Lake Powell Trip

[Debbolas]

Ok, we are back from Lake Powell. We had a blast, Scream will be posting pics later (hopefully)
Scream was at away with our son so my daughter and I were the lucky ones selected to clean and pack the RV and Boat. I had never cleaned the outside of the boat before, guess what!?! A little know secret about boat cleaning............the outside is easier than the inside.
Anyway we got it all together and cooked and packed and set off for Mesquite Nevada around 6pm Saturday night July 17th. I get to drive the RV, because....well I am just lucky. We drove up to Barstow, ate at Baja Fresh (good food, clean place) There were some fire fighters in line so we let them go ahead of us.
Us being..........our family, Ahhell's family, and The Garnewys....As we were eating smoke rolled into the desert. Driving at night wasn't much fun, smokey and difficult to see. I began to fall asleep at the wheel between Vegas and Mesquite. I had to resort to eating and entire box of Good N Plenty's and drinking coke. It was kinda tuff.
We finally arrived in the parking lot and celebrated with a few beers. Quietly because it was 1am in the morning. We missed "Titties and Beer" he was going to meet us there, but left at a sensible time.

It was really hot and humid so we decided to hook up to some hook ups and sleep for a few hours. We did this and awoke to the sound of Ahhell drumming his fingers on the outiside of our RV. Guess he couldn't sleep without AC, so we all went inside the casino for breakfast. (my dog had to stay in the RV)
We had a champagne brunch and sneaked the little bottles of champagne out of the hotel for later. No one won any money, but everyone had ice cream.
We hit the road and guess what? Driving during the daytime is easier, but much hotter! My kids got tired of bringing me gatoraid and water.
We bought gas in Kanab and I think the gas station owner there wants to have Screams baby. We filled up ; The RV, the Boat, and the Navigator. We arrive at Lake Powell and I cannot believe how low the water is. I keep taking pics of what I can see of Lone Rock when we are at the Ranger Station. Paid a small fortune to get in, as we had to pay for our Navigator to camp. (Didn't know my car could camp) So we drive over to the bathrooms with showers and are still just taking in how low the lake is, and how uncrowded it seems.....
(to be continued.............)

[Debbolas]

The worst part is here! I HATE walking up and down the beach asking people when they are leaving. So the guys take off to check out the beach and Hooterville and I head down to the water with the dogs and sons.
We are hanging out and I notice there is a motor home like mine. Well being a big RV driver I strike up a conversation with the guy and he is vacating his spot! We can have it! I go to tell the guys but they have found another place they like better, I don't care, I just want to get my boat in the water and set up camp.
We do that and then a storm hits. We huddle in the RV and the kids in the other camper and RV. We have a few drinks and pass out our Scream Hats! Everyone loves them! The storm passes and I set up dinner. First night is Taco Salad. They eat EVERYTHING!! wow, guess they were hungry.
We celebrate our first night by making huricaines and pina colada's for the kids (non alcholic)
There is this strange bus/dune buggy thing a few camps over. I have a pic of it, it is red with four tires and has seats for a bunch of people. There are a lot of off road vehicles there, but this one just stands out. The guy is parked by the ramp and is launching boats for people.
We look at the stars and find the big dipper, but not Orien's Belt.
Next day bright and early we are up and eating muffins. We are kinda slow to get started.
(too be continued.............)

[summerlove]

so Deb, how low is the water at Lone Rock?
Actually, looking forward to the rest of the story. I've been back for two weeks and have yet to post pics, but hope this w/e I'll drop a bunch into my site and post next week, along with a story or two. The low water made for a great trip, except the narrows. Narrows = Bad for boats and people.:yuk:

[24sleekenforcer]

Hi, Deb glad you and Scream made home ok. I looked for you guys at L/R on friday you must have been up with Deez or T/B . Saw you leaving D/R saturday afternoon on the other side of the dock.

