Colorado City, Arizona

Arizona's northernmost community, set beneath the red walls of Canaan Mountain on the AZ-389 corridor.

Colorado City is a small town tucked against the base of Canaan Mountain in the far-northern reach of the Arizona Strip, hard up against the Utah state line. It shares a single continuous street grid with Hildale, Utah, so closely that most visitors cross from one state to the other without noticing — locals tend to treat the pair as one community straddling the border.

For travelers, the practical appeal is the setting. A wall of rust-red and buff sandstone cliffs rises directly behind town, the foreground of the larger Canaan Mountain massif, and the open valley below opens toward Zion's distant peaks. It is one of the more dramatic backdrops of any settlement on the Arizona Strip, and it makes a logical pause on the long, lonely drive between the canyon country of southern Utah and the North Rim region.

Colorado City anchors the eastern end of the AZ-389 corridor, the highway that crosses the Strip between the Hurricane–Hildale area and Fredonia. This is the practical land route into the remote heart of the region, and a handful of worthwhile stops line up along it.

• Pipe Spring National Monument — a historic spring and fort site a short drive east, the most-visited cultural stop on the highway.
• Fredonia and the Kaibab Plateau — the gateway toward the Kaibab National Forest and the Grand Canyon's North Rim.
• Backcountry access south — routes leading toward Mount Trumbull, Toroweap, and the vast Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.

Because services thin out dramatically once you leave town heading west or south, Colorado City is a sensible place to top off your tank, grab water, and use a restroom before committing to the open Strip.

The standout outdoor draw is Water Canyon, the drainage that cuts into the cliffs east of town. It's the local favorite for a reason: a sandy wash leads up toward slickrock, seasonal pools, and a waterfall that runs after rain and spring snowmelt, with the towering sandstone walls of the Canaan Mountain plateau closing in overhead. The lower stretch is an easy walk suited to families; the route grows steeper and more rugged as you climb toward the rim, rewarding stronger hikers with sweeping views back over the valley.

From the high ground around town — the Short Creek Mesa area is one such vantage — clear days open up a panorama that takes in Mount Trumbull, the red cliffs ringing Colorado City, and the peaks of Zion on the horizon. If you've explored the larger landscape elsewhere on the Strip, the scenery here connects naturally to landmarks like the Vermilion Cliffs and the broader sandstone country to the north and east.

Colorado City was originally known as Short Creek, the name still attached to the surrounding mesa and to much of the town's story. It was settled in the early twentieth century by members of a fundamentalist Mormon movement.

The history here is bound up with the split between the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its breakaway groups. The LDS Church formally renounced polygamy in 1890 to bring Utah into line with U.S. law ahead of statehood. Groups that wished to continue the original practice broke away, the most prominent becoming the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), which settled in isolated communities across this remote corner of the region — Short Creek among them. Its sheer distance from any seat of government is a large part of why such communities took root on the Strip.

For much of the twentieth century Colorado City was a closed FLDS community, and that legacy is part of what visitors are often curious about. The town drew national attention over the practice of plural marriage and, later, over the treatment of so-called "Lost Boys" — young men, often in their teens to early twenties, who were pushed out of the community in a pattern that reduced competition for marriage. Many left unprepared for life on the outside, and former members and outside support groups have since worked to help them transition, with legal action pursued against community leadership.

Those days have largely passed. The town today is far more open than it once was, but it remains a quiet, conservative place. Travelers should visit with the same courtesy and respect they'd extend to any small community: this is people's home, not an attraction. Photographing residents, homes, or places of worship without permission is not welcome. Come for the landscape and the history, keep a low profile, and you'll find a perfectly ordinary small town under an extraordinary cliff.

A few practical notes for a trip to Colorado City and the surrounding Strip:

• Best seasons. Spring and fall are ideal — comfortable temperatures and the best chance of water in Water Canyon. Summer brings real desert heat and afternoon monsoon storms that can send flash floods through slot drainages; never enter a narrow canyon when rain threatens. Winter is cold and can leave snow on the higher cliffs.
• Fuel, water, and supplies. Gas up and stock water here before heading west toward Mount Trumbull or south into the backcountry. Services on the open Strip are essentially nonexistent.
• Access and vehicles. The town itself is reached on paved highway, but backcountry roads off AZ-389 are dirt, often rough, and best for high-clearance vehicles. Carry a spare and don't rely on cell coverage.
• Etiquette. Respect private property and resident privacy. Trailheads such as Water Canyon may cross or border private land — stay on established routes.

For more in the region, see nearby Kanab and the other Arizona Strip communities, or browse things to do across the Strip. Questions about the area? Get in touch.

From red-rock monuments to canyon overlooks, the icons of the Strip are close by.