Horseshoe Bend, Arizona

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Horseshoe Bend as seen from the lookout at noon (2016)
Horseshoe Bend at Sunrise (2009)

The Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped Talmäander of the Colorado River near the town of Page in the US state of Arizona . Over the past decades it has developed into a tourist attraction with thousands of visitors, some of them international, every day (a total of 1.5 million in 2017).

The bend of the river is part of Glen Canyon and is located approximately 10 kilometers downstream from Glen Canyon Dam , the dam of Lake Powell , near the southern end of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area . The elevation of the plateau, into which the river has cut about 300 meters deep, is about 1300 meters above sea level in the area of ​​Horseshoe Bend. The rock cut into by the river is Aeolian sandstone from the Lower Jurassic (approx. 200 million years old). It represents the fossilized remains of the dunes of a prehistoric sand desert . The sequence of layers made up of this sandstone is known as Navajo sandstone .

A lookout point on the plateau is accessible from a parking lot on US Highway 89 via a footpath less than a kilometer in length. Access was originally free. However, since April 2019, a parking fee of $ 10 per car has been charged. Parking directly on the edge of the highway is not permitted. The income from the parking fees is intended to refinance the expenses of the city of Page for already carried out and future construction measures, which serve "the safety and well-being of the visitors". For a long time, despite the steep cliff face, the lookout point was not secured by a barrier, and some particularly careless visitors fell and died in the process. In the meantime, a viewing platform with a railing has been built there and the access has been made barrier-free .

Web links

Commons : Horseshoe Bend  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Associated Press: Horseshoe Bend undergoes changes to manage growing crowds. Arizona Public Media News, August 13, 2018, accessed June 5, 2019
  2. ↑ a b Scott Craven: How Horseshoe Bend went viral and what's being done to manage the crowds. azcentral.com (USA Today Network), November 27, 2018, accessed June 5, 2019
  3. ↑ Horseshoe Bend Hiking Guide. National Park Service, October 2007, archived from the original on June 2, 2009 ; Retrieved November 26, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Alley Keosheyan: Horseshoe Bend Parking Lot Reopens, Entrance Fees Implemented. horseshoebend.com, April 18, 2019, accessed June 5, 2019
  5. ^ Resolution of the mayor and city council of the City of Page, Coconino County, Arizona, adopting fees pertaining to Horseshoe Bend. Resolution No. 1224-19, Page (AZ), February 27, 2019 ( PDF 170 kB)

Coordinates: 36 ° 52 ′ 46 "  N , 111 ° 30 ′ 50"  W.