Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (NRA) offers unparalleled opportunities for water-based & backcountry recreation. The recreation area stretches for hundreds of miles from Lees Ferry in Arizona to the Orange Cliffs of southern Utah, encompassing scenic vistas, geologic wonders and a panorama of human history. Additionally, the controversy surrounding the construction of Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of Lake Powell contributed to the birth of the modern day environmental movement. The park offers opportunities for boating, fishing, swimming, backcountry hiking and four-wheel drive trips.
History & Culture
Human footsteps have covered Glen Canyon for thousands of years. Beginning with ancient paleo-Indian cultures in archaic times, history has woven a rich and varied tapestry of human experience. In all cases, the land and the people’s reaction to it is an integral part of Glen Canyon’s cultural landscape.
Anasazi
Prehistoric Indians migrated seasonally through the canyon country, but they left little evidence of their life here at Glen Canyon: a few stone tools, grinding stones, remnants of baskets. Gradually, these ancient Indians learned to farm crops of corn, beans, squash and cotton and they built more permanent residences - pithouses - which were dug partially into the ground and roofed with mud-plastered brush.
Bows and arrows eventually replaced spears; pottery replaced baskets. The Indians, known today as Ancestral Puebloans (called “Anasazi” by the Navajo, a word loosely translated as “ancient ones”), began to build masonry houses, kivas and storage rooms.
The Ancestral Puebloan culture dominated much of the southwest in the 12th and 13th centuries. Large communities, living in stone-and-masonry pueblos, were supported by agriculture and trade. Finely-made pottery and jewelry were produced. A complex ceremonial religion was developed.
But, in the latter part of the 13th century, most cliff dwellings and other communities were abandoned. Perhaps the soil had been depleted and forests cut down for firewood and building. Perhaps climatic changes contributed to the exodus. For whatever reasons, the Anasazi left the mesas and canyons and moved to the south. The Pueblo Indians living along the Rio Grande valley in New Mexico and the Hopi Indians of Arizona are believed to be descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans.
Defiance House
The Glen Canyon area was probably on the outskirts of Ancestral Puebloan settlement. No large communities were built in this area, but a few small cliff dwellings and other archeological sites have been found.
Defiance House, three miles up the middle fork of Forgotten Canyon, is one of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan dwellings in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Defiance House was discovered in 1959. Exploring the area before Lake Powell was created, University of Utah archeologists followed a dangerous hand-and-toe-hold trail up the sandstone cliff and were delighted to find an Anasazi site where “most of the roofs were still in place, and… two perfect red bowls still had scraps of food in them.” They named the site “Defiance House” for the large pictograph (rock painting) of three warriors brandishing clubs and shields.
Defiance House was occupied from about 1250 to 1285 A. D.. No one knows why the Ancestral Puebloans built in such an inaccessible place. The site is protected from the elements in the winter and it is shady and cool in the summer. Or perhaps it was a place of refuge, easily defensible high in the cliff. Were the three defiant warriors painted on the cliff wall to warn potential enemies Perhaps we’ll never know. Nor do we know why the Ancestral Puebloans abandoned Defiance House. Drought, food shortages, enemies, or overuse of the land could all have contributed to the exodus.
Recreation
Glen Canyon NRA offers numerous opportunities for both water-based and backcountry recreation.
Getting There
By Plane
The City of Page is served by a commercial commuter airline. Charter flights are available from Page and Salt Lake City to other areas on the lake. Bullfrog, Hite and Escalante all have landing strips. Cal Black Memorial Airport is located approximately 10 miles from Halls Crossing. In-park shuttle services are available at Wahweap, Bullfrog, Halls Crossing and Hite.
By Car
Lees Ferry and the Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center is located on Arizona Highway 89A. Carl Hayden Visitor Center in Page, Az is on Highway 89. The Bullfrog Visitor Center is located on Utah Highway 276. Halls Crossing is also reached by Highway 276. Hite is located just off Utah Highway 95.
Getting Around
The primary form of transportation within the park is by boat. Except for Lakeshore Drive in Wahweap, there is virtually no hard-surfaced road which offers access to or view of the lake outside the developed marinas. In-park shuttle services are available at Wahweap, Bullfrog, Halls Crossing and Hite.
Traveler Facts
Contact Information
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
P. O. Box 1507
Page, AZ 86040-1507
Phone: 928-608-6404 (Carl Hayden Visitor Center)
Phone: 928-608-6200 (Headquarters)
Phone: 435-684-7400 (Bullfrog Visitor Center)
Phone: 928-355-2234 (Lees Ferry Ranger Station)
Fax: 928-608-6283
Operating Hours & Seasons
Carl Hayden Visitor Center, Page, AZ, daily, Memorial Day - Labor Day, 8 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; rest of year, daily, 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Bullfrog Visitor Center, Bullfrog, UT, intermittently in March, daily April - October, 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; closed November - February. Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center, near Lees Ferry, daily mid-April - October, 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; weekends only, early April and November, 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Weather/Climate
Summers are extremely hot, with little, if any, shade. Winters are moderately cold with night time lows often below freezing. Spring weather is highly variable with extended periods of winds. Fall weather is usually mild. Temperatures range from 110 F in June & July to 0 F in December & January. Precipitation is generally light (less than 6 inches annually) though heavy rains and flash flooding can occur in spring and summer. Recommend lightweight, light colored clothing for summer, including a hat. Layers of clothing are best for other times of the year.
