Horseshoe Bend, River meander near Page, Arizona, United States
Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River near Page, Arizona, within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The river wraps around a layered Navajo Sandstone promontory, and the overlook on the plateau stands about 1,000 feet above the water.
The river began cutting into the rock roughly six million years ago when tectonic uplift raised the region and forced the water to carve deeper into the layers. The modern profile developed through millennia of continuous erosion that slowly wore away the soft sandstone.
The name comes from the horseshoe shape of the incised meander. The land south of the parking area, trail and overlook lies within the Navajo Nation, so the approach crosses tribal territory. The overlook itself is a fenced platform reached by a barrier-free path.
The overlook is reached by a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) round-trip walk from the parking area off U.S. Route 89; the trail and overlook lie on Navajo Nation land. A viewing platform with a railing has been built and the access made barrier-free. Parking along the highway edge is not allowed.
The Navajo Sandstone exposed here is about 200 million years old, the petrified remains of dunes from an ancient sand desert. Its crossbedding and iron concretions are visible in the canyon walls, and geologists expect the river to eventually cut through the neck of the bend, leaving a cutoff meander.
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