Last Tuesday I woke up, made coffee, and sat on my couch scrolling through Google alerts about national monuments. One article I pulled up mentioned that public meetings were being held for the management plan of the new Grand Staircase-Escalante...

We began our hike through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in a dry, open riverbed. It was cold for spring, and snowflakes whirled around our heads. After half a mile the riverbed ended in a deep fissure in rock. This...