Glen Canyon (Marble Canyon)

Posted on October 10, 2007 in Photos Vacation Fall 2007

Highway 89 travels like it is avoiding the [[Vermillion Cliffs]] at all costs before making a sharp left across some alluvial fans and stabbing across the Colorado River via the [[Navajo Bridge]]. Today there are two Navajo Bridges: a new one which can handle the heavy trucks of today and an older one — the original — which now carries only walkers. both mark the only gateway within Arizona to the region known as the Strip.

We stopped on the “mainland” side of the bridges to walk across and read the signs placed by the NPS. I found it a little unnerving to stop at the steel plates that join the two halves of the old Navajo Bridge or to look over the side at the great, green, greasy-looking Colorado River whose banks are quite barren of fever trees. We spent but little time there, mostly coaxing a ranger to give us a brochure about Lee’s Ferry — just upriver — so we could hike the River Trail and explore the ruins of a small town founded by one of the perpetrators of the [[Mountain Meadows Massacre]].

For whatever reason, the area is under the jurisdiction of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area rather than Grand Canyon National Park which begins just south of the new Navajo Bridge. Signs along the short access road explain the geology of the Vermillion Cliffs and point out odd features such as chunks of [[Navajo Sandstone]] that have rolled off onto pedestals of the [[Moenkopi Formation]].

We performed all our obligations by stopping at turnouts and hiking the River Trail up to the last set of ruins. There wasn’t much difference between these nineteenth century relics and [[Anasazi]] pueblos — they were made of the same stone, using the same mortar. Pieces of a steamboat poked up in the water and a piece of cable from the original operation lay on a beach covered with desert pavement. When we were finished, we watched some packers set up their boats for a raft expedition down river. The concrete ramp and that alone may have been the reason for the separation of this area from the national park. Or maybe it was just too far from the main area of operations.

Here is the album in my gallery (10 pics).

Click on more to see important notes.

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