11 AUGUST 2008 -- CLIFF DWELLERS, AZ: The Vermilion Cliffs, which lie along the southern edge of the Paria Plateau and the northern edge of the Arizona Strip, rise 3,000 feet in a spectacular escarpment capped with sandstone underlain by multicolored, actively eroding, dissected layers of shale and sandstone. The Arizona Strip is the high desert in Arizona between the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and the Utah state line. It is a very arid region, most of the vegetation is sagebrush with juniper and pinion trees at higher elevations. The two largest communities on the strip are Fredonia, south of Kanab, UT and Colorado City, which is east of St. George, UT. PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