Mile Mountain are the Canyons of the Escalante, the Monument is bounded by Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on the east and south. The popular hiking, backpacking and canyoneering areas include the slot canyons of Peekaboo, Spooky and Brimstone Canyons, the Devils Garden is also located in this area. Access is via the Hole-in-the-Rock Road which extends southeast from the town of Escalante, the road was constructed to facilitate Mormon settlement of southeastern Utah, including the town of Bluff. The road is used by ranchers to access the flat desert at the base of Fifty Mile Mountain for grazing cattle. Since 2000, numerous fossils over 75 million years old have been found at Grand Staircase-Escalante. In 2002, a volunteer at the Monument discovered a 75-million-year-old dinosaur near the Arizona border, on October 3,2007, the dinosaurs name, Gryposaurus monumentensis was announced in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. G. monumentensis was at least 30 feet long and 10 feet tall, many of the specimens from the Kaiparowits Formation are reposited at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. Two ceratopsid dinosaurs, also discovered at the Monument, were introduced by the Utah Geological Survey in 2007 and they were uncovered in the Wahweap formation, which is just below the Kaiparowits formation where the duckbill was extracted. They lived about 80 million or 81 million years ago, the two fossils are called the Last Chance skull and the Nipple Butte skull
9.
Page, Arizona
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Page is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,247, unlike other cities in the area, Page was founded in 1957 as a housing community for workers and their families during the construction of nearby Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. Its 17-square-mile site was obtained in an exchange with the Navajo Nation. The city is perched atop Manson Mesa at an elevation of 4,300 feet above sea level and 600 feet above Lake Powell, the city was originally called Government Camp, but was later named for John C. Page, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, 1936-1943, after the dam was completed in the 1960s, the city grew steadily to todays population of over 7,000. Page is also the home of two of the largest electrical generation units in the western United States, Glen Canyon Dam has a 1,288, 000-kilowatt capacity when fully online. The other power plant to the southeast is the Navajo Generating Station, Page is located at 36°54′51″N 111°27′35″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 16.6 square miles, of which 16.6 square miles is land and 0.04 square miles. Page has a climate with hot, very dry summers. It is located in the edge of the Great Basin Desert on the Colorado Plateau. It is very dry due to being in the rainshadow of the mountains of California, as of the census of 2000, there were 6,809 people,2,342 households, and 1,779 families residing in the city. The population density was 410.5 inhabitants per square mile, there were 2,606 housing units at an average density of 157.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 67. 32% White,0. 40% Black or African American,26. 69% Native American,0. 68% Asian,0. 19% Pacific Islander,1. 62% from other races, and 3. 11% from two or more races. 4. 70% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,19. 0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.90 and the family size was 3.33. In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 32. 0% under the age of 18,9. 5% from 18 to 24,27. 5% from 25 to 44,24. 7% from 45 to 64, the median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 100.9 males, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.4 males. The median income for a household in the city was $46,935, males had a median income of $42,040 versus $24,744 for females
10.
Glen Canyon Dam
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Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, United States, near the town of Page. The 710-foot high dam was built by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, a dam in Glen Canyon was studied as early as 1924, but these plans were initially dropped in favor of a dam in Black Canyon. After a long fight, the USBR agreed not to build the dam in Dinosaur, since first filling to capacity in 1980, Lake Powell water levels have fluctuated greatly depending on water demand and annual runoff. Operation of Glen Canyon Dam helps ensure a distribution of water between the states of the Upper Colorado River Basin and the Lower Basin. During years of drought, Glen Canyon guarantees a water delivery to the Lower Basin states, in wet years, it captures extra runoff for future use. The dam is also a source of hydroelectricity, averaging over 4 billion kilowatt hours per year. Water managers and utilities state that the dam is a source of renewable energy. Annual discharge from the Colorado River and its tributaries ranges from 4 to 22 million acre feet, flooding, and the rivers enormous silt or sediment load, created problems for settlements in the Lower Colorado River Valley and navigation on the lower portion of the river. During droughts, there was too little water available for irrigation, in 1904, the Colorado River was accidentally redirected after it damaged a canal gate in Mexico, causing the river to flood part of Californias Imperial Valley and create the Salton Sea. After this catastrophe, California and Arizona began to call for a dam to control the tempestuous river, in 1922, six U. S. states signed the Colorado River Compact to officially allocate the flow of the Colorado River and its tributaries. The third lower basin state, Arizona, did not ratify the Compact until 1944 because it was concerned that California might seek to appropriate a portion of its share before it could be put to use. The total,16.5 million acre feet, was based on thirty years of streamflow records starting in the late 1890s. It was believed to represent the flow as measured at Lees Ferry. As it turned out, the early 20th century was one of the wettest periods in the last 800 years, the dependable natural flow past Lees Ferry is now believed to be about 13.5 to 14.6 million acre feet. These studies found that the lower Colorado sites had stronger foundation rock which might result in less reservoir seepage, the Glen Canyon site, furthermore, was so remote that delivering supplies and transporting workers there would be infeasible at the time. However, what killed the first Glen Canyon proposal was the fact that it lies upstream of the Lees Ferry dividing line. With its substantial Congressional clout, California refused to allow the virtual faucets of a Colorado River dam to be built in what amounted to hostile territory. However, it was not able to weather the worst floods or droughts, but most importantly, Hoover only controlled the lower portion of the river
11.
Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness
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The Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness is a 112,500 acres wilderness area located in northern Arizona and southern Utah, United States, within the arid Colorado Plateau region. The wilderness is composed of broad plateaus, tall escarpments, the Paria River flows through the wilderness before joining the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, Arizona. Both the wilderness area and the National Monument are administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management, ancient petroglyphs, granaries, and campsites indicate that ancestral Puebloan people utilized the Wilderness between AD200 and AD1200. They hunted mule deer and bighorn sheep and grew corn, beans, paiute people later occupied and traveled much of the area before Europeans arrived. Because no habitations or large villages have been found in the canyon, the first documented Europeans in the area were Fathers Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante of the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition. The expedition stopped at the mouth of the Paria River in 1776 after they attempted to establish a route from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Monterey. The 19th century drew outlaws who hid out in the Wilderness and prospectors who mined gold, uranium, a variety of wildlife makes its home in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. Many bird species are found in the Wilderness, including eagle, golden eagle, peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk, great horned owl. The Wilderness was the location of a 1996 release of captively-bred endangered California condors in an attempt to re-introduce them to the wild, desert bighorn sheep were successfully reintroduced to Paria Canyon in the 1980s and are usually found in the cliffs and crags of the lower canyon. A variety of live in the Wilderness, including rattlesnake, chuckwalla, side-blotched lizard, leopard lizard, desert spiny lizard. The red-spotted toad can be spotted in the canyon and four species of fish are found in the Paria River - the flannel mouth sucker, bluehead sucker, razorback sucker. Vegetation in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness can be divided three different zones of riparian vegetation communities, which run parallel to each side of the river. Plants found closest to the water include cattails, common reeds, sedges, rushes, drier soil farther from the water makes a good environment for woody vegetation which has survived the repeated flooding, such as coyote willow, cottonwood, ash, tamarisk, and seep-willow. This zone is referred to as the site because some of the trees that grow here survive to produce the next generation of mature canopy. Beyond the regeneration site trees grow strong and tall, dominant vegetation includes cottonwood, willow, ash, and tamarisk. This zone is the fringe between riparian and desert uplands, often sharing vegetation like rabbitbrush, Indian ricegrass, arrowweed, other vegetation found in the Wilderness include pinyon pine, juniper, boxelder, various species of cactus, and other desert flora. Hiking is the most common activity in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, followed by camping, photography. Hikes through Paria Canyon are popular, the White House Trailhead is the main entrance and, therefore, more popular than the other trailheads in the Wilderness
12.
Bureau of Land Management
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President Harry S. Truman created the BLM in 1946 by combining two existing agencies, the General Land Office and the Grazing Service. Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The mission of the BLM is to sustain the health, diversity, originally BLM holdings were described as land nobody wanted because homesteaders had passed them by. All the same, ranchers hold nearly 18,000 permits, the agency manages 221 wilderness areas,23 national monuments and some 636 other protected areas as part of the National Landscape Conservation System totaling about 30 million acres. There are more than 63,000 oil and gas wells on BLM public lands, total energy leases generated approximately $5.4 billion in 2013, an amount divided among the Treasury, the states, and Native American groups. The BLMs roots go back to the Land Ordinance of 1785 and these laws provided for the survey and settlement of the lands that the original 13 colonies ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution. As additional lands were acquired by the United States from Spain, France and other countries, the United States Congress directed that they be explored, surveyed, during the Revolutionary War, military bounty land was promised to soldiers who fought for the colonies. After the war, the Treaty of Paris of 1783, signed by the United States, England, France, in the 1780s, other states relinquished their own claims to land in modern-day Ohio. By this time, the United States needed revenue to function, Land was sold so that the government would have money to survive. In order to sell the land, surveys needed to be conducted, the Land Ordinance of 1785 instructed a geographer to oversee this work as undertaken by a group of surveyors. The first years of surveying were completed by trial and error, once the territory of Ohio had been surveyed, in 1812, Congress established the General Land Office as part of the Department of the Treasury to oversee the disposition of these federal lands. By the early 1800s, promised bounty land claims were finally fulfilled, over the years, other bounty land and homestead laws were enacted to dispose of federal land. Several different types of patents existed and these include cash entry, credit, homestead, Indian, military warrants, mineral certificates, private land claims, railroads, state selections, swamps, town sites, and town lots. A system of land offices spread throughout the territories, patenting land that was surveyed via the corresponding Office of the Surveyor General of a particular territory. This pattern gradually spread across the entire United States, the laws that spurred this system with the exception of the General Mining Law of 1872 and the Desert Land Act of 1877 have since been repealed or superseded. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such as coal, oil, gas, the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 established the United States Grazing Service to manage the public rangelands by establishment of advisory boards that set grazing fees. The Oregon and California Revested Lands Sustained Yield Management Act of 1937, commonly referred as the O&C Act, in 1946, the Grazing Service was merged with the General Land Office to form the Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior. It took several years for new agency to integrate and reorganize
