Page and Lake Powell

After Monument Valley we headed West towards the town of Page. We needed to pick up some groceries, get a minor fix to the Beast and pick up our email.

Page is in Arizona, however it is right on the border with Utah and we headed to a spot in Utah to camp. Right on the shore of Lake Powell is a National Park Service managed location called Lone Rock Beach. It is rumoured that Hugh Hefner holds a party here each summer but there was no sign of the Playboy boat when we were there. However what is there, is a stunning white sand beach on the shore of Lake Powell. There is no campsite as such but you can stay right on the beach wherever you want.

Lake Powell itself was controversially formed by damming the Colorado River and flooding Glen Canyon in 1963 but took until 1980 to fill. The lake is 550ft deep at the dam and stretches back 186 miles up the Colorado River, 72 miles up the San Juan River and has flooded a further 96 other river canyons. The total shoreline of the Lake is 1960 miles.

We pulled right up to the water – through some fairly deep sand and stayed here for three nights.

I mentioned that we had to get a small piece of work done to the Beast. We could hear a hissing sound in the cab and each morning one of our air tanks was empty. It didn’t take a genius to work out that we had an air leak. We found a garage in Page, Liberty Auto, and they took off the console in the cab and quickly discovered a fairly major leak on the differential control. Behind the panel there was a mess of airlines. Eventually three different leaks were plugged and after watching how it was done I’m now completely confident that if we get another leak in this area I can fix it myself. We must get some spare connectors and lines for any repairs that may be needed in the future.

Also while on Lake Powell we took the opportunity to get our kayak out and go exploring on the lake. I did a solo trip out to the Lone Rock and back. Then both of us went along the shore exploring various drowned canyons as we went. This really felt like the summer we didn’t have in Alaska as the temperature reached 30c each day and the nights were mild. Winter comes late to Southern Utah.

Just before leaving Lake Powell we drove a few miles outside town and visited Horseshoe bend on the Colorado river.