Hole-in-the-Rock Crossing

This is where the San Juan expedition ran out of canyon. In January 1880, roughly 250 Mormon colonists lowered 83 wagons down a widened crevice in the 1,200-foot cliff to the Colorado, ferried across, and pushed on to found Bluff — a six-week journey that took six months, with no lives lost and three babies born. The route served as a wagon road for barely a year before Hall's Crossing replaced it. Lake Powell drowned the crossing in the 1960s; the pioneers' monument, once at the water's edge, was carried up to the gorge rim to keep it dry.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Hole-in-the-Rock Arch — 3.9 mi