Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument

Understand

History

Due to the desert climate and low fertility, the area was only sparsely populated by the Indigenous peoples. Isolated ancestral Puebloans structures and petroglyphs, as well as querns and arrowheads are found scattered throughout the park.

An expedition by two Spanish, Francisco Antanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, were the first Europeans to pass the cross of what is now the sanctuary in 1776. In 1826 and 1827, the trapper and explorer Jedediah Smith moved along the Virgin River along what is now the northern boundary of the monument. In the years that followed, the route established itself as part of the Old Spanish Trail to California.

At the end of the 19th century, some ranchers and forestry workers settled in the region and began using the forests primarily as support beams for the ore mines of the West. Logging ended in the 1960s, and the use of the public areas by largely freely grazing cattle from private ranches, which existed before the protection order was placed, is expressly guaranteed for the future in the founding documents of the monument. Today, there are some remnants of ranches that can be seen today.

Economically, the area is only moderately attractive, and little tourism has taken place in the park, likely because there are no tourist facilities at the national monument, and the only visitor center is a small visitor center serving several Bureau of Land Management areas, well outside in St. George. All roads are unpaved sand and gravel roads, and drinking water can only be found in a few places.

Landscape

The protected area is located in the Arizona Strip, the almost uninhabited and difficult to access northwestern part of Arizona, which is separated from the rest of the state by the Colorado River. Geologically, the cover rocks of the Shivwits Plateau are sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic with individual younger mountains from the Mesozoic. The plateau slopes north-south, as rainfall has carved canyons in the rocks that are older Precambrian strata have exposed. However, the national monument includes only the top of these geological formations, the Grand Canyon National Park straddles the park's southern border.

Flora and fauna

The park is home to the spotted owl subspecies, Strix occidentalis lucida, and the transition areas serve as home range for the California condor, which became extinct in the wild in the 1980s. Today, it is the subject of the largest conservation breeding and reintroduction program in the US, and the only release site in Arizona is just west of the monument.

Climate

Visitor information

• Park website

Get in

As this is one of the United States' most remote parks on the contiguous 48, getting into Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument can only be done via a good 4WD.

To get to just the northern end of the park, from Mesquite in Nevada, the monument is about 16 mi southeast and the route is pretty straightforward – use Hwy 242. Do note that the road to the park is not paved, and the road is very windy.

Fees and permits

If you're just visiting this park for recreational purposes, you won't need a permit and the only part that you will need a permit is to access Kelly Point Rd. in winter. Applying for a permit can be done here.

Stay safe

The "Grand Canyon" in the park's name may lead you to think that this park is well-visited, but in fact it is very much the opposite. Instead, the park is very lonely, with few facilities and with extreme weather conditions. None of the roads in the park are paved (sealed), and cell signal is only patchy in a few places, and nonexistent elsewhere.

Temperatures can hit the extremes in Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument – it can get extremely hot in the summer, while freezing in the winter, and snow often covers the already poor quality roads.

Go next

Naturally, the first thing that would ideally come to mind if you're just armchair traveling is the . However, if you did really want to come to Parashant, it is likely you'd have already visited the Grand Canyon National Park, or you'd have descended down to the rim when visiting.

Just to the west of the park, straddling the border of Nevada and Arizona is , which features a similar desert landscape, except with a lake in the center. Between the two is known for both its historic significance and natural landscapes.

To the north in Utah, the closest city to the park; , is probably a good base for exploring other impressive national parks and monuments in the American Southwest, such as , , or .

Buy, eat and drink

There are no facilities in the park – all items must be brought. The nearest facilities can be found at St. George in Utah, but the drive is quite a while (taking the road quality into consideration).