5 Days on Lake Powell
You never know what the light is going to do at Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Because it is so well-photographed it was intimidating to decide how to approach my photography hobby over a five day stay there on a houseboat. I made a list of "untold photographic stories" thinking I'd focus on those. But only one of the five ideas presented itself, fires west of there fogged up the skies and I had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out where the hell I was (even with a very good GPS app with pre-marked waypoints). Photo snappers beware, this place is addicting and you'll never run out of interesting scenes even while sitting still for a long time.
If you, or someone in your party depends on a wheelchair, you can find information here about accessibility and tips for making your trip more enjoyable.
If you go as far into Last Chance Bay as possible you end up in Croton Canyon. There, at dawn, you will probably be visited by a raven or two. The sun creeps in, slowly engulfing the 300-foot cliffs, highlighting their intricate rock spires and hoodoos.
At the far end of Gunsight Bay there are some good houseboat anchorages. A prime anchorage is a sandy beach where the water drops deeply within six feet or less of the shore. There, you can easily set anchors in the sand, and as long as you loosen the lines everyday to account for the drop in the water, you won't get stuck when it's time to leave. Here are the coordinates: 37.0597265 -111.345587
You'll never forget Gunsight Butte because it is one of the largest and most unique monolithic rock formations you'll encounter at Lake Powell. Here are the coordinates: 37.0462989 -111.3309075
We tried to beach the boat but accidentally chose a spot without enough draft. We got stuck. We called for help and in an hour or so a guy came around in a small boat with two huge engines. In fact, his motors were bigger than the ones we had on the houseboat. Once free, we headed back down Gunsight Bay leaving the butte in the sunset, and looking for a more suitable anchorage. We found one when it was about dark.
The haze from forest fires couldn't overpower the evening sun's attack on these amazing rock formations at Padre Point. 37.0144802 -111.2894716
Tranquility at Croton Bay. Here are the coordinates: 37.1726031 -111.2990586
Inside Croton Canyon, just across from our anchorage: Coordinates: 37.1699111 -111.3018466
Water that's 800 feet deep in places stays dark all day.
Huge cliffs mark each finger canyon of Last Chance Bay. Just left of center in this image, near the base of the cliff, you can see a white circle. Inside that circle are two people sitting on the rock. I added them to illustrate the scale of these enormous outcroppings. Coordinates: 37.140275 -111.2848888
Last Chance Bay offers lots of early morning eye candy and photo ops on the west side, and late afternoon eye candy and photo ops on the east side.
Near the bottom of Last Chance Bay you motor beside Gooseneck Point with its seemingly man made structures. Coordinates: 37.0823404 -111.2621676
Nature's castle.
When I was editing this photo I couldn't resist throwing in a glass orb to look like it was coming out of that perfectly round cave.
The map shows the relative position of all the points that have coordinates in this project.
