Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona
October 13, 2025
Glen Canyon National Recreation area is huge and comprises 1.25 million acres. We visited only a very small portion of it in an area adjacent to Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, another huge tract of land that is mostly wilderness. To say that we felt like we had "gotten away from it all" was an understatement.
A quintessential lonely road
The Vermilion Cliffs
Entering Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
We stayed as Lees Ferry, a first-come-first-serve campground that had quite a few campsites available when we arrived around 11:30 in the morning.
Nice view of the Vermilion Cliffs
After a fun week in Zion National Park, we took it slower here. One day we took a bike ride in the immediate vicinity and another day we hiked the really fun Cathedral Wash trail. Aside from a trip to Page for groceries and church, the rest of the time we just hung out.
Moonset at sunrise The full moon happened to be a "super moon" the previous night and was really bright! (The sun was rising from behind the camera in this shot.)
Riding our bike in the area
We walked through a historic orchard that had free fruit for the picking.
We each tried a pear, but they weren't quite ripe yet.
The remains of an old cabin
A glimpse of the Colorado river near the official beginning of the Grand Canyon
If you were to paddle from where we were (Lees Ferry) to the end of the Grand Canyon, it would take you about two weeks!
We were actually standing in the Grand Canyon here!
Look around
You can see our campground in the distance
Look around
On the way to the Cathedral Wash trailhead
Informative sign explaining the dramatic geology of the area
This was a super fun hike!
It started out pretty easy...
...and quickly got more interesting!
Pretty soon, you had to start deciding whether to stay at the canyon bottom or to go on either the right or the left ledge.
Things opened up quite a bit for a while.
Then we came to a point where we had to go down about 20 or 30 feet or so. We asked the other hikers below for advice, but Rick ended up finding an easier-ish route for us to get down.
There's Rick on the right looking for a Julie-friendly route down.
Still looking for the way down.
Looks like a dead end up ahead.
Yep, not getting any further going this way. It's about at this point where Julie noticed a big pile of rocks at the bottom--a clue!
We ended up scrambling down a couple of heaps of rocks that someone had kindly built up.
Finally got to the bottom! But, this canyon was going downhill toward the Colorado River, so the bottom kept dropping out on us.
The bottom doesn't look like the best route here, but do we go left or right?
We randomly chose right, but found ourselves stranded after a while.
This couple clearly had chosen the correct side.
There's our first glimpse of the Colorado River. It was fascinating to see how some of the cliffs had just crumbled into heaps of rubble over time.
Out of one canyon and into another--the Grand Canyon!
Look around
Heading back the way we came.
It was much quicker going back!
We ended up making a wrong turn that resulted in us climbing over this precarious rock. We didn't notice that there wasn't anything under the rock until after Julie had gone over it. She didn't tell Rick until he got past it. 😉
A white-tailed antelope squirrel that frequented our campsite
Sunrise after a rainy night
On the way to Page, Arizona
The Glen Canyon Dam that holds back Lake Powell
The Colorado River downstream from the dam
A moody sunset after a rainy day
We loved being surrounded by the red rocks during our stay here. The weather was mostly nice, with the exception of a bit of rain and an exceedingly windy night which brought fears of our deck roof cracking off and blowing away into the next state over. We are happy to report that our deck roof is still attached. (Whew!)
Next stop--Goosenecks State Park (back in Utah)!
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