Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument is a vast, remote protected landscape in southern Utah encompassing the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Escalante canyons. Created in 1996 under the Antiquities Act, it became a major flashpoint over presidential authority and public lands after its reduction in 2017 and restoration in 2021, followed by lawsuits. The region also preserves a long human record, from Fremont and ancestral Puebloan communities to Utah pioneer crossings at Hole-in-the-Rock. Its dramatic terrain, rich rock art and ruins, and major dinosaur fossil discoveries have made it one of the Southwest’s most significant scenic, scientific, and political landscapes.