Kayaking Marble Canyon - Glen Canyon Dam to Lee's Ferry

We have hiked all around Page and Lee's Ferry. Each time I'd drive over the bridge, I would look down below the dam at the canyon downstream and tell Tina "I want to go down there and check that canyon out."

Well, we finally did. And man, oh man Marble Canyon awesome. The video speaks for itself with the scenery.

A few things to know if you want to do this yourself;

You can absolutely kayak Marble Canyon from Lee's Ferry up to the dam, but that would require paddling about 15 miles against the current. Instead, we opted to pay a local business (we used Kayak the Colorado) to bring us upstream. The trip up through Marble Canyon to Glen Canyon Dam took about 45 minutes and cost (I think) around $70~80 per person. That included taking our kayaks and gear.

I'm sure you can rent kayaks from the back haul place, but we had a couple inflatable kayaks already, so we just used those. I'll put a link below for what we used below. (If you purchase using this link, I will get an affiliate reimbursement from Amazon, just FYI. Note that we purchased the kayaks with our own $.) The inflatables we had were sturdy and worked great for a tame river like this. They are two person kayaks, but you can position the seats like we did in the video to use them as individual kayaks with lots of room for gear. The oars that come with them are a little short, so we bought new oars. You can try putting parts from both oars (each kayak comes with 2) together as a single, longer oar, which might work too.

Anyway, on to the trip. Once you're at Glen Canyon Dam, you'll be dropped off on a beach to start your trip back through Marble Canyon to Lee's Ferry. There are several camping areas along the way, if you want to stay overnight or for a few days. A couple notes on that though; First, make sure you park your car in the right parking lot. If you use the long term parking, you're fine, but if you park right at the boat ramp, you'll be ticketed; that's day use only. Secondly, there are strict designations of where you can camp. There are day use areas that look like they would work, but you can't camp there. And there are rangers in boats that enforce the rules too. So make sure you take note of where to camp on your way in. The campsite and most of the day use areas have toilets, but no water. So bring your own or a filtration device for water from the river.

As for kayaking conditions, the water is a constant 47~48 degrees. REALLY chilly for swimming and you can't stay in it for long. Bring life vests in case you fall in; hypothermia is a real risk and you'll need any advantage you can get.

We are beginners to kayaking. And this stretch is, as you can see in the video, very beginner friendly. There are no rapids at all. As I said, the current is kind of strong, but as long as you're going with it, it's not a problem. The area sees a lot of wind, which can really help or really hinder you, depending on what way it's blowing.

If you like to fish, we saw plenty of people fishing. I'm not sure what the rules are regarding fishing, so if you're interested, make sure you read up on the rules and regulations.

Aside from the clear water of the Colorado and beautiful, towering red rock walls of Marble Canyon, there are a few other sites. You can check out the many campsites and day use areas. One of them has petroglyphs (shown in the video. There are two slot canyons you can walk up into until you hit impassable dry falls; Waterholes Canyon and Fall (?) canyon. I've been in upper Waterholes, but never heard of Fall before (and we didn't make it this trip.) Note that these canyons may extend into Navajo Nation land, so check with the appropriate agency about access. (Our guide didn't say anything about needing a separate permit, but I'm not sure.) And of course you get to see a different perspective of horseshoe bend. (If you don't know what horsehoe bend is, google it. It's a gorgeous, albeit crowded overlook at the Colorado River.)

Lee's Ferry has a fee booth when you first come in, so make sure you pick up a permit at the self pay kiosk a few miles outside Lee's Ferry.

If you want to spend some time at Lee's Ferry, there are some really great day hikes (I'll put links below.) There is an established campground at Lee's Ferry, although we have not used it. We found a spot on BLM land outside Lee's Ferry and camped there. We woke up in the middle of the night with our tent collapsed by wind and ended up leaving though. (It was a sweet spot, though.)

If you are at all intrigued by the video, start making your plans and check it out.

Backhaul we used:
https://www.kayakthecolorado.com/

Cathedral Wash (video link below):
   • Cathedral Wash Trail, Lee's Ferry, Ar...  

Spencer Trail (video link below):
   • Hiking the Spencer Trail - Lee's Ferr...  

Kayaks we used (paid link):
https://amzn.to/2WzMU0Z