The Armchair Traveler Ritual
Before we step onto the paddleboard, set the scene: Pour yourself a massive glass of ice-cold water, imagine the distinct, summer smell of coconut sunscreen, and visualize huge, giant red cliff walls towering hundreds of feet above your head. Get your "Hidden Picture Glasses" ready to find all the hidden shapes in the rocks!
🎵 Shauna's Soundtrack
To perfectly match the epic, slow-moving scale of floating down the majestic Colorado River, I highly recommend opening a new tab and playing "Boats" by Vlad Gluschenko in the background while you read!
⚡ The Quick Scoop
The Adventure: An epic, grueling 12-hour day (7 AM to 7 PM!) paddling 15.5 miles downstream from the base of the Glen Canyon Dam all the way to Lees Ferry.
Must See: Floating directly under Horseshoe Bend and looking 1,000 feet up at the tiny, ant-sized tourists!
Wildlife: Wild mustangs drinking from the river, ancient petroglyphs, and searching the cliffs for mountain goats.
Shauna's Blessing: Don't just "float like a leaf." Set SMART goals, have a purpose, and trust the universe to put incredible opportunities in your path.
Sometimes the best adventures are the ones you never planned. I went down to Page, Arizona, incredibly excited to try paddling through Antelope Canyon. But the weather had other ideas. It was furiously windy—definitely not safe or fun conditions for a narrow slot canyon on the water.
After a failed attempt at finding a Native American guide to let me pay them to hike Waterhole Canyon from the top, I decided to pivot. I just kept driving until I hit the Lees Ferry dock, simply because I think it's a lovely place to watch the sun set over the water.
While I was waiting for my timelapses to finish, I started chatting with the locals. To my absolute surprise, I discovered an adventure I didn't even know existed: you can hire a boat to backhaul you 15 miles upriver to the base of Glen Canyon Dam, and float all the way back down to Grand Canyon Mile 0! Better yet, I realized that if I did this, I could access the bottom of Waterhole Canyon from the river for free! Within minutes, I was signed up and ready to conquer the Colorado River.
👇 Choose Your Path
The Grand Tease & The Sunrise Boat
While sorting out my plans on the dock at Lees Ferry, something crazy happened. I was chatting with a man who was busy loading up massive rafts, trying to make sure they passed inspection for a multi-day trip deep through the Grand Canyon.
We were talking, and I was shocked when he suddenly said, "Hey, we just had someone cancel. Want to come?"
🎻 A String Quartet in the Canyon
Doing a multi-day raft trip through the Grand Canyon is a massive bucket list dream of mine! Dang, it was tempting. Could I just drop everything and hand over $1,000 to join this group right now? How bad would Todd freak out if I did that without him?
Honestly, I just didn't have the gear to jump on a week-long wilderness adventure, I would have zero cell service, and I had commitments back home. So I had to politely decline. (Funny enough, my daughter-in-law has actually done this trip! She was paid to go down on a raft trip to play in a string quartet at the stops along the river. Is that crazy or what? It was so stressful for her trying to make sure her super expensive viola didn't get damaged on the rapids!)
Turning down the Grand Canyon trip made booking the $75 backhaul service an incredibly easy decision. The outfitter loads you and your gear onto a motorized boat, drives you 15.5 miles upriver to the dam, and drops you off to float back down. Because I brought my own paddleboard, I got a nice little discount!
🚤 The Chilly Wind
Early the next morning, we set off. Since it was late June, it was already getting warm at the dock, but the wind whipping through the canyon on the fast boat ride upriver was definitely chilly! As the morning light hit the towering canyon walls, they lit up beautifully in a brilliant, glowing red. The ride up was so smooth and beautiful that I deeply regretted not having my 360 camera running the entire time.
Floating With Giants (and 47° Water)
As the motorboat dropped us off at the base of the dam and pulled away, the silence of the canyon settled in. The contrast between the roaring engine and the sudden, absolute peace of the river is profound. You are completely dwarfed by the massive sandstone walls.
The water coming out of the bottom of Glen Canyon Dam is a constant, freezing 47°F (8°C) year-round. It is shockingly cold. But honestly? On this specific day, that freezing water was my absolute savior.
🥶 Beating Heat Exhaustion
This float ended up being a grueling 12-hour day—I was out on the water from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM! Even though I put on layers of coconut sunscreen, I was getting burned pretty badly as the intense Arizona sun beat down into the canyon, baking the air.
My legs were falling completely asleep from sitting "Indian cross-legged" on my board for hours on end. Every once in a while, I would just drag my bare feet in the freezing 47-degree water to wake my legs back up. The intense cold radiating off the surface was the only thing that kept me from getting severe heat exhaustion in the 90+ degree desert heat!
The Top-Down Rule: Make sure you visit the Horseshoe Bend clifftop overlook (in Page) before you do this paddle trip. Having that top-down perspective makes a huge difference. When you are floating underneath it later, looking up at the sheer 1,000-foot walls, you'll have a profound appreciation for exactly where you are in the universe—and you can wave at the tiny, ant-sized tourists looking down on you!
Wild Mustangs & Hidden Faces
The river is alive with history and wildlife. As I floated down, I scanned the cliffs intensely, hoping to spot mountain goats or Bighorn Sheep navigating the sheer rock faces.
🐎 The Silent Drink
I didn't spot any sheep, but I was rewarded with something even more magical. As I rounded a bend, I saw wild mustangs coming right down to the water's edge for a drink! It was an incredibly serene moment.