[Debbolas]

From here on out the days just blend together.
What strikes me the most is the level of the lake. I saw pictures, so I thought I was prepared, but no way! The water is so low!
Lone Rock has a sand bar on the side that faces Wahweep Bay.
One day we came back to camp to discover a boat on it's side, stuck on the sand hill. We would call this our sand hill and go have drinks over there. You can park your boat in the sand and climb up and touch Lone Rock! It is still possible to drive your boat around Lone Rock.
Sand hill is far away and you must hike to it as it is surrounded by sand and rocks, not water like it use to be..
Less canyons to investigate, but the rocks are still very beautiful and we found some to jump off of.
The water is not clear like it use to be, but cloudy. The sand on our beach is black with muck, bathing in the lake is not the same. We found cleaner water elsewhere.
Remember the far end of the lake, where everyone would ski? Well it is gone, just muddy and weedy over there. The canyon that allowed water into Lone Rock Beach is dry, so the beach is cut in half. Most of the spots are inacessible unless you have 4 wheel drive. The bathrooms they built on that side are not used because they are so far away from the water.
Our neighbors at this point were pretty cool. There was a group from Texas with a Circus Tent that we had to remind to turn their generator off at night. (it was late and they were chargeing their golf carts)

We took the boats up to a close cove and hung out jumpin off rocks and drinking beer.
I think on Monday we went up to Navajo Canyon. Our first trip past Wawheap Bay. The Stateline Ramp is closed. The Wahwheap Ramp is being added to each day with gravel. We launched there and "baptized" our new prop and skeg. (just scratches, but we will have to re-grind it............no one was cut or maimed or injured by props this week!)
So, the channel is a 5 mile an hour zone. Rental Boats think this is the perfect place to stop and get wet or jump off rocks. We (or at least I was ) freaking out because our depth finder read the channel depth as 3-4 feet. With some houseboats, and our boats and rental boats the chop is about 2-3 feet with NO PATTERN! I now know what they ment by "Washing Machine"
The waves just come up randomly, in little chopping motions! Our boat was fine, but we also had a 18ft and Ahhell's 21 ft boat. The waves were rougher on their boats .
So we make it through, and the water is so low you have to go this way, by the dam. We get to speed up a bit, the waves are pretty rough (and it is a bright sunny day!)
We come to another 5 mile hour zone by Antelope ramp, but you can go to the far left and get by it....we come to another 5 mile an hour zone, that is the new Antelope Marina Development. Looks very nice, I have pics, nice new houseboats and all.
(two be continued............. )

[Debbolas]

We pick up the pace and pass Warm Creek Bay that use to connect to Wawheap Bay.
There is just like this huge channel with big canyon walls with a huge white stripe where the water use to be.
We make Navajo Canyon and search for the spot we use to stop and jump off of..........we find it and it is like 50 feet above our head!
There is a sandy hill we always stop at and this thing is just huge now! We stop there and eat lunch.
There is a houseboat spewing trash on the island. We kick back and relax. The water is clear and clean here and I am wishing I brought my shampoo.
We have to keep pulling the boats up because of the wakes moving them. After lunch the grown ups (are there any on this trip? LOL ) decide to walk around the island and leave the kids in charge of the boats. It seemed a good idea at the time.
We start off toward the back of the island, we want to walk around it. We find some old cans from the 70's when you had to push the top small button and then the bottom bigger button before drinking. We found one that needed a church key and one that had the old pull tab. I begin to pick up trash and we follow this little stream back to it's source. It is a gurgling spring
Hooterville swims through the lagoon and our dog goes with her. It looks like the blue lagoon back there, very beautiful.
We start back picking up more trash as we go. The houseboat has it's generator running and it is spinning a beach ball in place by the exhaust pipe
The boats are still there and the kids are excited to tell us how many times they had to save the boats
We see white puffy clouds over toward our camp side of the lake and decide to head back.
(2 be continued................)

