If you’re in the mood for an immaculate motel with the best of amenities from in-room courtesy refrigerator, to a good TV and adjacent restaurant coupled with great views of the Vermilion Cliffs, you’re looking for Cliff Dwellers Lodge.

There’s even a gas station with competitive prices and a convenience store!

The lodge provides really good food and comfortable accommodations for travelers heading to the Kaibab Plateau or planning a float trip down the nearby Colorado River into the Grand Canyon.

For a bit of history: Blanche and Bill Russell were the original homesteaders at Cliff Dwellers. They established a small trading post here in 1920 after crossing the


river. Their original home still stands at the end of the property. The pair established camp next to Soap Creek where they constructed the unique rock house next to Soap Creek for which the community received its name. The cowboys who drove cattle on the AZ Strip called the Russell homestead “Cliff Dwellers” because of its proximity to the Vermilion Cliffs.

Beginning in 1943, Art Greene Sr. and his family ran trips from Lees Ferry upriver to Navajo Bridge. The early river operations were primitive at best with Greene running the 60 mile trip in a 450 horse power Everglades fan boat. His boat burned 30 gallons per hour, and it took him three days to reach the natural bridge.

Today, Terry and Wendy Gunn operate Cliff Dwellers Lodge and Lees Ferry Anglers in the same spirit of its forefathers.