An epic 7 day trip covering a significant part of Lake Powell for Don, Debbie, Ben, Melinda, Karl, Garth, Richard, Susan and Cliff. Our trip on the lake included Rainbow Bridge, Reflection Canyon, Escalante River Arm, Hole in the Rock, and other spectacular areas. Our inflatable boat may have been the first boat under Gregory Natural Bridge since 1969 when lake was filling as it has been underwater since then.
After over a year of planning we arrive in Page, AZ to pick up the rental houseboat the next day. The process of setting up this trip had it share of issues to deal with. The dropping lake level was foremost (making national news), but not the only thing to address. Some of the original group had issues come up which prevented them from going on the trip at the last minute.
The dropping lake level made it questionable that we could launch our boats. So we evaluated some backup options in case the ramps don’t reach the lake. Fortunately the park service had built some temporary ramps by the time we arrived so we were able to launch.
In addition to the lake level issue, the mid-lake marina was destroyed by a windstorm earlier in the year, along with the rental company’s support facility for the middle of the lake. So the rental company had a limit that houseboats only go 25 miles up lake as they could not provide support if we broke down after that. However the area we most wanted see was in the Escalante River Arm of the lake which is 80 miles up lake. So we were going have to sail clean and not need their support. We did mess up the first evening and bend the props on some rocks, but we were just within the 25 mile limit. We radioed for repair that night and the service boat reached us the next morning. After the prop repair we continued up lake a little more carefully. Our round trip ended up being over 180 miles (see map below).
The weather was perfect, in the 70s during the day and water temperature was about 78. We had a short rain and windstorm one evening, but were anchored in a sheltered canyon at the time. Its clearing did provide a nice rainbow.
Getting past those issues above the rest of the trip was picture perfect as the following photos show. Photos also supplied by Susan, Richard, Ben and Don.