HIGHLIGHT: ARIZONA
Marble Canyon: One of the most exclusive and dramatic hiking spots in the Southwest could see bigger crowds under a new proposal unveiled Wednesday. The Bureau of Land Management is weighing increasing its daily visitor limits from 20 to 96 people a day at The Wave, a popular rock formation near the Arizona-Utah border. A 6-mile round-trip hike through tall sandstone buttes and sage brush is required to get to the wide, sloping basin of searing reds, oranges and yellows in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. Visitors compete for permits in a monthly online lottery and at daily walk-in drawings; less than 5% succeed.