Lee's Ferry

In the morning we said goodbye to Mark and Leah who were heading home.

Our excursion today was to Lee's Ferry, site of the original crossing of the Colorado River and the only place in the Grand Canyon where there is road access to the river.

But first we had to cross the river at Navajo Bridge, the site of the first bridge crossing of the Grand Canyon. In 1995 they replaced the original bridge from the 1920s with a newer version but they have converted the old bridge to a pedestrian crossing.

You can see the new bridge from the old bridge.  

Great views of the Colorado River from the Navajo Bridge.

Navajo bridge is one of the best places to see California condors.  Most days they hang out on the framework of the bridges.  But today, we were told by the biologist who was using GPS to locate condors at the bridge, they were probably hiding out till the weather improved.

Leo talks to the the biologist.

There's a visitor centre at the bridge in the style of the old Civilian Conservation Corps structures they built in the 30s provide employment t.

It's a fake though, it was constructed in  the 90s after the new bridge was opened.

Still cool though

Skunked by the condors again we continued on down to Lee's Ferry.

We followed a short trail along the river past the ruins of historic cabins from the days of the ferry.

After a few mostly birdless days in Page it was nice to see ducks (mergansers, gradually and goldeneye) in the river and Berwick wrens singing from the bushes.

Bird of the Day

Lee's Ferry is the starting point for raft trips down the Grand Canyon.

The rafters here told us they rent the rafts from an outfitter who provides everything for the 21-day trip, including food, waste collection, etc.  A truck arrived and unloaded a massive pile of alcoholic beverages.  Rafters have to buy their own alcohol and it gets delivered to the put in.

And they are off.

 

On our trip back we stopped at a big Boulder pile to check out the rocks.

Apparently this rock fell down the cliff; thenover the years the earth eroded around it leaving a pedestal.

After we got back to Page we went back to hike the Beehive trail again.

Rocks as far as we could see.

We found this pretty vetch in bloom.

Here's Mark and Henry enjoying the views.