Glen Canyon Recreational Area, Arizona
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Today began at a leisurely pace. We took one last walk along the rim of the Canyon before boarding our bus for the trip to Lake Powell. Before leaving the park we stopped at the Desert View of the Canyon which is where the Colorado River makes a 90 degree turn and the surrounding desert presents a stark contrast to what we had been seeing. Leaving there we drove along the extreme western edge of the Painted Desert and the colors of the sand dunes were amazing, even there. The top of each is covered with basalt which swells when wet and contracts when dry, acting as a cement to keep the dunes intact. From there we watched the ever changing landscape with more and more examples of dry land erosion. By the time we reached Lake Powell we were surrounded by colorful cliffs of sandstone in the most interesting shapes. Lake Powell is the result of Glen Canyon Dam which creates a lake 186 miles long with over 2000 miles of coast line. This provides a secondary water supply for Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The primary water supply is guaranteed by Lake Mead which was created by the building of Hoover Dam. We began a two night stay at the Lake Powell Resort. After getting settled into our rooms we were treated to a cruise on the lake where we saw the dam from the water and twisted our way far up into Antelope Canyon where it hardly seemed there was enough room to turn around. We viewed the very interesting colorations of the minerals painting the exposed surfaces of the sandstone. One particularly beautiful cliff was called a Navajo Tapestry because of the many colors creating its surface. We end the day in anticipation of visiting the 25,000 square mile Navajo Nation in the morning.
