Lake Powell and Glen Canyon

We left the green pine trees and relative cool weather (below 90 degrees daytime and lower 50's at night) of Flagstaff and drove the 130 miles north to Page, home of Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.  We drove through one of the Navajo Indian Reservations up Hwy 89.  Your heart goes out to those Americans living on these reservations, with no real jobs they live in abstract poverty.  We arrived in Page and found a really nice campground with cable TV hookups (of course, our site's cable hookup did not work so we had to use our satellite dish, no local coverage).  The downside to this trip was we did not plan enough time to see all the sights in this area.  We will only be here one full day and we should have planned at least three days.  However, we did get out and explore today and see the beautiful high desert scenery.  We first went to Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam.

Colorado River's Horseshoe Bend below Glen Canyon Dam - We really need a better camera to take these pictures!

Horseshoe Bend is a 270 degree bend on the Colorado River and you have to hike about 3/4 of a mile from a parking area to see and appreciate the bend in the river.  If you are afraid of heights you may want someone else to take the pictures, it is a shear drop of several hundred feet to the river and there is no protection from the side of the cliffs.  George laid on his stomach over the edge to get this picture above.

We thought we should have a picture taken to prove we were here!

Glen Canyon Dam - it is massive and an engineering marvel!

The Glen Canyon dam is responsible for Lake Powell.  The story behind the dam is shrouded in history and politics.  It seems that Glen Canyon area was to designated as a National Park in the late 1930's because of its beautiful canyons, that rivaled the Grand Canyon.  Before it could be designated a national park, a little war  (WWII) came along and money and politics was turned to the war effort.  After the war it became necessary to power the new American industrial engine in the west (re: southern California) and Glen Canyon dam was to be built to help provide that power.  Of course Las Vegas, Phoenix, and southern California appreciate the ability to have air conditioning but one has to wonder what beauty we sacrificed.  On the flip side of course we also have a wonderful recreation area and a very large and beautiful lake.  It took seven years to fill up and is 186 miles from the dam to the other end of Lake Powell with almost 2000 miles of shoreline.

The mighty Colorado on the release side of Glen Canyon Dam - on its way to the Grand Canyon and beyond!

Beautify and blue Lake Powell, can you see the water line at the bottom of the island?

Lake Powell, like many of the large lakes in the west, is not full.  Notice the white area just above the blue waters of Lake Powell, that is the "high water mark".  It is about 50 feet below the high water level mark, but there is still a lot of water and it is as blue as the ocean.  We were amazed to see how many large houseboats (65 feet or longer) that were on the lake.  These are floating homes during the summer months; but we have no idea what the owners do in the winter -- dry dock and head south, leaving these half million dollar boats behind?

As we said earlier, we did not have enough time to see everything we would like to have seen in this area.  With so much to see in the United States, no one has the time to see all the "major" attractions let alone the nooks and crannies that make this country so special.  But we will try to bring to you, our friends and family,  the pictures and highlights of our backyards as we travel this great country.  We will be leaving Northern Arizona tomorrow and drive back to Colorado.  We wanted to stop at the Cliff dwellings of the Ancient Publeoian Indians but time has run out and we only have two days to drive the 500 plus miles to Denver.  With at least four mountain passes of over 11000 feet to cross we will plan on a two day drive.  The scenery will be beautiful but the drive will be challenging!

As always we hope this edition of our blog finds you all happy, healthy, and safe!  We hope you are enjoying life and are taking extra good care of yourselves and your love ones.