Glen Canyon - Lees Ferry

Lees Ferry is located where the Paria River, draining from the north, enters the Colorado River. Shale of the Chinle Formation erodes faster than the sandstone upstream in Glen Canyon and the marble and limestone downstream in Marble Canyon. As a result, this was the only crossing along the Colorado River for hundreds of miles along the river corridor. The First Expedition of the John Wesley Powell Survey camped at this location on August 4, 1869. Today, Lees Ferry is the starting location for raft trips down the Grand Canyon (Belnap and Belnap, 1989; Powell, J. W., 1895).