Protected Landmarks

National Monuments

53 PLACES

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National Monuments protect America's most significant historic landmarks, prehistoric structures, and natural wonders. Established by Presidential Proclamation under the Antiquities Act of 1906, they range from ancient Native American ruins in the Southwest to volcanic sea stacks off the Oregon coast. Many are managed by the NPS alongside BLM and the Forest Service. The pass that works for National Parks works here too.

53 places

NE1965

Agate Fossil Beds

Grasslands

Rolling Nebraska hills hide world-famous Miocene mammal fossils — bones of ancient rhinoceros, small horses, and bear-dogs that roamed the plains.

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NM1923

Aztec Ruins

Deserts

A great house of the ancient Pueblo people along the Animas River — 400 rooms and a fully reconstructed great kiva, misnamed by early settlers.

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NM1916

Bandelier

Canyons

Ancient Pueblo cave dwellings and villages carved into volcanic tuff canyons on the Pajarito Plateau above the Rio Grande.

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UT2016

Bears Ears

Canyons

Over 100,000 archaeological sites among red rock canyons and mesas in southeastern Utah — a landscape sacred to five sovereign tribal nations.

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CA2015

Berryessa Snow Mountain

Alpine

Rolling coastal ranges, oak woodlands, and the vast Berryessa reservoir in northern California — a biodiversity hotspot two hours from the Bay Area.

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CO2015

Browns Canyon

Canyons

The Arkansas River carves a wild granite canyon through central Colorado — one of the most popular whitewater rafting corridors in the country.

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CA1913

Cabrillo

Coasts

The tip of Point Loma peninsula in San Diego — tidepools, a historic lighthouse, and the site of the first European landing on the West Coast.

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AZ1931

Canyon de Chelly

Canyons

Red sandstone canyons still home to Navajo families after thousands of years — cliff dwellings, canyon walls, and the White House Ruin.

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CO2000

Canyons of the Ancients

Canyons

The highest known density of archaeological sites in the US — over 6,000 recorded — across Colorado mesa and canyon country.

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NM1916

Capulin Volcano

Volcanic

A textbook-perfect cinder cone rising from the New Mexico plains — you can walk the rim of a 60,000-year-old volcano and peer into its crater.

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OR2000

Cascade-Siskiyou

Alpine

The only monument designated to protect the biodiversity of a place where three mountain ranges converge — an extraordinary intersection of ecosystems.

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UT1933

Cedar Breaks

Canyons

A massive eroded amphitheater of limestone hoodoos at 10,000 feet — like a smaller, higher, and more colorful Bryce Canyon.

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CO2012

Chimney Rock

Canyons

Twin rock spires mark the site of a great Chacoan community built 1,000 years ago at 7,000 feet — the highest great house in the Southwest.

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CO1911

Colorado

Canyons

Towering red rock monoliths and sweeping canyon views above the Grand Valley near Grand Junction — a classic Colorado canyon landscape.

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ID1924

Craters of the Moon and Preserve

Volcanic

A sea of lava flows, cinder cones, and lava tubes erupted between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago — astronauts trained here before Apollo.

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CA1911

Devils Postpile

Alpine

Columns of basalt 60 feet tall formed by a cooling lava flow 100,000 years ago — one of the finest examples of columnar jointing in the world.

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WY1906

Devils Tower

Alpine

The first national monument — a dramatic igneous rock tower rising 867 feet above the Belle Fourche River, sacred to many Plains tribes.

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CO, UT1915

Dinosaur

Canyons

A sandstone wall exposes 1,500 dinosaur bones in place where visitors can see them — plus two wild rivers cutting dramatic canyons.

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NM1987

El Malpais

Volcanic

Vast lava flows, cinder cones, and lava tube caves in "the badlands" of western New Mexico — eruptions here occurred as recently as 3,000 years ago.

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NM1906

El Morro

Deserts

A massive sandstone headland bearing 2,000 carvings — from ancient petroglyphs to 17th-century Spanish inscriptions to 19th-century pioneer signatures.

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CO1969

Florissant Fossil Beds

Grasslands

A high-altitude Colorado meadow hides one of the world's richest fossil deposits — giant petrified sequoias and exquisite insect impressions.

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WY1972

Fossil Butte

Deserts

A remote Wyoming butte preserving one of the world's richest deposits of Eocene-era freshwater fish fossils, 50 million years old.

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CA2000

Giant Sequoia

Forests

Two units of Sierra Nevada forest protecting 38 groves of giant sequoias not already in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

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NV2016

Gold Butte

Deserts

Colorful sandstone, ancient petroglyphs, desert tortoise habitat, and Joshua tree forests in the rugged landscape northeast of Las Vegas.

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AZ2000

Grand Canyon-Parashant

Canyons

One of the most remote and least visited NPS units in the country — a vast roadless canyon landscape on the northern rim of Grand Canyon.

