12 March 1984
Lake Powell, located within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GCNRA), is the second largest man-made reservoir in the US. (Lake Mead in the largest.) Both the lake and the GCNRA were created when Glen Canyon was flooded after the construction of a dam over the Colorado River. Though the lake straddles the state line between Utah and Arizona, most of it lies within Utah. It was named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the river in 1869.
Google Maps Satellite view of Lake Powell and the GCNRA.
(Page, Arizona and the glen canyon dam in the lower left corner;
rainbow bridge right of the center.)
Here’s a bit of Glen Canyon history from a note in my album (I’m afraid I didn’t indicate the source of the information):
The first written record of Glen Canyon is found in the journal of Father Escalante whose exploring party floundered for several days at the edge of the barrier. When they reluctantly decided to return to Santa Fe, it was only to encounter more difficulty and hardship on their homeward bound journey. On October 26, 1776, they reached the Colorado River at Lees Ferry. Laboriously, they climbed cliffs and walked through deep sand…scouting a ford. On the night of November 2, they camped along Wahweap Creek (near the present location of Wahweap Lodge). On November 7, they chopped steps in the sandstone wall at Padre Creek and safely arrived at the banks of the Colorado. This location is now known as “Crossing of the Fathers.”
The name Glen Canyon, however, we owe to John Wesley Powell who observed numerous “glens” along the banks of the Colorado. As an early advocate of water reclamation, his name is certainly most appropriate for the lake that now fills Glen Canyon.
Basing ourselves in Page, Arizona, we spent the first day getting acquainted with our immediate environs. We stopped at a few overlooks to view Lake Powell from above and then went down to the banks of the lake to get a different perspective of the scenery.
View of Lake Powell from Arizona.
Mui sets up his new SLR camera on ...
… Lone Rock Beach on the Utah side of Lake Powell.
Easy to tell where Lone Rock Beach gets its name.
Later in the day, we visited Glen Canyon Dam, the second largest dam on the Colorado River. Located near Page, Arizona, the dam is as controversial now as it was when construction began in 1956. Total cost of the project was approximately $272,000,000. The dammed water started to fill the reservoir on March 13, 1963, and reached it’s maximum elevation of 3,708 feet (1,112 m) in July 1983.
The site of the Glen Canyon Dam was chosen because the canyon
at this point was not only narrow, but there were also no faults nearby.
(OK, I admit … I added us to the photo after the fact!)
Glimpse of the Colorado River from the crest of the dam.
It’s 716 feet (213 m) from the crest to the bottom of the dam.
Our tour took us to the bottom of the dam …
… and gave us a glimpse into the generator room.
Several months after our trip, I came across this image that I found interesting … mostly because of our recent visit to Lake Powell. Here’s a bit from Wikipedia that further explains:
The winter of 1982–1983 provided a deep snowpack over much of the watershed behind the dam. This was followed by an exceptionally wet early spring. In May, there was a quick rise in temperatures. All of these factors combined to create perfect conditions for maximum runoff in the Colorado River basin. By early June, the river was rapidly filling Lake Powell. By late June, even with the powerhouse running at full flow capacity and opening bypass jet tubes, the sustained inflow of over 100,000 cu ft/s (2,800 m3/s) required using the spillways for the first time.
Lake Powell spills for the first time.
[scanned from a magazine; source unidentified]
