Vermillion Cliffs and Marble Canyon

Leaving McHood park on Oct 25, we drove north toward Kanab, Utah.

Photo courtesy of Google Maps

We had the intention of signing up for the lottery for a permit to hike to "The Wave", the very colorful Paria canyon of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National park.

North from Flagstaff, AZ US-89 swings east toward Page, AZ.  We chose to travel west on US-89A.  We had already been through Page a couple of times on previous trips.  While US-89 travels on the top of the plateau; US-89A travels along the base of the Vermillion Cliffs through Marble Canyon crossing the Colorado River downstream from Page at Lees Ferry.

Lees Ferry is named after the ferry boat service that was there circa 1890-1910.  The ferry was replaced in 1928 by the Navaho bridge (an engineering marvel at the time).  Until the bridge and dam were built at Page in the 1970s; the ferry and its bridge successor was the only way to cross the Colorado river for over 150miles in either direction.

After touring the bridge, we enjoyed a quick lunch in the parking lot of the bridge visitor center.

Driving on the west we found a trail head parking lot on a National Forest road a few miles east of Jacobs Lake. We spent the night there with virtually no passing cars of fellow campers.  Very quiet, very dark.

The next day we stopped to do some laundry in the small town of Fredonia, UT.  Going on to the BLM visitor center in Kanab, UT; we found that the lottery for "the wave" was only issuing ten passes each morning for approx 130 applicants.  We decided that our chances of a permit was slim and that it was not worth the wait (of likely many days) to get our names drawn.

We found a nice RV park about 17mile to the west on the Kaibab-Piaute reservation.  Full hook-ups at $25 per day.