Today we saw the sun come up painting the sky orange and red as it rose.
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It was a pleasant morning, not too cool at 47 degrees. Our site was visited by 2 cute furry friends this morning. I guess they don’t know that Auggie lives here.
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We waited for the temp to warm up a little and left at 10:00 to check on our boat trip reservation for Thursday. We wandered around in the Lake Powell Resort after confirming where we need to check-in tomorrow and checked out the gift shop. We drove down to check out the marina after seeing this houseboat being trailered to the boat launch.
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The marina was jam-packed with boats at the docks.
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Some boats were on mooring balls farther out in the lake.
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From there, we drove to the Wahweap Overlook where we could again see Navajo Mountain and Tower Butte in the distance.
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We got a great view of the lake from that vantage point.
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I drove us from the overlook to the Carl Hayden Visitor Center at the Glen Canyon Dam.
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The bridge crossing the dam, which is 560 feet high, is pretty awesome looking from a distance.
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Once inside the Visitor Center, there were huge windows facing the dam where you have a great view of the dam structure below.
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We read the exhibits of how the dam was built and learned a lot about the Colorado River watershed. The Glen Canyon Dam was built in 3-4 years and it took 17 years to fill Lake Powell completely. That’s amazing! We made plans to take a tour of the dam on Friday. Our next stop was Horseshoe Bend where the Colorado River carved a big bend in the canyon rocks. The area is about 5 miles out of Page and from a distance we could see that it was a very popular place. People were walking on the bluff and many cars were in the parking lot.
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Luckily, we were able to find a parking space right away. We changed into our hiking shoes and started to make the walk up, over, and down the bluff to the canyon.
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Right away, we noticed that we were surrounded by Asians. They were everywhere! We felt very outnumbered. We saw more Asians today than we’ve see altogether on our trip so far. We’ve also seen more rental RVs here than any other place we’ve been. It they didn’t arrive by tour bus, they had rented an RV. There were hundreds of them. They looked like ants from above.
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This group was enjoying their reunion tour and we saw them standing on the bluff taking a picture!
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As we neared the horseshoe-shaped gorge, I had to wait my turn to get close to the edge. From where I stood, I could see parts of the river, but not the whole thing.
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What I really wanted was to get the picture everyone sees in books and magazines–the ultimate picture of Horseshoe Bend in its entirety. Finally I found just the right spot.
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What do you think? Did I accomplish my goal? There were people everywhere standing and sitting way too close to the edge for my comfort, trying to get the perfect picture.
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Bob stayed away from the edge, but was able to snap this picture of me near the edge with the zoom.
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I took many opportunities to view the river from all angles and then we made the short hike up, over, and down to the truck. On the ride back, we stopped at Wal-Mart for our last load of groceries on this trip. We have 2 1/2 weeks left and that should last us until we get home. We also stopped to fill our propane tank and stop for gas ($2.59) in town. Getting back at the campground around 2:00, we put away the groceries and sat outside with Auggie. He enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine and so did we. We sat on our perch from our campsite on the hillside watching the activity on the lake and campers arriving in the park. Auggie took a nap in the sun.
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He also kept an eye on the wildlife. There were lots of jackrabbits and birds to keep his attention.
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As the afternoon wore on, the sun and clouds created interesting shadows on the rocks across the lake. Someone mentioned to us that we must be doing the “Grand Circle”-visiting all the major parks in the Southwest. I guess that’s true–but not ALL of them. There are some other awesome parks very nearby that we just won’t get to on this trip. Maybe next time. We enjoyed the afternoon with conversation and cocktails as the sun warmed our backs. As the sun slowly slid behind the hillside behind us, we went inside to eat dinner. We made an early night of it because we have to leave for the boat tour at 7:00 AM tomorrow. We are really looking forward to our boat tour on Lake Powell.