Regions
The Vermilion Cliffs and their foothills, the lower canyon of the
Paria River and the
Coyote Buttes are also part of the
Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, which extends a few miles northwards, beyond the national monument boundary into Utah, to incorporate the
Buckskin Gulch slot canyon and adjacent lands.
Besides these regions, most people encounter Vermilion Cliffs National Monument when driving along US 89A between
Lees Ferry and
Jacob Lake on the Kaibab Plateau - 40 miles of impressive scenery with the cliffs on one side and the vast, level plains around Marble Canyon and
House Rock Valley on the other, followed (to the west) by a steep climb into pine forest at the edge of plateau. Apart from the Ferry, the road passes just one other significant settlement,
Cliff Dwellers, which consists of a few adobe buildings nestled amongst crumbling rocks and oddly shaped boulders, including a restaurant, lodge and gas station. There are plenty of places for free primitive camping along dirt tracks either side of US 89A, mostly on the southeast side, for example near milepost 548 where a short side track leads to a corral, also used as the trailhead to
Soap Creek. Apart from camping beneath the cliffs or just driving past them, one obvious goal is to climb to the top, but the sheer Navajo and Moenave sandstone restricts easy routes to just three, one via
Bonelli Spring, reached by a side track near milepost 561, and two a few miles away near
Jacob's Pool, one of which is described below.
Hike to the Plateau
Jacob's Pool and nearby
Rachel's Pool are a series of small springs at the foot of the Vermilion Cliffs that were once used by, and are named after, the family of
John D Lee who founded Lees Ferry. The area is reached by a 2 mile side road that leaves US 89A between mileposts 557 and 558, near a historical marker commemorating the
Escalante-Dominguez expedition of 1776. The road passes through an unlocked gate and ends at an abandoned stone house dated 1951, next to an old corral and other relics, which is a good place to park, or camp. The shortest route from here to the top of the cliffs is to walk eastwards along a disused track parallel to a fence, across then beside a small drainage and up to one of the springs - an area of dense bushes and trees from which a small stream flows. A trail begins when the track ends, leading up a slope left of the springs, across a flatter rocky area then ascending a longer slope of increasing steepness. It trends right, climbing more gradually then sharply once more to the base of the sheer Navajo sandstone layer, finally cutting back northwest along a cairned track to the foot of a narrow crack in the top of the cliffs, which has a number of petroglyphs and inscriptions of early travelers etched on the rocks at either side. The path continues up the crack then fades away once at the top. This part of the plateau is mostly sandy apart from scattered rocky outcrops, mostly eroded beehive/teepee formations. Views from the edge encompass countless square miles of the Colorado River valley and the more distant
Kaibab Plateau, though all this expanse is rather featureless and the scene is not particularly good for photography.