This Trippy Arizona Landscape Looks AI-Generated — One Area is Reserved for Lottery Winners

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona

Adventure seekers, get ready to discover one of Arizona’s most stunning natural wonders.

Tucked away in the northern part of the state, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is a geological masterpiece of otherworldly rock formations and ancient dinosaur tracks, packed with secrets waiting to be uncovered. Let’s dive in.

A Colorful Wilderness On The Arizona-Utah Border

This stunning wilderness sits right on the Arizona-Utah border covering less than 294,000 acres. The name comes from those red-orange cliffs that shoot up 3,000 feet from the ground. These cliffs get their colors from iron and other minerals in the sandstone. The monument includes spots like Paria Canyon and Coyote Buttes.

The First People to Witness The Vermillion Cliffs

Spanish missionaries first checked out this place in 1776 during the Domínguez–Escalante expedition at a location now called ‘Crossing of the Fathers’. Mormon pioneers showed up in the 1860s and stuck around, building homes and the wagon road through House Rock Valley.

John D. Lee’s ferry was the first to cross the Colorado River in 1871. That same year, John Wesley Powell came through mapping everything.

The Ancestral Puebloan, Southern Paiute, and Navajo tribes all called this region home way before European settlers, and they left behind rock art and artifacts all over the place.

Millions of Years in the Making

Nobody gets how old 200 million years really is. That’s what it took to create these cliffs. The area kept changing (from being underwater to desert to river land). All that stuff piled up over time, creating those striped rocks you see today.

The reddish hues come from iron oxide deposits. Flash floods cut deep canyons like the Buckskin Gulch while winds polished the sandstone into waves and honeycomb patterns.

The Wave Lets Only 64 People In

The trippy Wave is the reason most people even hear about this place. It’s this crazy formation that looks like ocean waves frozen in stone from about 190 million years ago.

Only 64 people get permits each day, 48 online, and 16 through a daily lottery. The hike itself is no joke, about 6.4 miles with no trail markers. But everyone who makes it says it’s worth all the trouble.

The White Pockets

Near Lone Tree Reservoir, the White Pockets formation has brain-shaped rocks, swirling white domes, and stuff that looks like aliens made it. No permits needed. The catch? You need serious 4×4 to get through 8 miles of sand that’ll swallow regular cars alive.

Buckskin Gulch

Buckskin Gulch is the longest slot canyon in America. It’s managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.

It’s nearly 16 miles long with walls up to 500 feet high but sometimes narrows down to 5 feet wide. Don’t try this hike unless you know what you’re doing. You’ll wade through water (sometimes chest-deep), climb over boulders, and pray it doesn’t rain anywhere nearby.

Like in the Wave, you need a permit, and they only let 20 people stay overnight each day.

The Paria Canyon

Paria Canyon runs 38 miles from Utah down to Lee’s Ferry in Arizona. The walls tower over 700 feet high in some spots.

Carved through sandstone for millions of years, now you’ll see these cool ‘hanging gardens’ where springs create little green spots with ferns growing right out of the walls. Wrather Arch is massive, about 165 feet across with an 85-foot-high opening.

There’s a Second Wave

Can’t get a permit for The Wave? Hit up the Second Wave instead. This golden beauty formed the same way. Permits are easier to score too.

Only 20 people per day can visit, but your odds in the lottery aren’t terrible. The hike is about 5 miles round-trip with no trail markers, so bring a map and know how to use it. While you’re there, check out the teepees (cone rocks), brain rocks (with those crazy patterns), and little arches scattered around.

Located in the South Coyote Buttes area, it features similar flowing sandstone patterns but with distinctive yellow and gold hues dominating the landscape.

12,000-Year-Old Petroglyphs & Rock Art

All over Vermilion Cliffs, you’ll see rock art up to 12,000 years old, and the Ancestral Puebloans made most of these 500-1,000 years ago. The best spots to see petroglyphs are near the Paria River and House Rock Valley Road.

The BLM has found over 3,000 archaeological sites here packed with dwellings, tools, you name it. Archaeologists believe some petroglyphs served as territorial markers, while others recorded important events or mythological stories.

You Can See Dinosaur Tracks

The Coyote Buttes North area has over 1,000 real dinosaur footprints from 190 million years ago. In the early Jurassic period, this place was a massive desert where dinosaurs wandered looking for water.

Most tracks came from Eubrontes, a big meat-eater with three toes. You can also see prints from Grallator (smaller meat-eater), Anchisauripus (medium-sized dino), and some others scientists haven’t figured out yet.

These were preserved when mud turned to stone over time. What’s cool is how many tracks are in one spot (like they found a prehistoric highway).

Rare tail-drag marks associated with Sauropodomorph tracks are also present at the site, measuring up to 24 feet long.

The Mormon Honeymoon Trail

The Hamblin or Honeymoon Trail was a 400-mile wagon route Mormon newlyweds took to get their marriages blessed at the St. George Temple in Utah.

The temple opened in 1877, and couples would tackle this rough desert journey just to make their marriage official in their church. They crossed the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry, set up in 1871 by John D. Lee.

People used the trail from the 1870s until about 1926 when better roads finally made the journey less brutal. Along this pioneer route, historical markers denote the pathway, and some original wagon ruts can still be spotted along sections of the trail near Lee’s Ferry and Fort Pearce Wash.

California Condors Fly Above & Beyond

Bird nerds love this place too. You might spot the endangered California condors with their massive 10-foot wings soaring around (they were released here in 1966 to save them from extinction). Watch for desert bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope jumping around the cliffs.

Visiting the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument

The monument’s about 90 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona, off Highway 89A. You’ll need a serious 4WD vehicle for places like White Pockets.

Your phone won’t work here. Bring actual maps like it’s 1995 and forget about GPS. Summer gets hot (100°F+), and winter brings snow and bad roads. No entrance fee, but you do need permits for The Wave, South Coyote Buttes, and overnight Paria Canyon trips.