Vermilion Cliffs at Sunset

The 294,000 acre Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is located on the Colorado Plateau in the northern Arizona Strip.  The remote and unspoiled monument is a geologic treasure.  It encompasses the Paria Plateau, Vermilion Cliffs, Coyote Buttes and Paria Canyon.  Elevations range from 3,100 to 6,500 feet.

Read the Vermillion Cliffs Fact Sheet
by AZwild.org

Because of its remoteness, Vermillion Cliffs was selected as the release site for the California Condor reintroduction program in northern Arizona.  These giant birds can have a wing span of over six feet!  In addition to the soaring condors, desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mountain lion, and other mammals roam the canyons and plateaus.  The Paria River supports sensitive native fish, including flannel mouth sucker and speckled dace.

Vermillion Cliffs also contains outstanding flora and fauna, which have been preserved by the monument’s remoteness. The monuments vegetation is a distinctive assortment of cold desert plants and warm desert grassland.  There is  one threatened species called Welsh's Milkweed. Twenty species of raptors have been seen here, as well as an array of reptiles and amphibians.

There is no visitor center in the monument, but the inter-agency "Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center" is a good place to get information.  It is on the Fredonia-Vermillion Cliffs Scenic Road (U.S. 89A) near the Navajo Bridge which spans the Colorado River at the 700 foot deep Marble Canyon.  An interactive video at the center depicts the lives of earlier settlers, natives and Colorado River runners and the difficulty they had traversing the Colorado River. The center, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily March through October.  It's operated jointly by the National Park Service, the Glen Canyon Natural History Association and the Arizona Department of Transportation.

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More Photographs by Steve: Antelope Canyon|Monument Valley

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Revised: May 31, 2008.
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