Book Cliffs (Grand) are a massive escarpment several miles in Length, laced by highly eroded indentations which give the impression of the leaves of a partly opened book. The cliffs extend from Helper on the west to Grand Junction and the Colorado River on the east. Book Cliffs is the central feature of three vast escarpments that Powell named in 1868. The northernmost is the Brown Cliffs, known today as the Roan Cliffs, and the southernmost is the Sunset cliffs located near Alton. The cliffs had previously been named the Book Mountains by Lieutenant Gunnison, whose name took precedence.

John W. Van Cott