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Category: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

My World Tuesday – Lone Rock Beach Lake Powell

After leaving Buckskin Gulch I’d planned to hike the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) Toadstool Trail in Grand Staircase Escalante but it was 2pm and too hot to hike with no shade. Another day.

I continued on to Lone Rock Beach at Lake Powell where you drive right onto the beach to camp. It was still hot and also very windy so I parked nose into the wind and made my own shade.

Wahweap Bay is just one little finger of Lake Powell.

RVs, tents & houseboats line the shore for maybe a mile. I’ll bet they’re stacked on top of each other during the summer.

I sat outside working on my evening program, actually trying to remember and rework last year’s program. I’ll post this sometime.

And watching the world watch me.

 

Lake Powell, Lone Rock Beach, Utah , , 22 Comments

Water brought to the desert because of Glen Canyon Dam Arizona

End of Echo Cliffs
From the Painted Desert I drove up through a cut in Echo Cliffs on my way to Page and Glen Canyon Dam.

Page Sandstone
On top of the Echo Cliffs lies another exposed layer of sandstone, a little different than below. Windblown sand was deposited about 170 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic creating large-scale cross-bedding (angled lines) seen on exposed sandstone.
Coal fired Navajo Generating Station & Navajo Mountain
Page is a place of power, electricity production that is. The dam generates an average of 451 megawatts compared to the generating station’s 2280 megawatts.

Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam, built between 1956 and 1966, stands 710 feet high, 25 feet wide at the top and 300 feet wide at the base. The dam provides water, electricity, flood control and recreation to millions of people.

Colorado River
The dam also radically changed the ecosystem of the Colorado River. Below the dam the water temperature dropped at least 20 degrees F causing the loss of some native fish. Without periodic flooding to wash away and redeposit sediments the entire riparian habitat changed, including the establishment of non-native plants.

Lake Powell
Glen Canyon Dam backed up the river 186 miles creating a reservoir called Lake Powell with about 100 major side canyons and five marinas. This flooding buried many Native American ruins and outstanding geologic features.


I continued my journey into the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

 

Arizona, Glen Canyon Dam, National Parks and Monuments , 11 Comments

Lijit

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