A vast reservoir-and-desert landscape straddling the Arizona, Utah border, centered on Lake Powell and the canyons of the Colorado River.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is a large federal protected landscape in the southwestern United States, straddling the border between northern Arizona and southern Utah. It surrounds Lake Powell, the reservoir created by Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, and extends through the rugged canyon country south of Canyonlands National Park. The recreation area preserves an immense stretch of high desert terrain shaped by rivers, wind, and ancient seas, with soaring sandstone cliffs, narrow side canyons, and broad slickrock benches.
Unlike a strictly preserved national park, Glen Canyon NRA was created to balance public recreation with the protection of scenic, scientific, and historic values. Visitors come for houseboating, watersports, fishing, and sightseeing on Lake Powell, while also exploring tributary slot canyons and backcountry mesas. The recreation area is bordered by other iconic Colorado Plateau landscapes, including Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Grand Staircase–Escalante, and the Navajo Nation, placing it firmly within one of the most geologically distinctive regions of the American West.
The presence of the reservoir defines much of the modern experience of the recreation area, but the underlying landforms remain those of the Colorado Plateau: layered sandstones, canyon labyrinths, and arid mesas stretching toward the horizon. Glen Canyon NRA serves as both a major outdoor recreation destination and a gateway to the broader canyon country of the Four Corners region.
