Arizona - Glen Canyon Dam - Lake Powell - Horseshoe, look no hand rails - Rainbow Bridge National Monument

Glen Canyon Dam & Lake Powell

Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, near the town of Page.

The dam was built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the upper Colorado River Basin to the lower. It took 10 years to build it.

At the time of its completion in 1959, the Glen Canyon Dam bridge was the highest arch bridge in the world and the second highest bridge of any type.

Its reservoir is called Lake Powell, and is the second largest artificial lake in the country,

extending upriver well into Utah.

The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a colorful series of gorges,
most of which now lies under the reservoir

For more information clicke here.

Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped meander of the Colorado River located 5 miles downstream from the Dam.

It is accessible via hiking a 1.5-mile round trip from US Route 89. Horseshoe Bend can be viewed from the steep cliff. This is as close as I dared to go.

Its 1,000-foot drop with No Handrails for visitors.

For more information click here.

Rainbow Bridge National Monument is in southern Utah.
Rainbow Bridge is often described as the world's highest natural bridge.

Right now the lake is about 101 feet low from its maximum holding capacity as you can see in this picture

   To get there you take a two-hour boat ride on Lake Powell from either one of two marinas near Page, Arizona,

Now you hike 1.25 mile from the dock. This would all be under water.

This is were the water would come up to if the lake wasn't down.

The other way of getting to the bridge is by hiking several days overland from a trailhead on the south side of Lake Powell.
To do this you must obtain a permit from the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, AZ.

For more information click here.