About Bears Ears National Monument

Bears Ears National Monument is a federally protected area of approximately 1.35 million acres in southeastern Utah, designated in 2016, partially rescinded in 2017, and restored to its original boundaries in 2021.

Where it is

The monument lies in San Juan County, Utah, bordered roughly by the Colorado River to the west, the Abajo Mountains to the north, the Colorado-Utah state line to the east, and the San Juan River and Navajo Nation to the south. The Bears Ears themselves are two flat-topped buttes — Eastern Bears Ear (8,929 feet) and Western Bears Ear (8,963 feet) — that rise above the surrounding mesa country and are visible from much of the region.

What it protects

The monument protects a landscape of exceptional archaeological, cultural, geological, and biological significance. Among the protected features:

• Tens of thousands of recorded archaeological sites, primarily of Ancestral Puebloan affiliation, dating principally from roughly 700 to 1300 CE.
• Active sacred and ceremonial places of contemporary significance to the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, and Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
• One of the most concentrated and well-preserved rock art landscapes in North America.
• Significant paleontological resources, including Permian and Triassic fossil sites.
• A diverse landscape of pinyon-juniper woodland, sage flats, riparian corridors, and slickrock canyon country.

The political and legal history, briefly

The monument’s designation and subsequent legal history are summarized in detail on the Defending Bears Ears page. In short: designation in 2016 under the Antiquities Act of 1906, partial rescission in 2017, and full restoration of the original 1.35-million-acre boundary in 2021. The legal challenges arising from the 2017 reduction were rendered moot by the 2021 restoration but raised significant scholarly questions about the scope of presidential authority under the Antiquities Act.

How it is managed

Bears Ears National Monument is managed jointly by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, with formal co-management consultation with the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. The monument’s resource management plan continues to be developed through this collaborative process. Visitors can find current management information through the BLM Monticello Field Office.

How it differs from a national park

Several visitors arrive expecting national-park infrastructure: paved roads, signed trails, guided programs, a single dramatic entry point. Bears Ears has none of these. It is a monument managed for multiple uses — including continuing grazing and traditional uses — and most of the access is via unpaved roads. There is no central visitor center within the monument boundary. Visitors who treat it as a remote backcountry destination, with corresponding self-sufficiency requirements, fare best.

How to learn more

For practical visit planning, see visitor information. For ethics, see visiting with respect. For the political history, see Defending Bears Ears. For specific reading recommendations, see education resources.