Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune The serpentine Escalante River carves its way through sandstone landscape on its way to Lake Powell about 40 miles away to the south as President Clinton at a ceremony on the south rim of the Grand Canyon on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 1996, created the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah at 1.7 million acres, the largest national monument in the lower 48 states. This piece of river canyon would be part of the new monument.