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UT1996

Grand Staircase-Escalante

Canyons

Vast plateaus, slot canyons, and geological staircases spanning 1.8 million acres of some of the most remote land in the lower 48.

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ID1988

Hagerman Fossil Beds

Deserts

Snake River canyon walls expose fossils from 3.5 million years ago — the richest Pliocene-era fossil site in North America, including Hagerman Horse.

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SD1908

Jewel Cave

Grasslands

The third-longest known cave in the world — over 200 miles of passages beneath the Black Hills, coated in calcite crystals that gave it its name.

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OR1974

John Day Fossil Beds

Forests

Painted hills, colorful badlands, and 40 million years of plant and animal fossils preserved across three units in central Oregon.

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ME2016

Katahdin Woods and Waters

Forests

A vast stretch of Maine north woods bordering Baxter State Park — boreal forest, rivers, wildlife, and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

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CA1925

Lava Beds

Volcanic

Over 800 lava tube caves beneath the northern California volcanic landscape — site of the Modoc War of 1872 and a world-class caving destination.

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MT1946

Little Bighorn Battlefield

Grasslands

Rolling Montana grasslands mark the site of the 1876 battle between US forces and the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho nations.

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CA2016

Mojave Trails

Deserts

A vast swath of the eastern Mojave linking Joshua Tree to the Colorado River — lava fields, ancient sand dunes, and the historic Route 66.

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AZ1906

Montezuma Castle

Canyons

A 20-room cliff dwelling built 700 years ago in a limestone alcove above Beaver Creek — one of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in North America.

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CA1908

Muir Woods

Forests

A grove of ancient coast redwoods — some over 250 feet tall and 1,000 years old — just 12 miles north of San Francisco.

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UT1908

Natural Bridges

Canyons

Three massive natural bridges carved by stream erosion — Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo — in the remote canyon country of southeastern Utah.

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AZ1909

Navajo

Canyons

Three of the largest and best-preserved cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans — Betatakin, Keet Seel, and Inscription House.

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OR1909

Oregon Caves and Preserve

Forests

A marble cave beneath an old-growth Siskiyou forest — stalactites, a cave river, and a 1930s National Park Service lodge in the surrounding preserve.

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AZ1937

Organ Pipe Cactus

Deserts

The only place in the US where organ pipe cactus grows wild — a Sonoran Desert wilderness on the US-Mexico border alive with rare wildlife.

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NM1990

Petroglyph

Deserts

Over 24,000 images carved into volcanic rock on the West Mesa above Albuquerque by ancestral Pueblo peoples and Spanish settlers.

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AZ1923

Pipe Spring

Deserts

A rare desert spring on the Arizona Strip that sustained ancient peoples, Mormon settlers, and the Kaibab Paiute Tribe for generations.

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MT2001

Pompeys Pillar

Forests

A sandstone rock formation rising from the Yellowstone River valley — the only remaining physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

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UT1910

Rainbow Bridge

Canyons

The world's largest known natural bridge — 290 feet tall — tucked in a remote canyon near Lake Powell, sacred to Navajo people.

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CA2016

Sand to Snow

Alpine

An elevation gradient from 1,000 feet of Sonoran Desert to 11,503 feet of San Gorgonio Mountain — remarkable biodiversity in a single monument.

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NE1919

Scotts Bluff

Grasslands

A massive clay-and-sandstone bluff that loomed over the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails — a landmark for half a million 19th-century emigrants.

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AZ2001

Sonoran Desert

Deserts

A half-million acres of classic Sonoran Desert — saguaro forests, desert tortoises, and ancient petroglyphs south of Phoenix.

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NY, NJ1924

Statue of Liberty

Coasts

The 305-foot copper figure that has welcomed immigrants and defined the New York Harbor skyline since 1886 — an enduring symbol of freedom.

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AZ1930

Sunset Crater Volcano

Volcanic

A 1,000-foot cinder cone with a multicolored summit that erupted in 1064 CE, dramatically reshaping the lives of nearby Pueblo peoples.

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UT1922

Timpanogos Cave

Alpine

Three cave chambers of helictites, stalactites, and green mineral formations reached by a 1.5-mile hike up the American Fork Canyon wall.

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AZ1939

Tuzigoot

Deserts

A Sinagua pueblo ruins crowning a desert ridge above the Verde River — inhabited from 1125 to 1400 CE and containing 110 rooms.

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AZ, UT2000

Vermilion Cliffs

Canyons

Remote Arizona wilderness of wave-like sandstone formations, slot canyons, and the Paria Plateau — home to reintroduced California condors.

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AZ1915

Walnut Canyon

Canyons

Sinagua cliff dwellings tucked beneath limestone overhangs in a deep canyon near Flagstaff — 25 rooms along a one-mile island trail.

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AZ1924

Wupatki

Deserts

Ancient pueblo ruins rise from painted desert badlands north of Flagstaff — this crossroads community thrived after the 1064 Sunset Crater eruption.

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