Heads in San Juan County, Utah, at approximately the mouth of Dirty Devil River and Narrow Canyon, trends southwest through Garfield County and Kane County, Utah, to end at Marble Canyon and Paria Canyon in Coconino County, Arizona. A portion of Glen Canyon is inundated by the waters of Lake Powell and is not named, but still exists, on the following U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 1:24,000-scale topographic maps: Warm Creek Bay, Gunsight Butte, Gregory Butte, Cathedral Canyon, and Rainbow Bridge.
Named Glen Cañon by Major John Wesley Powell in the late 1860s after he explored this valley filled with narrow side canyons, alcove gulches, arches, and summits. These canyon features, now inundated by the waters of Lake Powell, were busy with gold prospectors from about 1897 to 1904.