We were up early on Tuesday morning. Sunrise was listed at 0511 but light was peeping over the horizon by 0430. I think little Annie Belle has a dusk to dawn sensor. She comes into the bedroom around 0430 and I can hear her little toenails clicking on the floor as she does her potty dance. As soon as I get up and push the comforter over the sheets, Penny Lane takes my place. I think my pups conspire to get me out of bed in the morning. One wants to pee and hang out with mom and the other wants to get in bed with dad. No worries, I am a huge fan of mornings.
We had our coffee, got a good run and made sure we got the girls our for a bit of exercise. We we wanted to drive over to an area called Horseshoe Bend and neither of the dogs needed to go.
Horseshoe Bend is both spectacular and terrifying. It is a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River located near the town of Page, Arizona, in the United States.
Horseshoe Bend is located 5 miles (8.0 km) downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, about 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Page.
It is accessible via hiking a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) round trip from U.S. Route 89. Horseshoe Bend can be viewed from the steep cliff above.
The overlook is 4,200 feet (1,300 m) above sea level, and the Colorado River is at 3,200 feet (980 m) above sea level, making it a 1,000-foot (300 m) drop.
Geologically, Horseshoe Bend is amazing but it is also, for me, a sweaty palm, heart palpitating experience.
The 1000 foot drop is straight down a rock face. There is no railing. None. It is easy to get a good look without getting too close to the edge but it is apparent that a good selfie is more important than safety. (that last statement is dripping with sarcasm) The site is fairly crowded and a good portion of the folks there were just being stupid. I do not like the word stupid and I rarely use it to describe anything but these folks were just plain stupid. So many were standing right on the edge of the sandstone ledges. Multiple signs warn against this but...."gotta get that photo with me looking like I am about to fall to my death." Anyway, we had a good look, I took a few pictures and then I had to leave. I was just having a difficult time watching so many people behaving so carelessly.
ROB OBSERVING THE RISK TAKERS
Horseshoe Bend is worth the visit. The walk is only about one mile round trip and there is a fairly steep hill to navigate on the return trip. Wear good shoes. A bottle of water is a plus.
On our way back from Horseshoe Bend, we stopped at Glen Canyon Dam visitor center.
Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, United States, near the town of Page. The 710-foot (220 m) high dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S. with a capacity of 27 million acre feet (33 km3). The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a series of deep sandstone gorges now flooded by the reservoir. We parked on the north side of the Colorado River and walked across Glen Canyon Bridge to get to the visitor's center. The bridge is a steel arch bridge in Coconino County, Arizona, carrying U.S. Route 89 across the Colorado River. The bridge was originally built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation to facilitate transportation of materials for the Glen Canyon Dam, which lies adjacent to the bridge just 865 feet (264 m) upstream. The two-lane bridge has an overall length of 1,271 feet (387 m) with a deck 700 feet (210 m) above the river, making it the one of the highest bridge in the United States.
The walk across the bridge is perfectly safe but it was still a bit of a challenge for me. The 700 foot drop is straight down. You have the bridge, 700 feet of air and then splat....the river.
THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. THE COLORADO RIVER BELOW THE DAM
GLEN CANYON BRIDGE
GLEN CANYON DAM AND THE BEGINNING OF LAKE POWELL
The visitor's center offers a lot of history regarding the construction of the dam and the subsequent creation of Lake Powell. There is a fascinating movie with amazing footage of the construction. I caught myself on the edge of my seat with my mouth agape. What the engineers and laborers did to make this vision a reality is a marvel. You can Google "video of construction of Glen Canyon Dam" and you will get several results. Give it a look.
We left the Dam and went home to check on the girls and have lunch. As usual, they were happy to see us and we all sat outside and enjoyed our view of the lake while we had a bite to eat.
After lunch, we got Penny Lane into her harness and the three of us took a ride to a place called Lee's Ferry.
Lees Ferry is a site on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona in the United States, about 7.5 miles (12.1 km) southwest of Page and 9 miles (14 km) south of the Utah–Arizona border.
Due to its unique geography – the only place in hundreds of miles from which one can easily access the Colorado River from both sides – it historically served as an important river crossing and starting in the mid-19th century was the site of a ferry operated by John Doyle Lee, for whom it is named. Boat service at Lees Ferry continued for over 60 years before being superseded by a bridge in the early 20th century, which allowed for much more efficient automobile travel.
Lee's Ferry is a bit of a drive and either little known or just a bit too hard to get to. For us, this was a plus. It is one of the only places that we know of, where you can actually get in the canyon waters of the Colorado. The canyon walls stretch hundreds of feet up in many places.
The area is beautiful and blissfully uncrowded. There is a river trail that takes hikers to the site of Lee's crossing. The hike is fairly easy and there are a few areas where hikers can get to the water.
The water was running clear and deep and was very cold. Penny played and played. We only saw for or five people while we were there. This area is not well advertised but we loved it.
When we left Lee's Ferry, we made our way back towards the RV. The road there and back takes you up and through a cut in the mountain.
Once we got back over the mountain, we decided to make one more stop. We stopped at the Hanging Gardens trailhead and set out for a short hike.
The Hanging Gardens are nothing too spectacular but the green against so much sandstone is pretty.
We had more fun picking out an alternate return route then we had getting there.
By the time we finished the Hanging Garden trail, we were dusty and tired but we'd had a wonderfully full day of adventure.
Another great day in this thing we call life.
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