Glen Canyon, named by explorer and naturalist John Wesley Powell following his epic voyage of discovery, today is a 1.2 million-acre park that spans the scenic desert landscape from the bottom of Canyonlands National Park to the tip of Grand Canyon National Park, including buttes, cliffs, canyons, and mesas.
Horseshoe BendIt is where Horseshoe Bend is located. The bend itself is just downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, which created and now holds Lake Powell.
According to National Park Service documentation, approximately 1,500 historic and pre-contact structures in varying condition exist in the park They include Ancestral Puebloan architecture, hogans, brush structures, and cabins, and are associated with the tribes and bands of the Hopi, Paiute, Navajo, Ute, and Zuni, as well as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, cattle ranchers, miners, and others.
Securely beach your kayak and hike various trails to see various historic objects. Trails and their access points are listed and defined in National Park Service documents.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area contains several historic properties that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places These include the Davis Gulch pictograph panel, the Hole-in-the-Rock and Hole-in-the-Rock Trail, Defiance House, the Lees Ferry/ Lonely Dell Ranch National Historic District, and the Charles H Spencer remnants of a steamboat.
Almost 900,000 objects and archival records in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area museum collection are in good condition and housed in two repositories.
Of particular interest to those traveling by kayak, canoe, and paddle boards floating the Colorado River are the 19 Native American Indian tribes and bands that are associated with Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and are the contemporary descendants of those American Indians who left behind what we call “archeological” or cultural sites.
As you kayak, canoe or SUP the Colorado through Glen Canyon to Lees Ferry, look upward at rock faces to see 100- to 150-year old “graffiti” of names and dates inscribed by young Mormon couples as they made the journey from Utah to northern Arizona on what became known as the Honeymoon Trail.
If you are interested in Honeymoon Trail stories, there has been much documented and written about John Doyle Lee and Lees Ferry, the Mountain Meadow Massacre and so much more.
