Horseshoe Bend: Better From Above or Below?

If you have been on Instagram for any amount of time, you have probably seen Horseshoe Bend. It is one of the most recognized sites in Arizona.

From above, the blueish-green Colorado River makes a wide sweeping bend around the layered sandstone peninsula of Glen Canyon.

Take your snap standing on the edge of the overlooking cliff and you are sure to be insta-famous. Ok. No guarantees, but you’ll at least look like an influencer.

As you peer down the canyon, you may find yourself wondering– How on earth did that boat get down there? I wonder what it’s like down there…

If you are interested in exploring the less traveled depths of the canyon, here is a sneak peek.

Horseshoe Bend From Above

The top of Horseshoe Bend is right along US Route 89. It’s along the same route that you would take if heading to Page or the Grand Canyon North Rim. There will be signs guiding you.

From the parking lot, it is a short .7 mile walk to where you can peer over the edge.

With its growing popularity, it has started to get more crowded. Accordingly, a fee of $10 per car has now been implemented. This means you may only want to go once.

From the “TOP of this canyon vantage point”, the Colorado River is roughly 1000 ft below. I never fully realized this enormity until I later looked up from below.

Looking down at the bend does make for a great picture!

You will want to be there in the late morning or just before sunset so that the bend is not in shadows (like below).

On our One year anniversary, we stopped by Horseshoe Bend to take pictures in my wedding dress that I thought I was going to trash… (More on that at a later juncture).

Horseshoe Bend from the Colorado River

“If there is a point to being in the canyon, it is not to rush but to linger, suspended in a blue-and-amber haze of in-between-ness, for as long as one possibly can. To float, to drift, savoring the pulse of the river on its odyssey through the canyon, and above all, to postpone the unwelcome and distinctly unpleasant moment when one is forced to reemerge and reenter the world beyond the rim-that is the paramount goal.”

― Kevin Fedarko, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon

In June, my friend Merriam invited us to join her on a Birthday adventure of “floating” on the Colorado River. Merriam hails from Missouri where she and friends have taken many a multi-day river trip. Her river-tripping nostalgia is contagious.

Though we had never overnight-ed via our Kayak (nor did we have any dry-bags), my husband had recently found an inflatable Kayak with this very trip in mind. It did not take him more than a second to get on board with the idea.

Lees Ferry

The idea was to float and paddle down a fifteen-mile stretch of Arizona’s Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lee’s Ferry.

Past Lees Ferry, the river continues on through the Grand Canyon. However, unlike rafting through the Grand Canyon, for this particular strip of the river, you don’t need to pay large sums, nor win the lottery, to get in on the downstream whitewater.

Lees Ferry is about an hour’s drive from Page, through the Marble Canyon– a pretty scenic drive in and of itself, crossing over the historic Navajo Bridge.

Backhaul to Glen Canyon Dam

Starting at Lees Ferry you need to be backhauled up-stream to the Glen Canyon Dam. While we considered trying to paddle upstream ourselves, everything we read told us it wouldn’t be possible.

We arranged a pick up at 9 am on a Saturday from Wilderness River Adventures.

When we got to Glen Canyon that morning, the wind was ferocious and the whitecaps were prominent. Due to the weather, all the rafting guides (our company had yet to show up) were telling us that they were canceling their trips.

We held on to our hope, and continued to prep our Kayaks as if we were going.

Right before 9 am, the giant 32 foot inflatable Wilderness River Adventures Raft appeared on the shore.

Tentatively we asked if they were still going to be able to bring us upstream given the winds. “Of Course,” said the driver, while Merriam and I did a little happy dance– this Birthday adventure was going to happen!

We loaded up our Kayaks onto the large Raft and away we chugged, crashing over the whiteheads– motor-powered! I wondered how our small rimmed inflatable kayak was going to withstand those whitecaps– especially with two people and garbage bags filled with camping equipment!

My worst fears were realized when just ahead we spotted someone with a completely waterlogged kayak, trying to swim to the edge of the canyon. He was drowning in his fishing waders and clearly shivering so badly he was not making much progress. Our big raft did a quick u-turn to pick him up and brought him to the sunny side of the canyon where he could empty his boat and re-orient.

I silently prayed that our Kayak would be a bit more “floaty”.

Paddle Away

Just under the Glen Canyon Dam (the other side of Lake Powell), there is a small stretch of sand where we offloaded our Kayaks from the big raft and re-arranged the black garbage bags that stored our camping equipment. The Wilderness River guide warned us to “just pull over if the wind got too bad”.

It was now or never–so off we went.

The swells at first made it seem hard to paddle–despite the fact that we were supposed to be going DOWN stream.

We watched as Merriam quickly floated away as she found where the current was. “Ah, that’s how it works”, we told ourselves, as we tried to imitate.

