52 
The Colorado River 
into the “parks/’ The High Plateaus, as a topographical 
feature, are a southern continuation of the Wasatch Mount¬ 
ains. They terminate on the south in the Markagunt, the 
Paunsagunt, and the Aquarius Plateaus. The extreme south¬ 
ern extremities of the two former are composed of mighty pre¬ 
cipices of columnarly eroded limestone called the Pink Cliffs. 
Here is the beginning of the Terrace Plateaus, likewise 
bounded by vertical, barren cliffs. Between the High Plateaus 
Gray’s Peak, 14,341 feet. Torrey’s Peak, 14,336 feet. 
Tip-top of the Continental Divide whence the Colorado derives flood waters 
Photograph by U. S. Geol. Survey. 
and the parks, the plateaus may be called, for convenience, 
Mesa Plateaus, as they are generally outlined by vertical cliffs. 
This is the case also south of the end of the High Plateaus 
where, stepping down the great terraces, we arrive at the region 
immediately adjacent to the Grand Canyon, composed of four 
plateaus, three of them of mesa character, the Shevwits, Uin- 
karet, Kanab, and Kaibab; and up at the head of Marble 
Canyon a fifth, the Paria, while still farther to the north-east¬ 
ward is the Kaiparowitz. The edges of these Mesa Plateaus, 
