Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend is a single, perfect loop of the Colorado River a few miles below Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona. From the rim, the river curls almost all the way around a central butte of red rock, so that the canyon draws a nearly closed horseshoe in the ground, and the water at the bottom shows green against the orange and cream of the sandstone. The overlook stands at about 4,200 feet above sea level and the river at about 3,200, so visitors look down on a drop of roughly 1,000 feet from the edge.

The bend is a textbook entrenched meander. The Colorado once wandered over a nearly flat plain; when the region began to rise some 5 to 6 million years ago, the river kept its looping course and cut straight down, locking the curve into solid rock. The walls are Navajo Sandstone, a rock notable for its cross-bedding, the sweeping diagonal lines that run through the cliff faces, and for small iron concretions that weather out of the surface. From the rim you can trace these layers around the full curve of the canyon.

Light changes the place through the day. In the middle of the day the river is lit to the bottom and its colour is strongest; at sunrise and sunset the butte casts long shadows and the sandstone glows. The bend lies within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and draws more than two million visitors a year, most of whom come for this one view.

Getting there

Horseshoe Bend is about 4 miles (6.5 km) south-west of Page, Arizona, and about 5 miles downstream of Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Page Municipal Airport (PGA) is about 8 km away; the nearest larger city is Flagstaff, about 187 km to the south. The trailhead and parking area are off U.S. Route 89, and a walk of about 1.5 miles there and back leads from the car park to the overlook.