Horseshoe Bend

This is the Colorado Plateau, a high, dry, red-rock land that has been home to Native peoples for a very long time, and the country around Horseshoe Bend is bordered by the Navajo Nation, whose lands stretch across much of the region. The nearby slot canyons and much of the surrounding land are Navajo (Diné) territory, and the whole area carries deep cultural meaning for the tribe.

The town of Page itself is young, built in the 1950s to house the workers who constructed Glen Canyon Dam just upstream. The dam holds back the Colorado to form Lake Powell, and the water that rounds Horseshoe Bend has just passed through it, running clear and cold and green. That green color, unusual for the muddy Colorado, is one reason the bend photographs the way it does, the river a bright ribbon against the red walls.

Horseshoe Bend is a textbook example of what geologists call an entrenched meander. Long ago the Colorado wound in lazy loops across a nearly flat plain, the way rivers do on gentle ground. Then the whole Colorado Plateau began to rise, slowly and steadily, and as it lifted, the river cut downward to keep its course, sawing its old winding path deep into the rising rock.

The result is this deep, sheer-walled loop, a river bend frozen a thousand feet down into solid sandstone. The rock itself is Navajo Sandstone, formed from an immense field of ancient wind-blown dunes that hardened into stone, which is why the cliffs show sweeping, cross-bedded lines like frozen dunes. The river keeps cutting even now, so the canyon is still, very slowly, deepening around the same great curve.

The country around Horseshoe Bend is high desert, sparse but not lifeless. The rim and slickrock hold lizards, ravens, and rock squirrels, and hardy desert plants find footing in cracks in the sandstone. Peregrine falcons and other raptors ride the updrafts along the canyon walls, hunting the open air above the river.

Down at the water, the cold, clear river below the dam supports fish and draws waterbirds, and beavers and other creatures work the banks where vegetation takes hold. Bighorn sheep range the broader canyon country, and coyotes and jackrabbits move across the desert flats. It is a spare landscape where life clings to the rock and the river, which only sharpens the drama of the view.

Spring and fall are the best times to visit, with mild temperatures for the exposed walk and comfortable, clear days. The light in the shoulder seasons is especially good, and the crowds, while always present at this famous spot, are a little thinner.

Summer is hot and the trail offers almost no shade, so a summer visit is safest in the early morning or evening with plenty of water, and the low sun then also lights the canyon best. Winter is cold and quiet, sometimes dusted with snow, and offers the rare chance to have this celebrated overlook nearly to yourself, with crisp, clear air and long views across the plateau.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.