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Arizona Strip


Wedged between the Grand Canyon and Utah, the vast Arizona Strip is one of the state's most remote and sparsely populated regions. Only about 6000 people live here, in relative isolation, many of them members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), who defy US law by practicing polygamy.

Larger than Vermont, this 14,000-sq-mile region is traversed by only one major road – Hwy 89A. It crosses the Colorado River at Marble Canyon before getting sandwiched by the crimson-hued Vermilion Cliffs to the north and House Rock Valley to the south. Desert scrub gives way to piñon and juniper as the highway climbs up the Kaibab Plateau to enter the Kaibab National Forest. At Jacob Lake, it meets with Hwy 67 to the Grand Canyon North Rim. Past Jacob Lake, as the road drops, you get stupendous views across southern Utah.