I stopped paddling forward and actually paddled backward against the current for a long time just to stay in place and enjoy watching them as long as possible. They were so beautiful. The one that came down to the water actually looked up, and we made direct eye contact for a moment before he peacefully bent his head down again to drink from the refreshing water. It felt like a sacred desert secret.
🐺 Faces in the Stone
Get your "hidden picture glasses" ready, because the canyon walls alternate between massive, smooth vertical sheets and incredibly neat, textured shapes. As we floated, our boat guide had pointed out "creatures" that looked perfectly embossed into the rock.
The Howling Wolf: Just after you pass Horseshoe Bend, look up at the turn. There is a rock formation that looks exactly like a wolf with its head thrown back, mouth open in a howl! If you listen closely to my VR video at this spot, you can actually hear a group of paddlers howling at it as they float by.
The Waterhole Blunder
The day before, I had tried to hike into Waterhole Canyon from the top, but realized it required a very expensive guided tour from the Navajo Nation. To discover that I could access the bottom of it for free from the river as part of this paddle was thrilling!
⚠️ The Steep Shore Struggle
I was watching my Google Maps like a hawk, and I pulled off the river exactly where the pin dropped. The problem? The shoreline there was a steep, muddy cliff! Hauling my heavy paddleboard up that steep bank was absolutely brutal. I was slipping, sliding, and exhausted.
The hilarious irony? I hiked just around the corner and found a beautiful, gentle little sandy cove that would have been the easiest place in the world to dock my board! Lesson learned: don't blindly trust the GPS pin if your eyes see a better beach!
🏃♀️ The Shade-to-Shade Sprint
Waterhole is a narrow canyon with towering walls, but by the time I hiked into it, the dry Utah/Arizona heat was pushing 90+ degrees. I was hiking in sandals, and the scorching desert sand kept seeping over the soles. It felt like playing "hot potato" with my bare feet!
My survival strategy? The Shade Sprint. I would rest in the cool shadow of a canyon wall, scope out the next patch of shade up ahead, and literally run across the sizzling sand to get there! After staring at magnificent red cliffs from a paddleboard for hours, I think I was a little "cliffed-out" to fully appreciate it in the moment, but I was having so much fun I ended up doing a full two miles before turning back to the river!
Don't Just Float Like a Leaf
When the wind ruined my original plans for Antelope Canyon, I could have been upset. Instead, taking a chance led me down one of the most magnificent stretches of river on Earth. But there is a balance to it.
🎯 Purpose & Opportunity
I am not a believer that you should just "float like a leaf" and let life toss you wherever it feels. I strongly believe in having SMART goals every two weeks, and having a deep Passion and a Purpose to chase.
But I also believe that if you have those goals in place, the Universe is great about helping you along and putting unexpected things in your path that can help you—if you just watch for them! Life is going to have so many obstacles. Having a power statement like, "I got this, I can do this," when doubts come is huge. Set your goals, paddle hard, but always be ready to jump on new opportunities that come your way and might help you grow.
Ride the River in 360°
Grab your VR headset and get ready for a mood boost! This immersive 360° video will transport you to the cool, green waters of the Colorado River. Glide past towering red cliffs, search for wild horses, and feel the peace of this incredible journey.
🔎 VR Treasure Hunt
- The Dam Wall: At the very beginning, can you get a sense of the immense scale of the Glen Canyon Dam wall from water level?
- Petroglyph Beach: Find the moment where I stop to check out the ancient petroglyphs carved into the rock walls.
- Under the Bend: Can you spot the tiny dots of people standing on the overlook high above as I paddle through Horseshoe Bend?
- The Back Current: Look for a moment where the water swirls near the shore, creating a tricky back-current you have to paddle out of!
✨ Ask the River Ranger
Got a question about planning a trip to Lees Ferry, booking a backhaul boat, or the wild mustangs? Ask our AI Ranger!
Shauna's Survival Guide
- 🚤 The Backhaul: You book a "backhaul" service out of Lees Ferry (I used Kayak Horseshoe Bend). They drop you off at the dam. It costs around $75-$100 depending on the season.
- 🛶 BYO Board: If you bring your own paddleboard or kayak, you often get a discount and you have no time limits on your return! (Note: You must get it inspected/cleaned if moving to Lake Powell).
- ☀️ Sunscreen Warning: I definitely didn't have enough sunscreen on and got a bit burned. The cool water tricks your body into feeling comfortable, but that desert sun reflecting off the river is intense. Reapply constantly!
- ❄️ The Water: The water coming out of the bottom of Glen Canyon Dam is a constant, freezing 47°F (8°C) year-round. DO NOT fall in without a life jacket; the cold shock is dangerous.
- 🥾 Not a paddler? Hike it! If floating isn't your thing, there is a hiking trail starting at Lees Ferry that follows the river for a few miles. It stays high up on the cliffs, offering great views and passing some interesting historic stone homes!
The River Provides
This 15.5-mile journey is more than just a paddle; it's a meditation. It's a day of being humbled by the immense red rock walls, of making eye contact with wild horses, and of connecting with a landscape in its purest form. Set your goals, paddle hard, and let the river reveal its magic.
🐎 Easter Egg Hunt: Did you spot the hidden Wild Horse emoji in today's story? Tell me where you found it in the comments!
Sending Love and Positive Vibes,
Shauna @ VRGetaway
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