Backpacking Amazing Vermilion Cliffs – Lee’s Ferry & Beautiful Lower Paria

Lee’s Ferry & the Colorado River

It’s a gorgeous sunny day in Northern Arizona, although still pretty hot with a hot in the mid/upper 90s. I packed up this morning to start backpacking into the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. First, though, I took a brief wander down to the Colorado River beach to see how the river looked and hunt for a sign that Steve, a national park traveler friend who stopped by the Canyon and who I’d advised to stop by Lee’s Ferry had told me about. It marks the northern border of Grand Canyon National Park. Hiking alone the beach for a bit, I found it, on the beach where river trips launch to raft down the Colorado through the canyon.

The last time I was here, the Paría River was flowing much stronger and you could see the two rivers flow side by side between the beach and the Navajo Bridge. But given how dry it has been recently that was not the case today, just the blue Colorado water. Seeing that deep blue water against the red cliffs of Marble Canyon is always beautiful, but it also breaks my heart a bit, because the river should be a muddy brown with sediment.

In fact, literally the name Colorado River means “colored river” or “red river” in Spanish, and received that name due to the color in it from the sediment it carries. But Glen Canyon Dam now traps all that sediment, so it only turns its natural color after rains. The river now also runs about 40-50 degrees rather than its natural 85.

Feel free to ask if you have more questions about the river, one of my favorite features of the Southwest and one I could write about in depth. What features do you have that you connect to where you live?

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area: Lonely Dell Ranch

I then headed over to Lonely Dell Ranch at the mouth of Paría Canyon and enjoyed a ranger program there about the prior occupants of the ranch including John D. Lee, the namesake of Lee’s Ferry and someone perhaps best known for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, for which he was executed in 1877. The orchards at the ranch also have free fruit to pick, and I enjoyed some fresh pears before heading up Paría Canyon.

Paria Canyon (Vermilion Cliffs National Monument)

The Canyon was pretty wide today, but I’m not expecting that to remain the case moving forward. I have two weeks of supplies on me to get back to the South Rim. It’s also 15 miles to the first source of water at the top of the Chinle Formation, so I’m pretty loaded down with water today given that and the heat, can’t wait to drink down some of that weight and start eating my way through my pack.

There’s a trail from Lee’s Ferry through the portion of Paría Canyon that is within Glen Canyon NRA, but after crossing the border into the Paría Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness the river is the trail. I’m essentially doing the lower portion of the Hayduke Trail to get to the start of the Arizona Trail, and the landscape soon proves diverse and stunning, with old historic features at first, followed by spectacular colors and light in the canyon.

(Please note that a permit is required from the US Bureau of Land Management for all overnight stays in the Paría Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness. Permits are limited to 20 people/night and can be reserved online. Adequate preparation is essential before undertaking a trip through a wilderness area; one must be prepared to be self sufficient and away from all services and assistance. If you are interested, let me know and I can help and provide you with more information on the matter.)

Lee’s Ferry Into Paria Canyon