The Great Plains is a vast region of North America that is characterized by flatlands covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. It is located just to the east of the Rocky Mountains and is the western part of the Interior Plains, which also include the mixed grass prairie, the tallgrass prairie between the Great Lakes and Appalachian Plateau, and the Taiga Plains and Boreal Plains ecozones in Northern Canada. The Great Plains lie between the Rio Grande in the south and the delta of the Mackenzie River at the Arctic Ocean in the north. The region covers parts of the United States and Canada, including most or all of the U.S. states of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and eastern parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, as well as parts of the U.S. states of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The Canadian portion of the Great Plains is located in the three Prairie Provinces of Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta) and portions of the Northwest Territories.
The Great Plains is a high plateau of semiarid grassland, with altitudes ranging from 5,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level at the base of the Rockies in the United States, decreasing to 1,500 feet at their eastern boundary. The altitudes of the Canadian portion are lower, and near the Arctic Ocean, the surface is only slightly above sea level. The climate of the Great Plains is sub-arid, which excludes tree growth and opens far-reaching views. The plains evince various stages of erosional development and are occasionally interrupted by buttes, escarpments, and valleys.
