Ashdown Gorge Wilderness is a protected area in eastern Iron County, Utah, within Dixie National Forest on the Colorado Plateau beside Cedar Breaks National Monument. Covering 7,043 acres along the west rim of the Markagunt Plateau, it contains narrow canyons cut by Ashdown and Rattlesnake creeks and drops sharply from about 10,500 to 7,500 feet. The area is known for multicolored rock formations and bristlecone pines about 1,000 years old. Named for George Ashdown’s family after a sawmill was established there in 1898, it was designated wilderness by the U.S. Congress in 1984, though some private inholdings remain.