Beneath Lake Powell
What a family trip! Houseboating in Lake Powell during the worst drought in hundreds of years is worth writing about. We traveled to the north side of Lake Powell in August 2021 and rented a houseboat from the Bullfrog Marina. That marina is on the north side of Lake Powell and it’s about a 2 hour drive from I 70 in the middle of nowhere. All summer long we heard about the dropping lake levels and it was still suprising to see the change in water line from beginning of the summer to when we visited in the first week of August. It looked like the lake had dropped over 75 feet just during the summer.
We were excited to see parts of Glen Canyon that have been covered for 70 years!
I love looking at this map of North Lake Powell. We drove 2 hours south off I-70 through beautiful Utah desert with the Capitol Reef National park to the right of us. That is next on our bucket list to explore. Bullfrog Marina has made quite a bit of adjustments for the dropping lake levels and we found it easy to load our houseboat and set off.
We set off from the marina and headed directly to Iceberg Canyon as we were told most of the canyons closer to the marina would be difficult to find a place to dock. It took us 4 hours to get there and we were so glad we took the time to travel to Iceberg Canyon. It was breathtaking with many areas to explore! We docked our houseboat there as this gave us easy access to Reflection Canyon and Escalante Canyon.
Shipwreck discovered in Utah! Just north of Escalante Canyon is a shipwreck in a small cove. We swam to the spot and enjoyed exploring it. We didn't find any pirate booty but discovered what caused the boat to sink!
On Day 2, we took our boat south to primarily explore Escalante Canyon. First on our list was Cathedral of the Desert. This location was really intriguing to explore with a small waterfall flowing down between 2 rocks to a small pool. The hike was less than 5 minutes. The water was surprising cold in the pool formed by the waterfall and there is a rope hanging between the rocks that one could climb to see the rest of the Cathedral. It was too high for us but the place was magical. Since then, I have seen pictures of this place were flash floods have changed the landscape from when we visited. The pictures I have seen of this are constantly evolving and changing so this place will continue to surprise us with scenic views. We spent time here for a picnic lunch and headed out to find La Gorce Arch.
We drove to the end of the second canyon and found that because of the dropping water levels, we had to hike back to the arch. It was one of the most memorable hikes I have been on in a while! There was a stream we hiked through with a sandy bottom. We were all barefoot and the kids ran ahead exploring the canyon. We estimated that it was about a mile hike back to the arch and the arch was 75 feet over our head so we actually hiked past it! We turned around just past the arch but I read an article in the New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/16/the-lost-canyon-under-lake-powell. where the writer hiked past the arch to a waterfall at the end of the canyon. I wished we could have explored more because hiking through the stream was truly enjoyable.
