Lake Powell, Arizona

Time Changes - its so confusing ... Navajo Nation 2 hours ahead ... rest of Arizona 3 hours ahead ... Utah 2 hours ahead.  Gained another hour last night when we left Navajo Nation, lost it this morning when we went on a boat cruise in Lake Powell that crosses into Utah, gained it back when we came back to the campground.  I'm leaving my watch and the clock in the truck at 2 hours ahead and check the phone when we really need to know the time.

Pancakes and Fidler syrup for breakfast - delicious - then we went to a small Southern Baptist Church - nice.

Then a boat tour of Glen Canyon Dam, Antelope and Navajo Canyons on Lake Powell.

Houseboats - tons of them!  Its probably the only way to really see Lake Powell.

Some have hot tubs and many have jet skiis on the back.

Lake Powell is 186 miles long and backs up into more than 96 side canyons.  It has 1,960 miles of shoreline - longer than the length of the whole western coast of the continental US.  Storage capacity of 27 million acre feet and surface area of 161,390 acres.  It is the second largest man-made lake in the US after Lake Mead.

Constructed between 1956 and 1966, the Glen Canyon Dam was created as a reservoir and power source.    The concrete crest extends nearly one-third of a mile and the waters are more than 500 feet deep in places.  Many rivers drain large portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico - all flowing to Glen Canyon-Lake Powell.  Water began to back up behind the dam's 587 foot wall in 1963, reacing its "full pool" in 1980.

The Glen Canyon disappeared from view and Lake Powell was created.

So ... in all the other pictures of canyons that you have seen so far ... picture them filled with water ... kind of strange.

The white line shows the high-water mark.  Locals call it the bathtub ring.  The water fluctuates 50 feet in height.

There are seven marinas, one ferry crossing and 8 floating restrooms/dump/pumpout stations.
Some of the marinas have campgrounds, laundry/showers, lodging, restaurants, post office, medical services and of course, a store.  CRAZY

Just a little bit of the lake is in Arizona - the rest Utah and lots is on Navajo Nation ... again the crazy time-change stuff.  But what is time when you're on a lake.

Did you ever see a lake with no trees - its like the anti-Lake George.

A canyon filled with water has tons of side canyons-passageways.  If you rent a boat, I can see that it would be very easy to get lost.  We took a 2 1/2 hour boat tour and we only went into only two canyons and saw the dam - you could spend weeks .... October is the best time to go ... rates are low and they might even throw in a tank of gas or a jet ski!

This is where they have "slot canyons" they are real narrow - you can touch the walls on both sides and they are really high.  (This is not one - it would be much narrower and not have very much water)  There is danger from flash floods because a thunder storm could take place an hour away - you would not know - and the water comes into these narrow canyons like a freight train - people have been swept away and died.

Extra tid-bits:

A messa is large flat-topped - like a table.
A butte is smaller and tall - like a bar stool.

You never know when this might come in handy.

Tune in tomorrow for the Grand Canyon ... what time will it be there???????

P.S.  There are no mosquitos - no black flies.  They say they have some no-seeums - but I haven't seen any of them.