Horseshoe Bend overlook
— — a river drawn in one curve.
Not only on a wall.
“Five miles downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado River wraps a shoulder of Navajo Sandstone in a near-perfect loop. From the overlook the water sits a thousand feet below, jade-green in the right light. The trail in from the parking lot off US-89 is short, flat, and unshaded; most people are back at the car inside an hour. The light is best the last hour before sunset. — from the studio
Horseshoe Bend overlook, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Horseshoe Bend is an entrenched meander of the Colorado River about five miles downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, on the eastern edge of the town of Page in Coconino County, Arizona. The river drops roughly 1,000 feet below the rim of the surrounding Navajo Sandstone, carving a near-perfect horseshoe through the rock. The overlook sits within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, but the trail and parking lot are managed by the City of Page. The site now receives more than two million visitors a year.
The green of the river at Horseshoe Bend is the colour of cold, clear water released from the bottom of Lake Powell. Glen Canyon Dam draws from depth, where the water sits at roughly 47 degrees Fahrenheit through the seasons, and that cold suppresses the suspended sediment that once made the Colorado run red. Below the dam the river runs jade through Marble Canyon and into the Grand Canyon, only warming and silting again as the Paria and Little Colorado enter it downstream.
The trail from the parking lot off US-89 runs 1.5 miles round trip on packed sand, with about 100 feet of elevation change and almost no shade. The City of Page charges a parking fee per vehicle, with permit-free walk-in access from town. The viewpoint platform is fenced on the most exposed sections; the cliff edge elsewhere is unprotected and a long, fatal drop. Best light is the last hour before sunset, when the canyon walls catch warm tones and the river reads its deepest green.