Exploring Glen Canyon

By | March 5, 2024

Lake Powell:


Lake Powell is an artificial reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is the second largest artificial reservoir by maximum water capacity in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing 24,322,000 acre-feet (3.0001×1010 m3) of water when full. Lake Powell is named for John Wesley Powell, who in 1869 led the first expedition to traverse the Colorado River’s Grand Canyonby boat. Lake Powell was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the 1972 creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a popular summer destination of public land managed by the National Park Service.

Glen Canyon Dam:


Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the southwestern United States, located on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, near the city of Page. The 710-foot-high (220 m) dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S. with a capacity of more than 25 million acre-feet (31 km3). The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a series of deep sandstone gorges now flooded by the reservoir.

Glen Canyon Bridge:


The Glen Canyon Bridge or Glen Canyon Dam Bridge is a steel arch bridge in Coconino County, Arizona, carrying U.S. Route 89 across the Colorado River. The bridge was originally built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation to facilitate transportation of materials for the Glen Canyon Dam, which lies adjacent to the bridge just 865 feet (264 m) upstream. The two-lane bridge has an overall length of 1,271 feet (387 m) with a deck 700 feet (210 m) above the river, making it one of the highest bridges in the United States. The bridge was the highest arch bridge in the world when completed in 1959.

Glen Canyon Dam Overlook:

Glen Canyon Dam Overlook

The very short hike down takes us to a viewpoint on the canyon rim high above the Colorado River. It affords an uparalleled view of the river, the canyon, and Glen Canyon Dam. This scenic view provides spectacular vistas of the Colorado River as it flows through Glen Canyon and of Glen Canyon Dam itself.