Lake Powell May 2010

Rebecca graduated from high school this past week. It was a fine day and many family members came and celebrated with her. Debbie joined her on the senior trip as a chaperone. They left immediately after graduation. I had no desire to join thousands of crazy graduates roaming Disneyland all night long. This left Eric and I home alone. Therefore the next morning we hooked up the Mastercraft and headed over to Powell. Usually our trips to Powell last only 1 night. This time we planned on spending at least 2 nights on the lake. We were joined by his friend Sam and his dad Alan. The marina was surprisingly quiet for this time of the year as we launched in the afternoon. We soon found out why this may have been the case. High winds, the bane of Lake Powell. With a small crew and 3 days of time we decided to boat way up lake and visit the San Juan arm of the lake. A stop at Dangling Rope Marina to top off my tanks and we were off again. Soon we were past the side canyon to Rainbow Bridge and seeing sections of the lake that we had seldom visited if ever. The winds were fairly steady, but with it at our backs it made the going quite reasonable. We started up the San Juan arm and initially saw a few other boaters and one or two houseboats. It wasn't long before it was obvious that there were few people venturing up this large branch of Lake Powell. Three hours into our travel we began to look for a good place to set up camp on a beach. We soon discovered that there were few good beaches up the San Juan and with the stiff wind there were even less protected spots. Finally we pulled into a slim beachfront and tied off the boat. I had to put 4 lines on the boat to secure it adequately in the wind and waves. No wake boarding the first evening. Fortunately the winds died down considerably during the night. The next day I got in a fine morning ski, but soon the darn winds started up again. The second day was spent mostly exploring by foot a couple of side canyons. Eric and I looked for some Anasazi ruins but were unsuccessful in locating any. We did get in some surfing behind the boat and enjoyed some time listening to the stereo on the boat and soaking up some sun. We saw only one other boat for 30 seconds on the second day. The third day did bring us better weather and we boarded and surfed our way down the lake eventually arriving back to Wauweap late afternoon for the take out. Once again I had thoughts of staying another night on the lake as it is so fun and relaxing boating and exploring Powell. One side canyon was particulary beautiful that we traveled up. It was called "Reflection Canyon" and I hope to visit it again some day.