This remote and unspoiled, 294,000-acre Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is a geologic treasure, containing Paria Plateau, Vermilion Cliffs, Coyote Buttes and Paria Canyon. Elevations range from 3,100 to 6,500 feet. The monument is located along the Arizona Strip, and the southern border of Utah. It can be great family fun to enjoy time doing vermiliontours as an Adventure location for you to explore!

 

Author: Bob Therrien

http://www.adventurezonetours.com

 

Visiting Utah can be quite an experience! If you’ve heard about slot canyons and canyoneering, then you’ve probably read about southern Utah. The major airports to fly into the region are normally Las Vegas for southern Utah or Salt Lake City for northern Utah. Researching your trip normally means selecting your areas of interest from the following regions.

 

Northern Utah - Central Utah - Southern Utah

 

The Vermilion Cliffs area can be accessed from Southern Utah, or Northern Arizona. It is vast and very diverse. Some of the activities people enjoy are:

 

• Hiking
• Camping
• Biking
• ATV
• Scenic Drives
• Horseback Riding
• Wildlife
• Rivers

 

Enjoying Vermiliontours you’ll find it is home to big horn sheep and California condors. Some of the earliest rock art in the Southwest can be found in the Monument where Navajo sandstone display colorful bands of yellow, orange, pink, and red caused by the precipitation of manganese, iron, and other oxides.

 

Traveling here you’ll find 12th century Anasazi remains in the canyons. The monument is home to Buckskin Gulch, the longest slot canyon in the Southwest, followed by the lower Paria River Gorge, which is a deep, watery canyon that is as beautiful as canyons in Zion National Park. The monument has The Chinle Formation, as well as The Coyote Buttes on the southern portion of the Coxcomb Ridge. The Wave is becoming well known and has been featured in National publications recently.

 

Touring this area, you will see the Virgin Anticline, a large, asymmetrical, descending anticline or “hump” in the earth. Both St. George and Hurricane, Utah areas show evidence of past volcanic activity, in the form of cinder cones, and basalt flows.

 

Embarking from the spectacular Virgin River Gorge, south of St. George, Utah, you can follow 277 miles of paved highways winding through small rural communities to the Navajo Indian Reservation on the east. Scenic overlooks and historic and prehistoric sites along the highways convey various aspects of exploration and survival in this remote region. The Vermilion Cliffs Highways traverse some of the most vast and picturesque landscapes in the West. In many cases, the highways follow historic transportation routes used for centuries by different cultures from American Indian tribes, Spanish explorers and pioneers to modern travelers.

 

Some of the source content of this article was obtained from the Bureau of Land Management and The National Park Service.

 

 

Research, read and share trip reports and pics here.

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Activities to Enjoy:
Hiking	Golf	ATVs	Boating
Camping	Ice Skating	Biking	Rafting
Hunting	Wildlife	Fall Colors	Scenic Drives
Museums	Lakes/Rivers	Snowmobiling	Dog Sledding
Horseback Riding		Fresh Water Fishing
Climbing/Canyoneering		Festivals/State Fairs
Alpine & Nordic Skiing/Snowboarding

We’d like to invite you to be a guest blogger on this site and to share comments on our Outdoor Recreation Message Boards at http://www.adventurezonetours.com

National Parks, State Parks, National Monuments, and Wilderness Areas, All in One Website!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT OUR NATIONAL PARKS –

On AdventureZoneTOURS.com

Cedar City, UT (February 27, 2007) The good news is that the United States of America has protected some of the most unique and incredible places to see on earth, and to encourage visitors, AdventureZoneTOURS.com brings all the parks, monuments, and wilderness areas into one online message board where people can share information about these fantastic outdoors resources.

The bad news is that the National Parks face a budget crisis. Struggling to protect the historic, cultural and natural resources, the parks are short of funds for operating facilities, repairs to roads, bridges, trails and buildings. In 2006, a $814 million shortfall was reported. With the National Park Service covering almost 400 protected areas, NPS has fewer employees to service the growing number of visitors per year. Over 273,000,000 people visited the National Parks in 2005, with reports of declining visitors. AdventureZoneTOURS.com fills in the gap where information on locations and services are currently lacking. Instead of contacting a variety of parks or wilderness areas to compile your trip, now planning and previewing a vacation or adventure is just a click away on AdventureZoneTOURS.COM.

In a recent trend, volunteering has become very popular with more people willing to offer their time or vacation in assisting the parks and outdoor organizations with clean up, rebuilding trails and other important tasks. AdventureZoneTOURS.com not only features a message board for each region of every state but under the category Special Interests members are invited to post messages for volunteer opportunities or find links to the volunteer opportunity just right for them.

Bob Therrien, President of TrainingPASS Sales, Inc., creator of AdventureZoneTOURS.com, outdoor writer, and constant traveler commented, “Over the years, the hardest part for me has been the research about which parks, hikes, climbs, guides I want to visit with my family and friends. Exploring site after site, then mapping the distance from each area of interest is inefficient and many times lacking in information. To solve that inefficiency we (AdventureZoneTOURS.com) have collected all the basic information about our parks, wilderness areas and national monuments into one website. We’re still working on the mapping solution right now, so that a visitor can visually see just a region of a state and distances between multiple areas of interest. AdventureZoneTOURS.com is an outdoors recreation message board that now needs real trip reports from people who love these parks and are willing to share information on their special places.”

The Outdoor Adventure Message Board opens up to reveal historic park photos and a listing of U.S. States separated into travel regions. Click on search to find your park or any state region and there are sub forums for all the parks, monuments and wilderness areas in that region. You’ll find links to park maps, webcams and several interesting choices to pick from within a state region. Choose just the park to visit or check special interest message boards for posts on volunteer opportunities and travel for women only, men, training retreats, or shuttle posts.

For the activity-specific minded, AdventureZoneTOURS.com encourages users to share trip reports for a variety of outdoor activities from hiking, climbing, canyoneering, geo exploring, photography, ghost towns, mines, and cave to water sports such as boating, fishing, jet and water skiing, tubing, rafting, and scuba. Winter travel sports locations for snowmobiling, skiing and snowboarding are featured. Hunting locations, ATV and horseback trails as well as the most scenic areas for outdoor photography are also available as individual topic posts. To research or share your favorite adventure travel location, and for more information, log on to www.AdventureZoneTOURS.com.