Vermilion Cliffs from Lees Ferry
— — the wall the river leaves and the rafts begin.
Not only on a wall.
“Lees Ferry sits at river mile zero of the Grand Canyon, where the Colorado turns south below Glen Canyon Dam and the Vermilion Cliffs rise three thousand feet to the north. Cottonwoods line the launch ramp; the cliffs hold their colour late in the afternoon. The Navajo Sandstone above is fresh and unweathered. Boats start from here.
Vermilion Cliffs from Lees Ferry, 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.
Lees Ferry is a riverside landing on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona, fifteen miles downstream from Glen Canyon Dam and five miles upstream from the Navajo Bridges at Marble Canyon. The site sits at river mile zero of the Grand Canyon, the official launch point for whitewater expeditions through the canyon below. The Vermilion Cliffs rise three thousand feet on the north bank, an east-facing scarp of Triassic and Jurassic sandstone forming the southern edge of the Paria Plateau. Lees Ferry has been a river crossing since John D. Lee established a ferry service in 1872.
The cliffs are layers of Triassic Chinle, Moenave, and Kayenta formations capped by Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, the same cross-bedded dune-field sandstone that forms Zion's walls a hundred miles north. The vermilion colour comes from iron-oxide staining of the lower units. The Navajo cap above weathers to a paler buff. Boulders the size of houses, calved from the cliff face, line the talus apron above the road. The Paria River, joining the Colorado a quarter mile downstream from the launch, drains the basin behind the cliffs and runs reddish brown after summer monsoons.
Lees Ferry lies inside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, reached by a six-mile spur road from U.S. Highway 89A at Marble Canyon. The launch ramp, the historic Lonely Dell Ranch, and the Lees Ferry campground are open year-round; the entrance fee is the standard Glen Canyon thirty-dollar vehicle pass valid seven days. Rafting expeditions launch on assigned days; private permits are awarded through a National Park Service lottery, while commercial outfitters run from April through October. Fly-fishing for rainbow trout in the tailwater is the other primary draw.