“A river so clear and transparent that the bright stones suspended within its currents could be seen with the naked eye, glittering with the traces of an incontestable radiance whose depth and distance and truth lay beyond the reaches of any terrestrial imagination.”

― Kevin Fedarko, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon

We were moving and not sinking–Hallelujah!

River Sights

There are a few places along the river where you can pull your Kayak ashore to explore. One of those stops is to see petroglyphs. It’s a quarter-mile walk to the canyon wall where you can see preserved big-horned sheep and other things that I can’t say I could recognize.

These petroglyphs are thought to have been carved by indigenous groups, sometime between 1 and 1300AD. If you try to add to them, you will be heavily fined (It has happened. ;)).

By the time we reached Horseshoe Bend, I have to admit that I hardly knew it. From below, the canyon looks like giant walls on either side.

Quite honestly, it was less pretty than other parts of the Canyon, since it actually widens at that point and the sun washes out the canyon.

As I tried to film our “going through the bend”, I realized my camera could not even catch the people at the top peering down! From 1000 ft below they looked like the tiniest of ants.

I wondered if our orange Kayak would be featured on Instagram later that day. Only later did I realize that our boat was too small to be noticed from that height. It seems only powerboats with their long white trailing wakes can be noticed from up there.

Past Horseshoe Bend, the wind picked up and my husband and I got into a rhythm, stroking hard to keep the boat moving forward.

We kept stroking until we realized our 15-mile stretch was already coming to an end! We were not ready to be finished.

“He rowed them past the last of the stars. He rowed them clear of the night’s embrace. He rowed them straight into and beyond the break of day. And somewhere along that stretch of river, he also rowed them across an invisible fault line, a seam on the American continent that separates the terrain where the ephemeral events of everyday reality unfold from a more rarefied and singular realm, the place where mythic and permanent journeys of the imagination”

― Kevin Fedarko, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon

Camping

While the trip can be completed in a long day, ideally you would want to stop for a night and let the stars stretch out above you.

There are eight official campsites along the 15-mile stretch. They have composting toilets and are completely free to use. So take your pick.

Unfortunately, in our gusto to paddle the day away, we passed the initial campsites, and by the time we arrived at the last few, they were overrun by large groups that had been deposited nearer to Lees Ferry due to winds.

Merriam was insistent that we needed to camp, but we were getting dangerously close to Lees Ferry and the end of our Kayaking stretch.

We tried to find any point on the canyon banks where there was enough land for a tent. At one point, we even pulled our boats into a grassy inlet swarmed with flies. Since Merriam and I were pretty desperate to find a spot, we were willing to settle. My husband, on the other hand, claimed it was not “romantic” enough.

As we nervously inched forward, not wanting our trip to come to an abrupt end, we pulled over where we had earlier seen wild horses.

Surely wild horses should be romantic– right? …until you find they have left a good mess of manure. Still– it actually was a good place to set up camp, so we unloaded.

It was getting dark and we were hungry, so first thing was dinner–then tent set- up. While my husband and I got prime realty by the water, Merriam had to set up a little higher, in the sand. Since it was still windy and her stakes were not holding, she ended up having to haul her kayak up to hold down her tent. It worked.

Morning’s Light

As morning’s light flooded the canyon, the water which had been churned up the day before, was now glassy and still. The wild horses had clearly come to the water’s edge to drink but had not bothered us. Yup- I’d say we had found an appropriately romantic camping location.

Note: It is not usually permitted to camp in non-designated campsites. That said, we had been told by the officials to camp where needed, given the water’s conditions. We took that as our green light.

“Thou shalt not” is soon forgotten, but “Once upon a time” lasts forever.”

― Kevin Fedarko, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon

Top or Bottom?

My conclusion: it is not fair to say either the top or the bottom of Horseshoe Bend is better.

The views of the bend are definitely more picturesque from the top- don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

That said, a trip down the Colorado River is definitely an experience you should add to your bucket list! The float has views in its own right–they are just in a different location than Horseshoe Bend.

Take a snap from the top, but don’t ignore the lower side. A short snap at horseshoe bend won’t provide the camaraderie of a river trip with friends.

Happy Birthday Merriam!!

In the Vicinity

There are many hikes and experiences you could tag onto this trip. Antelope Canyon is just seven miles from Horshoe Bend and is one of the most photographed slot canyons in the world. While it is very scenic, you are required to book a costly tour to enter.

As an alternative, I would highly recommend hiking Buckskin Gulch via Wire Pass. Wire Pass is a short drainage that joins the longer Buckskin Gulch slot canyon. From the trailhead to Buckskin Gulch it is 1.75 miles one way, through Wire Pass. It is a gorgeous narrow canyon, with the same beauty as Antelope Canyon– except it is completely free and lesser-known (aka. fewer people too).