Kayaking through Horseshoe Bend

Vacationing in Page isn’t complete without the obligatory Horseshoe Bend visit. We decided that the usual way of sightseeing by peeking down into it wasn’t for us and we would instead immerse ourselves by kayaking through Horseshoe Bend. After thoroughly investigating Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon, we started out fresh the next morning and drove with our double kayaks firmly attached to the top of our car to Lee’s Ferry, about a 50 minute drive from Page. We met a contractor who put our kayaks in his boat and whizzed us up a cold and breezy 15 miles on the Colorado River to the Glen Canyon Dam.

Lee’s Ferry

At the Dam, we disembarked from the boat and started to paddle our kayaks back down the river to Lee’s Ferry. The current was 5-6 mph and there was no need to do much besides enjoy and paddle gently.

Glen Canyon Dam

The Glen Canyon Dam was created in 1956-1966 and holds back enough water to form Lake Powell. Its the second highest concrete dam in the U.S., second only to Hoover Dam. The dam is a major source of hydroelectricity, but more importantly helps maintain an equitable water supply and defends against drought for Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, California, Nevada and Arizona.

Petroglyph Walk

We beached our kayaks and walked a short distance to see the ancient Petroglyphs of the Anasazi carved on the cliffs. We headed next down river and came through Horseshoe Bend.

Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend is a large meander in the Colorado River in the Glen Canyon Recreational Area, before it reaches the Grand Canyon. It has a large panoramic overlook where people can view this impressive site. Many people I talked to before I went didn’t know where or what it was called, but recognized the iconic site when I showed them a picture. I was excited to try to see if I could spot the people on the cliffs watching us paddle by from above.

The Canyon walls are so high its barely possible to make out the tiny people at the top peering down at us on our kayaks.

We continued kayaking as the cliff walls stretched higher.

When we had left Lee’s Ferry, we had been warned that in the afternoon there was a high wind warning, but we wanted to complete the whole trip and elected not to cut the trip short. After Horseshoe Bend things got interesting. A moterboat pulled over to us and warned us to hug the inside left of the next turn “or you won’t go anywhere”. We had been taking whatever path seemed to have a current to help us along, but we dutifully switched sides of the river noting a slight uptick in the wind. The closer we got to the bend in the river, the wind velocity became stronger and I decided for safety to actually secure my life jacket “just in case” we got capsized.

The wind was brutal as we turned around that last protective bend. Not many pictures were taken from this point on. My husband, Fareed, stopped paddling to put on his life jacket and I was all like “no worries, I’ll keep us going”- but no! I couldn’t even paddle against the wind strong enough to hold us steady and we slipped backwards upstream until he could paddle again! We continued on for a good while then saw a spot to put in for a rest and we took it. There were two gentlemen who had rented inflatable kayaks also taking refuge. We swapped stories about the difficulties we were having, ate a few snacks and fortified, we headed out again. The men with whom we had shared our resting spot, simply waded along the shore and pulled their kayaks behind them because their kayaks were so lightweight the wind would blow the front tips up off the water if they were to try paddling.

We paddled past the kayak-waders trudging along the shoreline, but Fareed’s sunglasses blew off his head into the water. The water was crystal clear and spying the glasses, he leaned over to get them and we nearly capsized. Thinking to hold the kayak and increase its stability, I got out but that was a mistake because the wind did catch our front tip and flipped the kayak over even with Fareed in the back! I quickly gathered up our now floating supplies. The men with the inflatable kayaks caught up to us and found Fareed’s sunglasses and we clambered back in our kayak. We paddled fiercely 30-45 more hard minutes against the wind. Even though we were going downstream and the current was helping us, it was a struggle. It turns out that section was two miles long. We rested again for a brief 10 minutes under the shelter of some high walls at the end of that straightaway. We didn’t realize how close we were at that point to Lee’s Ferry and it was only a quick half hour to reach back where we started.

We strapped those kayaks back up on our SUV and drove back to Page. Our friends kindly dropped us off at Horseshoe Bend overlook so we could see from up high what the river looked like where we had paddled through just a few hours previously. It’s located only 15 minutes outside of Page.

Horseshoe Bend Overlook

I couldn’t believe how large the rocks on the inner part of the bend appear from the overlook compared to how small they seemed on our kayak. There was a viewing platform with a railing that was built to protect against falls. The area with the railing was crowded so we just stepped up to the edge and took this picture. The picture looks closer to the edge than it actually was. My body seems to have an invisible restraining force field that won’t let me go any closer as a self protective mechanism, but there were other people taking risks that made me nervous. Apparently an average of one person does fall each year out of the 1.5 million yearly visitors. But not this day!

The best time of day for photos of Horseshoe Bend is to go as early as possible. We were still happy to see it at the end of the day. We enjoyed our kayaking adventure, both the calm, peaceful parts and the challenging parts, as well as the different perspective from the river.