Another gorgeous day....not a cloud in the sky...26C/78F...this
weather is absolutely awesome! We have
reserved the two and a half hour Canyon Adventures Boat Tour that leaves from Lake Powell
Resort at 1:00. Lake Powell Resorts & Marina operate the facilities within the Glen
Canyon National Recreation Area at Wahweap Bay, just north of Page, AZ. We thought we would leave early and check out
the area before our boat ride.
We headed out shortly before 11:00...and after stopping to
fill our blue water containers with fresh water and drop off our garbage, we
continued on...our first stop was at Wahweap Bay Scenic Outlook....(warning: this is going to be another photo intensive posting...don't forget you can click on any picture to enlarge)...
Then we drove to the park entrance, showed our annual pass and were on our way towards Wahweap. We stopped at the dayuse area and walked down to the beach...
Since we had to check in at Lake Powell Resort at 12:30, I had packed a lunch...so we thought we would stop at the pictnic area and eat before checking in...
We arrived at the resort just after noon...the parking lot is restricted to vehicles under 20 feet in length, so we had to park across the street with all of the boat trailers. They have lots and lots of parking lots here...it must be an absolute zoo in the summer months!
When we entered the lobby, there was no one manning the tours booth which we thought was odd...that's when we realized that the time zone change had got us again! It was just after 11:00 a.m...we were an hour earlier than we had thought! Sheesh! The girl at the resort check-in desk said that she could check us in and issue our boarding passes...ok, fine...now with that done, what are we going to do for an hour? Well, Steve took a couple of pictures of the resort....
...and then we went into the bar for a drink...we sat at a table overlooking the pool (although you can't really tell by the picture...background was just too bright)...
Finally, it was time to walk down to the dock and board the boat...as you boarded, you also picked up headphones and small recorder so that you could listen to information about the areas we would be going to. We managed to get a couple of the last seats up top and that was only because a young fellow was saving the whole back bench...which he had to give up as he was told that's not allowed. We had great seats!
The tour started at the Glen Canyon Dam...
And then we headed to Antelope Canyon...this boat can really move!
We passed lots of kayakers, power boats and other tour boats...
There are lots of houseboats on this lake especially in the summer. With more coastline than the whole west coast of the US, Lake Powell is a great spot for houseboats...
This is Antelope Marina...
We first went by a whole bunch of rental houseboats docked at the marina and then we came to the high-end privately owned ones...love some of the names...
Now we are off to Navajo Canyon...this lake is just huge...it took 17 years to fill it!
And we are headed back to the marina now...
There is quite a narrow channel that we have to go through...
There are lots of houseboats anchored out in the bay, just off the marina...
What a wonderful boat tour...and such great weather! This is definitely the time of year to visit this area...crowds are down and weather is still good. After we docked, we had one heck of a hill to climb back up to the resort...good exercise! On our way out of the park we stopped at more viewpoints for pictures...
We left the park at the south entrance (we entered through the north entrance)...
We stopped at the same viewpoint overlooking Wahweap as we had this morning...very different view with the sun now setting on the other side...
The smoke stacks in the distance is a coal powered electrical plant. It actually produces more electricity than both the Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam combined. Apparently they have enough coal to keep the plant going for 200 years. Unfortunately, there is a lot of smog from it but the company is supposed to be spending something like 42 million in upgrades to help allievate that.
It was close to 6:30 by the time we got home...such a great day!!
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