Horseshoe Bend is the dramatic loop the Colorado River cuts through the land just south of Lake Powell by Page, Arizona.

Lake Powell was formed by the building of the Glen Canyon Dam 1955 – 1966, which in turn created the town of Page.

Glen Canyon Dam lies where Route 89 crosses the Colorado River, with Lake Powell snaking northwest in the canyons formed by the river over millenia.

Horseshoe bend is just Southeast of the dam and lake.  It’s been around for millenia too, carved out by the Colorado River taking a particularly eccentric loop eastward before continuing on in its basically consistent southwesterly way, a journey that will eventually form the majestic Grand Canyon.

After you park your car off Route 89, you have to walk a kilometer to get to the Horseshoe Bend overlook.

Arriving at the Horseshoe Bend overlook, starting low and tilting up…

Looking left/south of the bend.

Looking right/north of the bend.

And walking about the plateau for more perspectives.

See the raft?

Let’s get closer.  See the raft now?

Let’s watch that motor boat go round the bend.

Further up the road we get to the Glen Canyon Dam Overlook.

At 710 feet (220 meters), only 16 feet shorter than the Hoover Dam.

Looking back towards Horseshoe Bend from the Glen Canyon Dam Overlook.

Later we took a walk in a park northeast of Page and just south of Lake Powell.

Those electric grid towers are either connected to the generators of the dam or the Salt River Project – Navajo Generating Station (see map).  That is a coal firing power plant.  Maybe the Glen Canyon Dam generators don’t serve the Navajo nation, but it seems crazy to me that in this day and age with all that sun and space, they are still relying on coal and haven’t made any noticeable efforts towards solar energy.  Our guide to Antelope Canyon told us the coal plant is running at the highest environmental standards.  But it also felt like something he says preemptively before he is inevitably asked about it every time he drives tourists past the plant on the way to Antelope Canyon.

That is Lake Powell in the distance.  We will get closer views of it and the monumental landscapes it snakes through in the next twofisted touristing blog post.

These head on pics of Horseshoe bend look like those panorama photos made with an extreme fish eye lens, right?

But no.  That is just how the river and the canyons really appear looking from the west towards the bend.