Flagstaff, Ariz. • Parking at a spot near the edge of an Arizona canyon where the Colorado River makes a sharp U-turn now comes at a cost. You can blame that mostly on social media.
Countless posts have celebrated the wonder of Horseshoe Bend, where the bluish-green river takes a 270-degree turn just outside the town of Page, near the Utah border. Photographs on Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere show tourists dangling their feet over a more than 500-foot drop, staring contemplatively or throwing their hands in the air.
Chances are, the tourists are surrounded by hundreds of people from around the world who marveled at the site online and wanted to see it in person.