John D. Lee, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, founded Lee’s Ferry in the early 1870s to function as a link between the Latter-day Saint heartland in Utah and new settlements in Arizona. A committed polygamist, Lee built several houses for his multiple families in the following years, naming this group of buildings Lonely Dell Ranch. After the authorities arrested Lee for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, Church leaders gave the title for the Ferry and Ranch to Warren Johnson and his family in 1879. The Johnson family was still living on the post when Glen and Bessie Hyde arrived on November 5, 1928, though the Ferry had permanently closed that summer. The Hydes had started their journey from Greenriver, Utah, on October 20, well provisioned with food and other supplies. They came equipped with all the necessary tools to document their trek, including a small Kodak camera and a notebook which Bessie used to record daily events. Yet curiously they did not take any life preservers or personal floatation devices with them. The Hydes’ trip to Lee’s Ferry was relatively uneventful, aside from Bessie falling out of the scow on October 27 in Cataract Canyon. Overall, both were in good spirits. The inhabitants of Lee’s Ferry were aware of the hazards of the Colorado River. Glen and Bessie were just one in a series of river expeditions that came through Lee’s Ferry. Other private excursions, Latter-day Saint expeditions, and US Government Survey teams had all passed by the post through the years. Most of these groups had foundered in the rough waters south of the station, just before the entrance to the Grand Canyon. Also, three of the inhabitants had drowned when they tried to recover the outpost’s ferryboat after a summer flood washed it away in June.  With these past events in mind, the Johnson family and the outpost’s government agent, Owen Clark, attempted to convince Glen and Bessie to abandon their trek. They warned them their scow wasn’t suited to the rapids downriver. If they continued, the size of their boat and their lack of life preservers could result in disaster. However, the Hydes did not take the resident's concerns seriously, convinced they were already through the worst the Colorado River had to offer. After exploring the surrounding area for a few days, the Hydes left the station on November 8. They were bound for Grand Canyon Village. In an ironic twist, the last glimpse of the couple caught the station’s residents caught was of Glen nearly falling off the scow. In the years following the Hydes’ disappearance, Lee’s Ferry became a backwater. The completion of the Navajo Bridge several miles downstream in 1929 rendered the ferry obsolete. The post became a ghost town by the early 1940s. Today, it’s a historic site maintained by the National Park Service.

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Mormon settlers of Bluff, Utah, crossed the high desert of the Colorado Plateau and the Colorado River in 1879 on what is now known as the Hole-In-the-Rock trail. Brigham Young had called a group of southern Utah Mormons to settle southeastern Utah because few Mormon families lived east of the Colorado River. The Mormons organized quickly and decided on a route from Escalante, Utah, to a remote section of southeastern Utah. Desert terrain, canyon country, and the Colorado River all made the journey difficult..

After a relatively easy journey south of Escalante towards the Colorado River, they ran into trouble. The canyon country surrounding the Colorado River had sheer cliffs that were difficult to descend. They sent out scouts and chose a ‘short cut’ through an actual hole, they dubbed Hole-in-the-Rock. At the top of a canyon that descended to the Colorado River, there was a relatively large navigable passageway. The trail was marked by a large hole that was wide and tall enough for a few men, but not wide enough for a wagon to pull through. They sent a group back to obtain dynamite and other equipment. With great effort they blasted away the edges of the hole. The gap opened wide enough for the wagons to travel through.

However, the descent down from the top of the cliff was difficult. The hole opened to a sheer cliff far from the river below. To descend to the canyon floor, they built a ‘floating’ road called a dugway. They bored holes into the cliff to drive metal spikes into the wall, then placed strong tree branches over the spikes and piled up rocks underneath to finish the road. Eventually they made it far enough down the side of the cliff that a dugway was no longer needed, but the terrain was still too difficult for the animals to safely walk over. They carved stairs into the solid rock to make it easier for their horses and cattle to maneuver. The rock stairway was the last part of the trail that led to the water’s edge.

Once the party made it to the bottom of the canyon, they had to cross the Colorado River. Using a ferry that could fit two wagons at a time, they managed to get everyone across. Their journey was not over, but the most difficult phase was done. They proceeded through more canyon country and settled Bluff, Utah.

Today, some of the staircase is under Lake Powell, but most of the dugway along the cliff is still visible. One can hike down the trail from the top of the canyon through the Hole-in-the-Rock. The trail is also accessible below by boat from Lake Powell.

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