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southwest road trip - day 5 - lake powell
The American Southwest is famous for its spectacular desert scenery - not a place one expects to find a 250 square mile (660km2) lake, so we rented a 19ft speedboat for a day to check it out. Lake Powell was formed to provide water storage and power generation by the (controversial) construction of the Glen Canyon Dam across the Colorado River in 1963. It took 18 years from the completion of the dam for it to fill.
There are 5 marinas on Lake Powell, we headed to Wahweap Marina, just across the border from Page, Arizona to pick up our rental. There were literally hundreds of powerboats and houseboats at this marina. It's obviously a very popular recreation spot. After a few minutes of instuction on the operation of our boat we were on our way...
...zipping across the lake with the wind in our hair and marvelling at the red, brown and cream rock rising out of the water.
After about 1/2 hour of motoring we pulled into a sandy beach to check it out. The area is mostly Navajo Sandstone that is slowly eroding forming interesting canyons and red sand beaches. The water (including a lot of spring snow melt from the Utah and Colorado high country) was too cold for swimming, but it was fun to explore the shore. Pinnacle Rock makes an impressive backdrop in this shot.
Back in the boat, we headed into Labyrinth Canyon, a twisting narrow waterway formed by the filling of Labyrinth Creek canyon when the dam was built. The water was fairly smooth and glassy here in the shelter of the canyon walls.
After an hour or so exploring Labyrinth Canyon we headed back out into the lake with a pitstop at one of the many "floating rest rooms" they have provided on the lake. There's even a windsock atop the pontoon so you can guage your approach direction! This one was called Dominguez Butte Rest Room - named for the large rock outcrop behind it, but we couldn't resist the obvious joke about naming a restroom after someones butt!
After our reststop, we headed further up the lake into the broader Face Canyon (don't know where it got its name), looking for a sheltered spot to stop for lunch. We stopped in a small bay opposite a towering rock ridge that we decided to call "the great wall of china". It ran as far as we could see in either direction. If you look closely you'll see a houseboat on the right-hand side of this pic, which will give you some idea of the height of the ridge. 
After lunch we decided to explore further up Face Canyon to see how far we could get. As the canyon got narrower Mike kept a lookout for shallow spots or submerged rocks.
In some places the canyon walls seemed to close in so much that we thought we would have to turn around, but as this picture shows, looks can be deceiving - we actually fit through this opening, see the wake from our boat in the water? We all felt it was rather like being on a ride at a theme park, never knowing what was around the corner!
Sometimes we'd come across a boat going the other way and we'd say "if they're coming from that direction there must be more to explore".
Eventually it was time to turn around and head back into the open waters of the lake to explore some more and enjoy the fun of having a speed boat. We spent quite a bit of time crossing the wide expanse of Padre Bay (named after the missionary leaders of a Spanish expedition that crossed the Colorado River here in 1776).
Despite having a speedboat, we only made it 23 miles down the 140 mile length of Lake Powell - there were so many offshoot canyons and bays to explore. The contrast of the bare rock, sand and sparse vegetation with the abundance of water was quite striking, and everywhere you looked there were huge cliffs, mesas and buttes (like this one called Gunsight Butte) towering over the lake. What a great day!
The American Southwest is famous for its spectacular desert scenery - not a place one expects to find a 250 square mile (660km2) lake, so we rented a 19ft speedboat for a day to check it out. Lake Powell was formed to provide water storage and power generation by the (controversial) construction of the Glen Canyon Dam across the Colorado River in 1963. It took 18 years from the completion of the dam for it to fill.
There are 5 marinas on Lake Powell, we headed to Wahweap Marina, just across the border from Page, Arizona to pick up our rental. There were literally hundreds of powerboats and houseboats at this marina. It's obviously a very popular recreation spot. After a few minutes of instuction on the operation of our boat we were on our way...
...zipping across the lake with the wind in our hair and marvelling at the red, brown and cream rock rising out of the water.
After about 1/2 hour of motoring we pulled into a sandy beach to check it out. The area is mostly Navajo Sandstone that is slowly eroding forming interesting canyons and red sand beaches. The water (including a lot of spring snow melt from the Utah and Colorado high country) was too cold for swimming, but it was fun to explore the shore. Pinnacle Rock makes an impressive backdrop in this shot.
Back in the boat, we headed into Labyrinth Canyon, a twisting narrow waterway formed by the filling of Labyrinth Creek canyon when the dam was built. The water was fairly smooth and glassy here in the shelter of the canyon walls.
After an hour or so exploring Labyrinth Canyon we headed back out into the lake with a pitstop at one of the many "floating rest rooms" they have provided on the lake. There's even a windsock atop the pontoon so you can guage your approach direction! This one was called Dominguez Butte Rest Room - named for the large rock outcrop behind it, but we couldn't resist the obvious joke about naming a restroom after someones butt!
After our reststop, we headed further up the lake into the broader Face Canyon (don't know where it got its name), looking for a sheltered spot to stop for lunch. We stopped in a small bay opposite a towering rock ridge that we decided to call "the great wall of china". It ran as far as we could see in either direction. If you look closely you'll see a houseboat on the right-hand side of this pic, which will give you some idea of the height of the ridge. 
After lunch we decided to explore further up Face Canyon to see how far we could get. As the canyon got narrower Mike kept a lookout for shallow spots or submerged rocks.
In some places the canyon walls seemed to close in so much that we thought we would have to turn around, but as this picture shows, looks can be deceiving - we actually fit through this opening, see the wake from our boat in the water? We all felt it was rather like being on a ride at a theme park, never knowing what was around the corner!
Sometimes we'd come across a boat going the other way and we'd say "if they're coming from that direction there must be more to explore".
Eventually it was time to turn around and head back into the open waters of the lake to explore some more and enjoy the fun of having a speed boat. We spent quite a bit of time crossing the wide expanse of Padre Bay (named after the missionary leaders of a Spanish expedition that crossed the Colorado River here in 1776).
Despite having a speedboat, we only made it 23 miles down the 140 mile length of Lake Powell - there were so many offshoot canyons and bays to explore. The contrast of the bare rock, sand and sparse vegetation with the abundance of water was quite striking, and everywhere you looked there were huge cliffs, mesas and buttes (like this one called Gunsight Butte) towering over the lake. What a great day!
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