Lake Powell 2006 - Dungeon Canyon - June 22nd to June 29th
Lake Elevation 3610
Our rental boat at Dungeon Canyon
After driving for many we arrived at the Wahweap Lodge at around 5:00pm. The water level of Powell is currently at 3610, 25 feet higher then when we were here last in 2004. It was noticeable higher but unfortunately not high enough to fill the Castle Rock Cut. The dry Cut was easily seen across the bay and the trip through the maytag straits was not being looked forward to the next day. I had entered a drawing on wayneswords.com for the day that the CRC would be navigational, it turned out to be only a contest for high water mark due to the below average snow year. I had picked June 23rd at 10am, the time we should be starting our vacation. I remarkably won 7th place!
Day 1: Of course after awakening early I proceeded to walk around the Lake Powell Resort. The sun rise over Wahweap Bay was gorgeous. One could easily see the cut across the bay. Soon the rest of the family awoke and we were off to a week of Sun and Fun. We arrived at the rental booth a bit late due to the large amount of people in our group, but were soon walking down to the dock and being introduced to our home for the next week. We rented a 48 foot Navigator once again from Lake Powell Resorts, so we were quite familiar with the boat. A very nice employee came down to greet us and introduce us to the boat. After informing him that we rented the same craft two years ago he quickly walked us around the boat. The only equipment I had problems with remembering how it worked was the generator and the invertor. We were soon boating over to the loading dock and were as busy as ants filling up the boat with drinks, food, poles, and fun toys for the next week. After filling up the boat to probably capacity I sent the house boat off with everyone else except for Brian and I. We were off to Big Water Ut about 10 miles away to go and get our ski boat. I rented the ski boat from Skylite Rentals and saved quite a bit over the rental from Aramark. But I had to pick up the boat myself and launch myself. It was a quick pickup and Brian and I were soon off driving over to Antelope Marina. I thought of launching the boat myself, but being the beginner boats man that I am, I decided to use the launch and retrieve service they offer. It worked perfectly, as soon as Brian and I were in the water the houseboat was about a mile from the Antelope Marina. You may be asking how did I know they were a mile away? About a year ago I purchased two Garmin 530 hand held walkie talkies with GPS. They worked perfectly. As soon as I talked into my Garmin and my father replied we could easily see each other on our screens and our exact locations. We waited for the house boat in the Antelope Marina and tied the ski boat off when it arrived. With the ski boat in tow we were all off.
Since our late departure and since we had to drive through the maytag straits we were only able to make it to Gunsight Bay the first night. I thought there would be plenty of beaches to land on but boy was I wrong. This water level left us with very few nice beaches that were all taken and since the water level was on the rise most beaches were covered in weeds. We tried to find a beach for about an hour but soon decided to just camp at the mouth of Gunsight and the main channel. We soon noticed that in some parts Gunsight was touching Padre Bay. I don't think it was navigational but it was nice to see the two bodies of water touching. It was not pretty beach but we were only here for a night. The house boat was easily landed on the beach and we secured it quickly using four 1" x 4 1/2' steel poles I made. They worked beautifully. A quick hammering into the soft sand was all we needed to quickly secure our boat. We then dug our two 2' to 3' deep holes for the anchors and then secured the boat with them and the poles. We were not going anywhere. I was over cautious because two years ago we were blown off the beach and I never wanted to experience that again. We were soon swimming, eating, drinking and having fun. When night fall came we noticed the fires on Navajo Mountain, it was quite a sight. I hope they can get them out soon.
Day 2: We got off to a early start the next day, for we did not want do have a hard time finding a good beach this day. We dug out the anchors first started the engines and then easily pulled out our steel poles. After about an hour of boating up lake, the house boat barely does 6 mph, we detached the ski boat and were off looking for our new home. Since the lake was quite a bit higher this year we were able to boat through the cut between Padre and Dominquez Buttes. We were driving through it slowly for we did not know how deep the water was. But half way through, another boat went through at about 40mph so we took his path and were off. We arrived at Dungeon Canyon and found a perfect beach. The canyon had changed so much due to the higher water level since two years ago, we barely recognized it. We loved the beach we found but I wanted to look around a bit more. We drove over to Dry Rock Creek but all we saw were more and more weedy beaches. So we decided on Dungeon. When we arrived we dropped off Steph and Brian to hold the beach for us while the rest of us cruised over to Dangling Rope Marina to pick up some more ice. Upon our arrival back to Dungeon, Stephanie said that quite a few people had stopped by and wanted the beach she was on. She didn't want us to leave her again to go and find the house boat. So I radioed the house boat and was impressed that it was only about 3 miles away. Again the Garmin's worked great. When the house boat arrived we quickly beached it and hammered in the poles and then dug in our anchors. We then relaxed, swam, drank and began our vacation.
