THE GREAT BEYOND

BY: Gary Ladd

HORSESHOE BEND:

This Colorado River meander is known for its blue-green water and the colorful sandstone buttes that surround it. The overlook where this photo was made is 1,100 feet above the river, and it's accessible via a 1.5-mile (roundtrip) hike that begins a few miles south of Page on U.S. Route 89.

Almost 3 million people a year visit Lake Powell. It's one of the most popular attractions in the Southwest, but it's not the only sight worth seeing. Just beyond the lake are several natural wonders, including Horseshoe Bend, Buckskin Gulch and the otherworldly Antelope Canyon.

It was a March morning in 1963 when the canyons of the Colorado River were transformed. It was then that Glen Canyon Dam took control of the river's flow and gave birth to Lake Powell - a few miles upstream from Grand Canyon.

The upstart lake's Monument Valley-like setting and maze of twisting channels and spacious bays were expected to take center stage in the region's future economic and recreational life.

But now, looking back 52 years, that expectation may have been too simplistic. Not because of what has or hasn't happened at the lake, but because of the astonishing array of natural wonders that have been discovered and recognized in the surrounding region. In 1963, Lees Ferry, Arizona, at the southern end of what would become Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, was a half-forgotten back eddy. Navajo Bridge, 5 miles downstream, had siphoned off the ferry's automobile traffic in the late 1920s, and Glen Canyon Dam had nixed all Glen Canyon river trips.

Grand Canyon river-running, however, was on the brink of an explosion, and Lees Ferry was and is the most viable launching point. Although only 100 people had run the Colorado River through Grand Canyon in all of history as of about 1950, the numbers grew quickly, and by 1972, more than 15,000 river runners were shoving off every year. And the numbers continued to rise.

A similar story unfolded at Antelope Canyon, just beyond the city limits of Page, which was founded to support the construction of the dam. As the dam was rising from the riverbed, Antelope Canyon was known to local residents as “The Corkscrew” and the “Skinny Caves,” perfect settings for picnics and spooky adventures into the heart of Jurassic bedrock.

This sculpted this intricate formation from a sandstone ridge.

PARIA PLATEAU:

SLICK-ROCK WILDERNESS: Erosion has

The outside world eventually caught wind of the canyon’s beauty in the mid-1980s. Today, Antelope Canyon is a Navajo tribal park hosting thousands of visitors per day.

Many other slot canyons hide below the surface nearby. There’s another doozy about 25 miles west of Page in the heart of what has become Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. It’s called Buckskin Gulch, a legendary slot-canyon corridor in today’s hiking world. But back in 1963, it was known to ranchers as “The Dive,” a deadly trap for cows desperate for water.

Buckskin Gulch sneaks along the edge of Coyote Buttes, an area celebrated for its swirling sandstone shapes and surreal colors, and a terrain so implausibly fanciful that it seems more illusion than landscape.

The world-famous “Wave” resides in Coyote Buttes, and it alone is a powerful hiker temptation. [Continued on page 41]

COLORADO RIVER: Rocks surround dry grass at the Paria Riffle near Lees Ferry. A riffle is a part of a river or stream where the water is shallower and more turbulent than elsewhere on the waterway.

COYOTE BUTTES: Alternating layers of red and tan sandstone catch the late-

afternoon light at Coyote Buttes South, part of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.

[Continued from page 37] The entire Coyote Buttes area, however, is remarkable. It is, in fact, a place where the photographic possibilities are numerous enough to induce a kind of pictorial vertigo. Images of Coyote Buttes now routinely appear in fine-art galleries, geology textbooks, advertisements, outdoor magazines and calendars worldwide.

Just north and east of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which was designated a park in 1996. Although it's not as well known as some other reserves, it features the magnificent Escalante Canyon complex, arches, hoodoos and endless high plateaus, all of which spurred the park's creation.

Only later was it realized that the monument's interior concealed an astonishing hoard of paleontological assets: bones and trackways from the age of dinosaurs. A Bureau of Land Management visitors center in Big Water, Utah, a few miles west of Page, focuses on the park's paleontological wonders.

And then there's Horseshoe Bend. It didn't begin to attract attention until the late 1980s, even though Evel Knievel considered it as a possible location for a daredevil motorcycle jump 20 years before.

The drop to the Colorado River at Horseshoe Bend measures 1,100 feet, twice the height of the Washington Monument, more than enough to make most visitors shrink from the edge after a brief peek at the green river below their toes.

Routes and roads to the Wahweap Hoodoos, the Tropic Shale badlands, helicopter shuttles to the top of Tower Butte and half-day river trips that begin at the base of the dam add still more to the area's ensemble of geologic wonders. It's enough to make you forget about ... what was the name of that lake? AH For more information, call the Page-Lake Powell Chamber of Commerce at 928-6452741 or visit www.pagechamber.com.