Page, Arizona - Lake Powell - May 6

We've seen the dam that created Lake Powell so now its time to see the lake and some of the great views from the water.   As it is May, the water temperature is a mere 44 degrees.  And, as we only have two full days in the area, we decided to opt for the Boat Cruise instead of renting a house boat.

 We took off from the marina right outside the Lake Powell Resort where the marina is full of beautiful houseboats - from the small to a 22 million dollar yacht!

 First stop on the cruise was a straight line to see the Glen Canyon Dam from the lake side.  You can see the rain clouds in the distance.  It is massive, but it is much more impressive from the Colorado River Side.

 We then started to navigate through Antelope Canyon.  You can see the change in the water level from what is know as the "bath tub ring" due to the residue of calcium carbonate.  The lake almost overflowed in 1983 but has not seen those levels since then.

 Pretty soon you start to get into the canyon with the canyon walls getting closer and the turns a bit tighter.

 Near one turn we found this pontoon - on the way up the canyon and the way back we saw them catch a total of 3 fish and they were pretty good sized fish.

 As we got closer to one of the canyon walls you can see how clear the water is in this beautiful lake.

 It was just amazing to travel through this canyon and realize that these canyon walls go down another 300 plus feet!

 From Antelope Canyon we moved on to Navajo Canyon and this majestic painted wall

 

 

 It doesn't matter where we are - looking at hoodoos at Bryce, or inside a cave, or passing a mountain there are always forms that look like animals.  True to this fact the audio tour pointed out the dragon and the shark (toward the center).

It doesn't matter if you couldn't find them.   Here is a great view of the dragon.

 And, here is a better view of the shark - I like the dragon better!

 It was hard to see Navajo Mountain during most of our stay due to the cloud cover, but from the boat you can make out this 10,000+ foot mountain in the background.

 Another of the famous landmarks in this area, that is more easily seen from the side of the ship, is Navajo Butte.

Now, to give you some perspective of the size of Lake Powell, here is a topological map of Lake Powell.  It took us over 3 hours just to travel around what looks like a heart shaped island on the left side of the map - this is Antelope Island!  Its hard to imagine, but the total shore line around Lake Powell is 1,900 miles!!  To show you just how little we saw of Lake Powell, to the left of Antelope island you can see where the water stops - that is the location of the Glen Canyon Dam.

 

And, this is the famous photo of the top of my shoes as we sat relaxing in our loungers, enjoying the view and watching the rain clouds pass us by!

 

 

 

It's time to call this a day a look forward to tomorrow and our hike into Antelope Canyon!