Monument Moment, Utah, 1997

Spread over 1.6 million acres (647,520 hectares) in Utah, Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument is unique among the United States' protected lands, because it was created by the Bureau of Land Management, not by the National Parks Service, which is usually responsible for setting aside public lands.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Celebrating Canyon Country: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument," July 1999, National Geographic magazine)