Water and Fire in the Desert: Our time in Lake Powell, AZ

June 8th - 9th, 2021

Lake Powell was planned to be a quick stopover on our way from Colorado to the Grand Canyon. Our first real taste of the desert, this was a pretty cool place to spend a night. 

We left Mancos, CO on the morning of Tuesday, June 8th, and drove about 4 hours to Lake Powell, arriving at our campsite for the night in the early afternoon. We stayed at Wahweap Campground, within the Glen Canyon National Park, which was gorgeous and right on the lake. 

The bright blue / green hues of the waters were a stark contrast to the surrounding orange cliffs and rock formations. We've never been to a lake in the middle of the desert, so that was a first! This was also the best looking lake we'd seen since North Carolina... those we found in Oklahoma were... chocolate in color. 

After setting up camp, we pumped up our tubes (best $5 purchase ever from Walmart!) and made the trek down to the water. The lake level in Lake Powell is way down from it's high point, so the walk to the beach was hundreds of yards further than it had been originally! I'm sure you all have been seeing the news of how dry the American West is right now, and we've seen much evidence of it first hand. Anyways, I digress. The beach and lake were a great place to kill a couple of hours while we waited for the cooler temps, and inviting light of sunset, during which time we planned to visit the famous Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado River.

After a snack, we changed clothes and packed up the truck to head to Horseshoe Bend. This is where things got interesting... I (Ian) had gone out to Phoenix with my gear, and waited for Kristin. When she left the camper, she reminded me that I had the keys, and needed to lock her up. So I walked back, and had the keys in the lock when I serendipitously decided to use the bathroom one last time. While I was in the camper for this brief break, I heard a couple loud POPS, and was confused as to what they might be. I shrugged them off, and went to leave, but the popping/snapping noise was continuing, if not growing more frequent. They seemed to be coming from the fridge, and I was concerned we'd lose refrigeration with a full load of groceries, in the desert heat. It was at this point that I noticed the fridge indicator light was showing it had switched to operate on Liquid Propane rather than electric, which was odd, and signaled that something was amiss with the electric in the camper. The popping noise was now growing along with my level of concern, so I opened the cabinet door below the fridge from which the propane hot water heater is serviced... OH #@&%!

Black smoke wisped out, and the acrid smell of burning plastic filled my nostrils. Bright light accompanied the popping noise, the flashing triggering a panic, as you can imagine. I ran over to the fire extinguisher and ripped it off the wall, literally, so I could empty it into the cabinet. Once I was satisfied that there were no active flames, I raced out of Destiny, encountering Kristin for the first time. Only a minute had passed since I left to lock the camper, but it was long enough to draw an inquiry, "what's going on?" I was mid-air, leaping from the front steps, and could only muster one response, "FIRE!". Arriving at the main breaker from the campground, I flipped it to off, and finally had a moment to gather my thoughts. Of course, I presumed the worse. Fortunately, we'd be surprised at the limit of the damage. 

There was nothing much left to do in that moment, so we headed over to Horseshoe Bend, it was busy with people, but very beautiful and worth while nonetheless. Needless to say, we were a tad distracted. We hadn't yet fully assessed the damage, and our evening itinerary would now include take-out dinner, and a stop at Walmart for cleaning supplies. Turns out, cleaning up after a fire extinguisher is a big pain, but after an hour or so of labor, we were in a good place, and ready for bed. 

The following morning was spent making some business calls, then finding someone to source new parts and do the repairs necessary to get electric back in Destiny. Such a savior was found in Kanab, UT, where we'd be spending the next couple nights to explore the Grand Canyon. In the end, this near disaster (did I mention how close this happened to LIQUID PROPANE lines), cost us only a half hour of time at the repair shop, $213 in parts and labor, and the need to use our camping lanterns, and extension cords to charge phones & laptops, and make smoothies. It certainly could have been worse. 

NEVER. A. DULL. DAY.

Having arranged the future repairs, and completed our work for the morning, we checked out of the campground, and headed to Antelope Point Boat Launch. This public boat launch was closed to power boats due to how low the lake was, thus making the ramp unusable, however it is a bustling hub for paddle sports. We parked Pheonix and a wounded Destiny, and inflated our Paddleboards for an adventure on the water. 

The main channel of Lake Powell, which would mark the first and last mile of our trip, was busy with boat traffic, and quite choppy. We'd draw upon our experience paddleboarding on Lake Atitlan to navigate this section with relative grace, prior to entering into the mouth of Antelope Canyon. This is another famous landmark in the region, with an Upper and Lower section. The former is run by the Navajo Nation, and is closed for COVID at the moment. The latter is accessible by water, and offers an amazing landscape for paddleboarding. The water runs about a mile in to the canyon at its current level, it would have reached much, much further a decade ago. The sandstone walls tower over head, and fish can be seen swimming beneath. We stopped for a packed lunch, floating on our boards, and met some other nice folks, most of whom were part of a small industry of kayak tours & rentals, but a few of which were exploring on their own like us.

It took an hour to reach the end of the water into Lower Antelope Canyon, evenly split between the channel and the canyon. Here we discovered that people actually planned to walk another 1.5 miles into the canyon, for a 3 mile out-and-back trek. Luckily, we'd packed a spare bladder with water, sufficient snacks, and our water shoes... so what the heck, we thought, let's give it a go. Boy are we glad we did. 

The canyon walls grow more and more narrow as you hike away from the water, at points they are akin to a fun house at a carnival, requiring the explorer to bob, weave and duck their heads in order to pass without bruising! In total, our little paddleboard turned into a 3 mile hike and 4 mile paddle over the course of 6 hours. We arrived at the boat launch sun kissed, hungry, and fatigued; but in good spirits. This is where having the full rig is HUGE. We broke down the paddleboards, changed into dry clothes, got a snack out of the fridge, and made way for Fredonia, AZ, a 1.5 hour drive away. 

All in all, Lake Powell was good to us, and we're looking forward to the adventures ahead! For more photos, click the following link: Lake Powell, AZ.