Lees Ferry, Marble Canyon
Lees Ferry is a historical site on the Colorado River in Arizona, about 7-8 miles from Page, Arizona. It lies at the start of Marble Canyon and is considered the official beginning of Grand Canyon National Park.
For hundreds of miles, the site of Lees Ferry was one of only two places where one could easily access the Colorado River from both sides. This site served as an important river crossing for the Anasazi, Paiute and Navajo peoples, followed by Spanish expeditions, and eventually as a gateway for the expansion of American settlement from Utah south into Arizona.
In 1873, John Doyle Lee (who the site is named after) launched his first boat to ferry people across at this site to improve crossing.
Ferry service continued until 1928 when the nearby Navajo Bridge was completed that allowed for the far more efficient automobile travel between Utah and Arizona.
Lees Ferry, Marble Canyon, Arizona
Today, Lees Ferry provides a campground and is one of the best launching points for whitewater rafting trips down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
(Photo taken July 2016)
Photos by Donna 
Wonderful geological formations, Donna…great landscape!
Thank you, Indira! I even to my shoes/socks off and walked in the water. 🙂
What a beautiful place. 😊
It is! I had to take my shoes/socks off so I could walk in the water to say I did it. 😊
Yay! Sounds like I something I would do. 😁👍
You made it!!! Yay! We camped there last fall. Be sure to look for the Condor. The bridge at the Visitor’s Center is where I got shots of the baby. If you get a chance, you can go out to where the observers are set up with scopes. They can likely tell you where to find them at the Visitor’s Center. What fun!
Oh so sorry, Gunta! I’m still in Indiana…. I noted at the bottom of the post I took this photo back in July 2016. But I do know about the bridge and visitor’s center, but dog-gone-it I did not see the Condor anywhere there. I took a lot of photos from the bridge. 🙂
Oooops! Apparently I missed the note. We encountered the juvenile condor hanging out for hours on the bridge struts. I’d bet he hadn’t been hatched yet in 2016. 😔 Oh well!
In all my travels out west, the past and the coming future, I will be looking for Condors! 🙂
Beautiful image Donna! Looks like a Great place to photograph!
Thank you, Reed! I even walked in the water to say I did it! 🙂
Beautiful landscape! The photo is bright, clear, sharp, and detailed. I love the colour of the water as well!
Thank you! It’s even more beautiful in person. And I just had to take my shoes/socks off to go for a walk in the water to say I did it! 😊
I’ve been to those areas in the past, I loved every inch that I travelled. All places are a masterpiece of Nature. Great shot! What was the temperature then? 🙂
Thank you, HJ! We were camping at Lake Powell nearby, the temps were low 100’s every day. With the low humidity, it was so much more tolerable than what you and I are used to on the East Coast in July. We even extended our stay several more days to explore the surrounding areas. Just beautiful!
This is on my wish list of places to visit. Beautiful!
Thank you, Sandra! The Navajo Bridge and Visitor’s Center is also very nice to see. And Horseshoe Bend is nearby too, and so much more close by. A great area to explore! We were to stay 7 days camping, and added 4 more days. Try not to go in July or August if you want to hike, it’s in the low 100s then. But car day trips worked for us in July and small hikes early morning. 🙂
Thank you for the great tips! I appreciate it. Sounds like a beautiful getaway!
Very nice photo.
Thanks David!
Wonderful picture and story. All of this sounded familiar and I went to my photo book of our western trip to San Diego in 2012, and sure enough, we stopped at Navajo Bridge in our way to Vermillion Cliffs and saw rafters going down the river. Your post brought back fond memories.
Thanks, Susan! We enjoyed that area very much, even extended our camping stay from 7 days to 11 days, there’s so much to see in that general area. I’m sure you saw Horseshoe Bend then too. 🙂
Love the bright colors of red rock, blue sky and green water. Interesting history, too. 🙂
Thank you, Eliza! And that driftwood too! 😉 I love driftwood, years ago you could take driftwood off beaches home, my Mom had a collection, she would put them in her flower gardens as decor. 😊
PNW beaches have incredible driftwood. Some entrepreneurial folks have taken to trucking small to medium pieces to LA and selling them to landscapers for a small fortune.
Oh, I bet! I’ve seen driftwood for sale and whoa. Real pretty! But whoa. 😉
Beautiful colours, Donna. It’s great to look back on places visited.
Thank you, Sylvia! It’s really nice!
Oh so beautiful place with awesome colors! I would definitely like to visit that place 🙂
Thank you, Minna! I even walked in that beautiful river so I could say I did it! 😉
Love the layers of color in the rock and the river.
I never made it to the actual Grand Canyon but, I spent some time at Hoover Dam. Long before I met my ex-Marine, he graduated HS in Boulder City, NV and worked the refreshment stand as a teen on the Arizona side. He showed me around the dam.
Thank you, Vic! Does it look like 100 degrees in the photo? It was! 🙂 I’ve not visited Nevada as yet, and visiting Lake Mead and Hoover Dam is on the list if we make it there one year.
It does look very warm. 😁
He and I wandered all over the southern half of Nevada and on into Death Valley. He still had family out there.
When you get to the dam, look for the HUGE catfish. They are enormous.
👍
It looks beautiful there!
It’s just one of so many places in the surrounding area to see lots of beauty!
That is a beautiful spot and thank-you for the history behind it. Like the colours and parallel lines.
Thank you, Jane, it seemed there was almost every color there some where. It was hot so when I walked in the water, it felt wonderful!
Oh, I sure would like to do that today! looks like a natural beach but imagine you can’t go in too far looks like a strong current.
Yes, a strong current, today many start their white-white rafting from this point and flow down through the Grand Canyon. 🙂
Beautiful views of the Arizona landscape, Donna. Somehow we missed stopping there when we visited the Grand Canyon. Yet another reason to return there!
Thank you, Tanja, so much more to see in the surrounding area here, including Horseshoe Bend. 🙂
…one of these (traveling) days… 🙂
Such a beautiful area
That area boasts so many beautiful attractions for sure, we’d love to return to the area again to re-explore. 🙂
Looks so inviting
A beautiful place to find tucked away from the crowds!