The Paunsaugunt Plateau (pronounced "PAWN-suh-gant") is dissected plateau, rising to an elevation of 7000 ft-9300 ft (2100 m-2800 m), in southwestern Utah in the United States. Located in western Garfield County, it is approximately 10 mi (16 km) wide, and extends southward from the Sevier Plateau approximately 25 mi (40 km), terminating in the Pink Cliffs at the southern end.
It is drained by the East Fork Sevier River which flows northward on the plateau, to the meet the main branch (Sevier River) which flows in a valley along the western side of the plateau. The plateau is highly dissected along the eastern flank, which is drained by the Escalante River in the Colorado River watershed, and is protected as Bryce Canyon National Park. The plateau essentially marks the southeastern extreme of the Great Basin. Much of the plateau is part of Dixie National Forest.
A diagram of the plateau
Geologically the plateau was created approximately 10-15 million years ago by an uplift on the larger Colorado Plateau. The uplifting caused the formation of joints along the side of the plateau. Susequent erosive forces, especially along the eastern side in Bryce Canyon National Park, have resulted in the creation of strange rock formations called hoodoos which are the hallmark of the park (see Geology of the Bryce Canyon area).
The plateau receives approximately 200 in (500 cm) of snow per year and experiences approximately 200 days of freeze-and-thaw cycles.
The national park lies within the Colorado Plateau geographic province of North America and straddles the southeastern edge of the PaunsaguntPlateau west of the Paunsagunt Fault (Paunsagunt is Paiute for "home of the beaver").
Park visitors arrive from the plateau part of the park and look over the plateau's edge toward a valley containing the fault and the Paria River just beyond it (Paria is Paiute for "muddy or elk water").
The Colorado Plateaus were uplifted 10 to 15 million years ago and were segmented into different plateaus — each separated from its neighbors by faults and each having its own uplift rate.
The cliffs bounding the Kaibab Plateau descend on either side, and this is the culminating portion of the region.
On descending to the plateau, I found that a great storm had swept the land, and the dry arroyos of the day before were the channels of a thousand streams of tawny water, born of the ocean of vapor which had invaded the land before my vision.
Below the Gray Cliffs another zone of plateaus is found, separated by the north-and-south faults and divided from the Colob series by the Gray Cliffs and demarcated from the plateaus to the south by the Vermilion Cliffs.
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