Day 1: Of course after awakening early I proceeded to walk around the Lake Powell Resort. The sun rise over Wahweap Bay was gorgeous. One could easily see the cut across the bay. Soon the rest of the family awoke and we were off to a week of Sun and Fun. We arrived at the rental booth a bit late due to the large amount of people in our group, but were soon walking down to the dock and being introduced to our home for the next week. We rented a 48 foot Navigator once again from Lake Powell Resorts, so we were quite familiar with the boat. A very nice employee came down to greet us and introduce us to the boat. After informing him that we rented the same craft two years ago he quickly walked us around the boat. The only equipment I had problems with remembering how it worked was the generator and the invertor. We were soon boating over to the loading dock and were as busy as ants filling up the boat with drinks, food, poles, and fun toys for the next week. After filling up the boat to probably capacity I sent the house boat off with everyone else except for Brian and I. We were off to Big Water Ut about 10 miles away to go and get our ski boat. I rented the ski boat from Skylite Rentals and saved quite a bit over the rental from Aramark. But I had to pick up the boat myself and launch myself. It was a quick pickup and Brian and I were soon off driving over to Antelope Marina. I thought of launching the boat myself, but being the beginner boats man that I am, I decided to use the launch and retrieve service they offer. It worked perfectly, as soon as Brian and I were in the water the houseboat was about a mile from the Antelope Marina. You may be asking how did I know they were a mile away? About a year ago I purchased two Garmin 530 hand held walkie talkies with GPS. They worked perfectly. As soon as I talked into my Garmin and my father replied we could easily see each other on our screens and our exact locations. We waited for the house boat in the Antelope Marina and tied the ski boat off when it arrived. With the ski boat in tow we were all off.
Since our late departure and since we had to drive through the maytag straits we were only able to make it to Gunsight Bay the first night. I thought there would be plenty of beaches to land on but boy was I wrong. This water level left us with very few nice beaches that were all taken and since the water level was on the rise most beaches were covered in weeds. We tried to find a beach for about an hour but soon decided to just camp at the mouth of Gunsight and the main channel. We soon noticed that in some parts Gunsight was touching Padre Bay. I don't think it was navigational but it was nice to see the two bodies of water touching. It was not pretty beach but we were only here for a night. The house boat was easily landed on the beach and we secured it quickly using four 1" x 4 1/2' steel poles I made. They worked beautifully. A quick hammering into the soft sand was all we needed to quickly secure our boat. We then dug our two 2' to 3' deep holes for the anchors and then secured the boat with them and the poles. We were not going anywhere. I was over cautious because two years ago we were blown off the beach and I never wanted to experience that again. We were soon swimming, eating, drinking and having fun. When night fall came we noticed the fires on Navajo Mountain, it was quite a sight. I hope they can get them out soon.
Day 2: We got off to a early start the next day, for we did not want do have a hard time finding a good beach this day. We dug out the anchors first started the engines and then easily pulled out our steel poles. After about an hour of boating up lake, the house boat barely does 6 mph, we detached the ski boat and were off looking for our new home. Since the lake was quite a bit higher this year we were able to boat through the cut between Padre and Dominquez Buttes. We were driving through it slowly for we did not know how deep the water was. But half way through, another boat went through at about 40mph so we took his path and were off. We arrived at Dungeon Canyon and found a perfect beach. The canyon had changed so much due to the higher water level since two years ago, we barely recognized it. We loved the beach we found but I wanted to look around a bit more. We drove over to Dry Rock Creek but all we saw were more and more weedy beaches. So we decided on Dungeon. When we arrived we dropped off Steph and Brian to hold the beach for us while the rest of us cruised over to Dangling Rope Marina to pick up some more ice. Upon our arrival back to Dungeon, Stephanie said that quite a few people had stopped by and wanted the beach she was on. She didn't want us to leave her again to go and find the house boat. So I radioed the house boat and was impressed that it was only about 3 miles away. Again the Garmin's worked great. When the house boat arrived we quickly beached it and hammered in the poles and then dug in our anchors. We then relaxed, swam, drank and began our vacation.
Smoke over Navajo Mountain
Day 3: We awoke early and once again just relaxed around the beach. I wanted to show the crew parts of the lake we have not seen before so around 10am we were off to Twilight and Oak Bays and Secret Canyon. Unfortunately the only pic I took was of Navajo Mountain with its forest fire. Twilight canyon was gorgeous, we drove until we had to push the walls off the boat. Oak was mostly weeds and solid rock and about every 15 minutes a helicopter would come down to pick up water for the fires on Navajo Mountain. I had wanted to take the house boat to Oak but after comparing it to the beach we already had it seemed a bad choice.
Brad's first fish
Day 4: We awoke early once again and decided to go fishing. I have never been a fisherman but my second son Brian loves it. So the past month I have been reading all I could about how to fish. With the help of Wayne at wayneswords.com I thought I might know what I was doing. We drove over to Dry Rock Creek and found a nice cove at the mouth of it. We chummed with the middle of Anchovies, as per Wayne's instructions, and fished with the heads and tails at about 30 feet. In about 10 minutes three of us had a bite all at the same time. Unbelievable!!! We pulled all of the fish in and after an hour we caught so many fish that Brian had the saying of the week, "We are going to need a larger Igloo!" With that in mind we drove back to the house boat to show all our prize catches.
Day 5
I had always wanted to go up to the Escalante and San Juan just to check it out. They were as beautiful as I had thought they would be. How they ever took wagons, horses and cattle down the hole in the rock is beyond me. The
pictures do not do it justice. It is very steep and rocky. Cathedral was also very beautiful. Unfortunately it was also quite crowded.
pictures do not do it justice. It is very steep and rocky. Cathedral was also very beautiful. Unfortunately it was also quite crowded.
Day 6
Thought I better take some pics of the family before the vacation ends!
The next day we motored back to Wahweap Bay and returned our rental. Had yet another great family vacation at Powell!
The next day we motored back to Wahweap Bay and returned our rental. Had yet another great family vacation at Powell!