Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness covers 112,500 acres in northern Arizona and southern Utah on the Colorado Plateau, where the Paria River cuts through broad plateaus, escarpments, and deep canyons before joining the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry. Designated by Congress in 1984 and later partly included in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, it is valued for dramatic sandstone landscapes, recreation, and exceptional rock exposures that preserve a clear record of Earth’s history. The area also preserves evidence of ancestral Puebloan and Paiute use, later Spanish exploration and mineral prospecting, and important wildlife habitat, including reintroduced California condors and desert bighorn sheep.