| Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Location | Coconino County, Arizona / Kane County, Utah, United States |
| Nearest city | Page, Arizona |
| Coordinates | 36°53′46″N 111°49′37″W / 36.8960968°N 111.8268367°W[1] |
| Area | 112,500 acres (455 km2)[2] |
| Established | August 28, 1984 |
| Governing body | U.S. Bureau of Land Management |
The Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness is a 112,500 acres (455 km2) wilderness area located in northern Arizona and southern Utah, United States, within the arid Colorado Plateau region. The wilderness is composed of broad plateaus, tall escarpments, and deep canyons.
The Paria River flows through the wilderness before joining the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry, Arizona.
The U.S. Congress designated the wilderness area in 1984 and it was largely incorporated into the new Vermilion Cliffs National Monument proclaimed in 2000 by executive order of President Bill Clinton.
Both the wilderness area and the National Monument are administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management.
The Colorado Plateau and its river basins are of immense value in the Earth sciences, specifically chronostratigraphy, as the region contains multiple terrain features exposing miles-thick contiguous rock columns that geologists and paleobiologists use as reference strata of the geologic record.[3]
- ^ "Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
pvwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Caputo, M. V. (2003) Geology of the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Utah and Arizona. in D.A. Sprinkel, T.C. Chidsey Jr., and P.B. Anderson, eds., Geology of Utah's Parks and Monuments. Archived 2012-01-11 at the Wayback Machine Utah Geological Association, Salt Lake City, Utah.