[Scream]

I'll post pics later, but the water level while being low really wasn't that bad. The worst thing about Lake Powell is not being there and the worst thing about the water level is the limited access from Wahweep Bay to the rest of the lake.
We had a fantastic trip, thanks in no small part to our group; The ahhell family [Bob, Donna and kids], the Garneau [Steve, Sheri and kids] family who haven't got a screen name yet, but soon will...The Titties and Beer family (lol) [Mark and D], you guys are great.
There is just so much to explore and see. It's hard to imagine the scope of Lake Powell, even after spending many vacations there. It's like taking you boat through the Grand Canyon.
On Saturday, Mark, Denise, Deb and I were on our way back from the "cave" to Dangling rope when we spotted a small canyon, tucked away behind a huge rock. Kinda like something you'd see in an Aladin movie...We snuck in there to find a small bay. We follwed the bay and it had a small slot canyon on the side. I went in with the Scream mobile and it again opened up into a bay. T&B followed us in. This thing kept going and going. Just like the enegizer bunny...lol We figured this was Anasazi Canyon, North East of Dangling Rope Marina. Mark thought it would be a great place for an OP6C celebration.

[dicudmore]

Mark thought it would be a great place for an OP6C celebration.
Leave it to Mark

[Debbolas]

On the way back we hit a storm, ok, no problem I am thinking, we are in our new big boat! Well our friends weren't and they were really have a tough time. Hooterville crawled up under the dash, and they don't really have a dash in that boat. The rain starts and I am begining to miss my windows.......(P.S. rain at 40mphs feels like needles hitting your face, a good exfoliator, but not fun)
We come to the Antelope Marina and there is a houseboat towing........ready............two pontoon boats and 5 jet skis. He is heading into Antelope and now our friend in his 17ft boat decides to stop, even thought the cop in her boat is franticly waving him on. He stops, we stop, everyone stops and then we get to go again. We were almost nailed by a jet ski from the houseboat from hell. Then just for fun a tour boat comes by with it's big old wake.
Finally we make it back and celebrate our being alive with a few drinks. Everyone in our party (except us) vows never to visit the channel again! Can't say I blame them, it really sucks in a smaller boat.
So we hangout around our side of the lake for the rest of the week. Discover some cool coves, hang out on the Lone Rock Sandbar.
Wednesday is Bloody Mary Breakfast Day. Ahhells makes his famous biscuits. Scream makes his famous Bloody Mary's. We eat and relax. For dinner we visit the pizza place at the Wawheap Hotel. So to get there we all pile into our boat. We have 13 people in our boat and it still did 50 mph! We park our boat and head up the ramp to the Pizza Place. There is bubbling popping waste coming up into the lake at one end of the marina. (gross) It is a very very long walk. This jeep almost nails our kids, but we survive and order pizza and beer.
On the trail on the way back, Hooterville slips and falls going off road with Ahhell and Scream.
We head back, it is Ahhell's last night
The next day they pack up and leave, we hit the lake again and are having some brews at night when we see this big old boat ideling through our 5 mile an hour zone. Could it be Titties?
Sheri whistles and he stops! It is him! and his wife Denise!
What a stroke of luck that he found us. He parks the boat and we continue drinking the silvers. They sleep in their boat and the next day we make bacon and eggs. We visit the store and buy some firewood.
Our beach has changed. All our neighbors have left and are replaced by a huge clan of Mormons ( I think this because they are REALLY REALLY white and dress like the Amish) They unload some bricks and two by fours and a coupld generators. It is begining to look like a compound. I am waiting for the wire fence to go up when I notice the neighbors on our other side. Not the most attractive people in the world, they have loaded all their belongings into a horse trailer. They camp right next to our generator exhaust (so I try not to use it) These folks are from Arizona and have 5 dogs. One of them is a wolf halfbreed and very beautiful. The dogs have "potty" wars with our dog. They come and poop and pee in our camp and my dog does the same to them. (dogs are strange........we pick up our dog poo)
So we have mormons on one side and Ugly Arizonians on the other side. We have forgotten about Pioneer Day or Prarie Day, it is a momon holiday we always try to miss and somehow we have ended up being at Lake Powell on this day a lot. Seems like everytime we visit. The beach is very crowded now. Generators going long into the night. We always aplaud when people finally shut them off.
Friday is share night. Sheri makes Chile with watermelon (very tasty) I can't remember what I made, Mark makes ribs, Denise has her diet food. What did I make?!?
(to be continued............almost done..............)

[Scream]

OK, just to set this straight. Sheri made chili and also had watermellon available, not chili with watermellon in it, that's just too outside the box.