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Colorado Plateau Ecoregion
The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States in the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. The coverage across this area amounts to more than 130,000 square miles (340,000 square kilometers) and extends into southern and eastern Utah, western Colorado, northern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. Some geographical maps show the Colorado Plateau extending into the extreme southeastern area of Nevada.
Geography
The Colorado Plateau is made up of mostly high desert, with scattered areas of forests. In the southwest corner of the Colorado Plateau, in the state of Arizona is found the
Grand Canyon, through which flows the
Colorado River. About ninety percent of the plateau is drained by the Colorado River and its three primary tributaries: the
Green River,
San Juan River, and
Little Colorado River. The remaining ten percent of the Colorado Plateau is almost entirely drained by the
Rio Grande River and its tributaries.
Then, those geographical maps which show the Colorado Plateau extending into the state of Nevada, would show that the remaining one percent of the Colorado Plateau is drained by the
Virgin River, which is also a tributary of the Colorado River
There is a considerable amount to say about this subject, being that this is the homeland of the northern families of the
Uto-Aztecan civilization. In fact, today, these people are one of the largest language groups of North and Central America in terms of geographic distribution, linguistic diversity and population.
Their ancient steps involved, first crossing the Beringia land bridge, then moving southward through the interior of the continent to begin what is known as the desert cultures of the
Stone Stacker including: Anasazi, Casa Grandes, Fremont, Hohokam, Mogollon, Patayan, Prescott, Salado, Salinis, Sinagua. Trincheras, and others.
Bluewater Lake State Park
El Morro National Monument
Bandelier National Monument
El Morro National Monument
El Malpais National Monument
El Malpais National Conservation Areaa
Valles Caldera National Preserve
Acoma Pueblo
Pie Town
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