Hite Crossing Bridge

The Hite Crossing Bridge is an arch bridge which carries Utah State Route 95 across the Colorado River northwest of Blanding, Utah, United States. The bridge informally marks the upstream limit of Lake Powell and the end of Cataract Canyon of the Colorado River, but when the lake is at normal water elevation, the water can back up over 30 miles (48 km) upstream into Cataract Canyon. The bridge is the only automobile bridge spanning the Colorado River between the Glen Canyon Bridge, 185 miles (298 km) downstream near the Glen Canyon Dam and the U.S. Route 191 bridge 110 miles (180 km) upstream near Moab. The bridge is near Hite Marina on Lake Powell, and a small airstrip is immediately adjacent to the north side of the bridge.

The Colorado River served as a major barrier to early settlers and explorers of the region. In 1880 a prospector named Cass Hite established a ford near the mouth of the Dirty Devil River, 2 miles (3.2 km) downstream from the present-day bridge location. This ford, named "Dandy Crossing", served as one of the few locations in the region where travelers could cross the Colorado River. The settlement which formed at the crossing location took the name of its founder, Hite. In 1946, a settler named Arthur Chaffin constructed an automobile ferry using an old car engine and a thick steel cable to hold it in place. The ferry operated for 20 years, before the rising waters of Lake Powell inundated the settlement of Hite.

The Colorado River (Mohave: 'Aha Kwahwat, Havasupai: Ha Ŧay Gʼam or Sil Gsvgov, Spanish: Río Colorado) is the principal river of the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. The 1,450-mile (2,330 km) river flows from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, draining 246,000 square miles (640,000 km²) in parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Known for its dramatic canyons and whitewater rapids, the Colorado is a vital source of water for agricultural and urban areas as well as an important provider of hydroelectric power in the southwestern desert lands of North America.

The river basin has been inhabited by humans for at least eight thousand years. Due to the area's dry climate, they practiced farming and irrigation more prolifically than other native peoples of the continent. Through the next few centuries, the watershed became part of New Spain and early Mexico before the American acquisition of the region in 1846. The Colorado remained one of the last uncharted major rivers in the U.S. until the famed 1869 Powell Expedition, whose members were the first to run the river through the Grand Canyon. American settlers did not establish a large permanent presence in the watershed until the 19th and early 20th centuries.

State Route 95 or Bicentennial Highway is a state highway located in west-central San Juan, eastern Garfield, and central Wayne counties, in the southeast of the U.S. state of Utah. The highway received the name as its dedication coincided with the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976. The highway forms part of the Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway.

Glen Canyon is a canyon that is located in southeastern and south central Utah and northwestern Arizona within the Vermilion Cliffs area. It was carved by the Colorado River.

A reservoir, Lake Powell, was created by the Glen Canyon Dam. Lake Powell emerged from a struggle over damming Dinosaur National Monument. The Sierra Club and its leader, David Brower, were instrumental in blocking the dam in Dinosaur, ignoring Glen Canyon in the process. Before Glen Canyon was flooded, but after the struggle in Congress, Brower floated the canyon and realized what a tremendous resource it was. This experience transformed Brower's attitude towards environmental preservation, making him more radical and less likely to compromise. It was very similar to the experience of John Muir with the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. For Brower, it steeled him for the battle over a dam in the Grand Canyon. Beginning in the late 1990s, the Sierra Club and other organizations renewed the call to drain Lake Powell in Lower Glen Canyon.