Ralph and Elizabeth Watson were a married couple who lived in southern California, where Ralph Watson worked as a dentist. According to their family, Ralph Watson, a dentist, became aware of Glen Canyon and the Colorado River while providing dental care to Indigenous people through a Rotary program. The Watsons took a trip to Glen Canyon in 1959.

Glen Canyon is a 169.6-mile canyon on the Colorado River located primarily in southern Utah and northern Arizona. In the 1950s, plans for a hydroelectric dam on the Colorado River were initiated, causing numerous environmental groups to rally in protection of various canyons along the Colorado River watershed. Beginning in 1963, Glen Canyon and its 125 side canyons were flooded as the Powell Reservoir was created over a period of 17 years. The flooding of Glen Canyon was a seminal event in the life of many American environmentalists, from David Brower of the Sierra Club to author Edward Abbey.