The direct route to the North Rim, now US-89A, crosses the Colorado at last over the single arch of Navajo Bridge , almost five hundred feet above the river. There are in fact two Navajo Bridges, the 1929 original, now reserved for pedestrians, having been supplanted by a wider facsimile in 1995. Until the first was built, a ferry service operated at LEES FERRY , six miles north. This was established in 1872, at the instigation of the Mormon Church, by John D. Lee, at the only spot within hundreds of miles to offer easy access to the banks of the river on both sides. The Colorado, however, could still be a raging torrent, and the crossing was carried out in both directions by casting out and struggling across while being swept downstream. Lee himself was on the run after the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah in 1857, when a wagon train of would-be settlers was slaughtered by an armed white band clumsily disguised as Indians.

Lees Ferry is the launching point for whitewater rafting trips - boats setting off from here can't leave the canyon before Diamond Creek, twelve days away by muscle power - and the end of Fred Harvey's smooth water trips from Glen Canyon Dam. It still holds the atmospheric remains of Lee's Lonely Dell ranch, as well as a campground (tel 928/355-2334), while back on US-89A beneath the red of the Vermillion Cliffs you'll find a succession of motels - Marble Canyon Lodge (tel 928/355-2225 or 1-800/726-1789; $50-75), Cliff Dweller's Lodge (tel 928/355-2228; $50-75) and the beautifully located, rustic Lees Ferry Lodge (tel 928/355-2231; $50-75). All have restaurants .

The turning south to get to the North Rim, off US-89A onto AZ-67, comes at JACOB LAKE , home to the Jacob Lake Inn (tel 928/643-7232; $50-75) and a campground , but not much else. From here - along a road that's closed in winter - it's 27 miles to Kaibab Lodge (tel 928/638-2389; $50-75) and another fourteen to the canyon itself.

Lees Ferry

• Lees Ferry

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