Lake Powell, UT
This one, like many paintings I start, needs to be finished and seems to be a constant work in progress. AJ and I did so much, and it’s a lot to pin down into text, but it will eventually happen.
A massive man-made reservoir known as Lake Powell sits on the Utah and Arizona borders, providing hundreds of lake miles of incredible blue water in the middle of the dry, dusty landscape. It is the second largest man-made body of water in the US, right behind Lake Mead., spanning about 190 miles in length. Creation of the lake began with starting construction of the Glen Canyon Dam while Eisenhower was in office in 1956, completed in 1963, and dedicated to Lady Bird Johnson. It then took eleven more years for the Colorado River to flood Glen Canyon to 3,700 feet and form the completed Lake Powell. It’s been on my to-do list for what felt like eons.
I did a lot of research for this before we left, the most out of any portion of the trip probably. When you google photos of Lake Powell, there are so many astounding pics that come up. I wanted to see everything. One viewpoint in particular caught my attention. A winding, narrow body of water, often photographed just after sundown. I loved it, and thought it was amazing, and beautiful. That section of the lake is called Reflection Canyon, one of the thousands of nooks and crannies found along the reservoir. Awesome, let’s do it, I thought, no big deal. Except it is a big deal, because the lake is massive. More homework ensued.
You can reach Reflection Canyon by water, and there is rumored to be a way to climb the rock face up to the often-photographed vantage point and campsite for backpackers. Sounded like a fun challenge, AJ had all the climbing gear on hand in case we needed it. You can also backpack eight hours on foot into the Glen Canyon National Park and get to it that way. Not enough time for backpacking and lake time on this particular trip, as wonderful as that sounds.
I had originally thought we could just rent a couple of kayaks, because those are simple and easy to get. Nope, if exploring this apparently enormous body of water is the goal, we needed more speed than just us working some paddles.
You can rent skis from a ton of places around the lake, Antelope Marina being the most expensive because it’s a resort, and you pay for the convenience of walking down to the dock and jumping on your ski. One company called “All in Water Sports” in Big Water, UT is the most affordable if you have a vehicle with a hitch to tow the trailer down to the marina, and a partner to help you launch your ski. However, If you are in a rental car, and don’t have such a vehicle to haul things with, they will rent you their truck for $75. They are great people, I highly recommend them if this is your plan.
There are four marinas on Lake Powell. BullFrog at the far north end, Wahweap and Antelope Marinas near the south end, and Dangling Rope in the middle, accessible only via the lake with no road/land access points. My idea was to take the ski from Antelope Marina, so I had to learn what a reasonable range on a jetski was, how long it might take to traverse the lake, and the best plan to do so. Wahweap and Antelope marinas are located near Big Water, AZ where we planned on picking up the ski. Reflection Canyon is closest to Bullfrog up north, but at a four-hour drive from the rental facility it didn’t seem reasonable to launch there. Antelope Marina is the next best option.
I read a lot about how many lake miles there are from each marina, how many gallons a ski holds, and how many mpg we might expect. I even found a blog about hiking to reflection canyon, and emailed the author for any info he might have. He advised me not to take a ski that far, AJ and I read his response, before proceeding to ignore the advice. Wahweap Marina is closest to Big Water, but 40 extra lake miles from Reflection Canyon when compared to Antelope. The plan was to launch from Antelope, but then on that day my brain fell apart, and I completely forgot about it. We launched from Wahweap, did not top off the fuel at Antelope, and only remembered the plan ¾ off the way to Dangling Rope where I proceeded to make a conservative call to forget it, and turn around instead of gambling on running out of fuel while out on a lake in a cell phone dead zone.
It was still an amazing day, we had a great time throttling that ski around and taking in the gorgeous scenery the lake had to offer. I was no less than a happy, satisfied customer by the time we dropped it off. I think what I learned is that, despite all my homework and planning, I can always do more. I didn’t make a hard copy itinerary to remind myself of my plan, I figured we would never be far from a resource, so it wasn’t needed. Most likely from now on I’ll take an even more conservative approach, and write it up, print it out, in the event that my brain turns off again and tries to inadvertently ruin my plans.
