Friday, April 11, 2008--Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

The sunrise Friday morning was beautiful! I wish I could say that about our night! Everyone has heard the expressions 'the whistling of the wind' and 'the howl of the wind', but Thursday night, the wind ROARED at Goosenecks State Park. It felt like we were on a cruise ship and the seas were rough! The rv swayed and moved with each roar. The wind finally settled down about midnight and we got some rest.

We packed up and left Goosenecks heading toward Zion National Park. The scenery along the way was breathtaking.

It seems every road we travel has a sign to watch out for cattle. Friday we even saw signs warning of horses on or near the road! We saw one horse on the wrong side of a fence.

As we drove, we realized that it would take quite a while to get to Zion. The roads were mountainous and we climbed in elevation several times before we made a descent.

We arrived in Page, Arizona with 1/4 of a tank of gas in the rv. We used the internet to find the less expensive gas in the area and filled the tank for $3.29 a gallon. The other stations advertised $3.45!

After filling up the rv tank, crossed the Colorado River and stopped at Glen Canyon Dam.


The dam created Lake Powell which is a water reservoir for Arizona, New Mexico, California and Nevada. This is a view of the dam from the parking lot.

After reading about the dam in the visitor center (security is tight--no bags of any type allowed), we took the tour of the dam. Here is a picture of the top of the dam.

And of course here we are on the dam with the bridge in the background.
We toured the generator room. This generator was on-line. We could see the inner workings spinning.
Of the eight generators providing power only four were operating. The other four were not needed that day.

As we left the lower area of the dam we took another picture of the bridge. We went down about 500 feet on our tour. We took this picture of the bridge at our first stop going down.
This picture was taken from the bottom level of the tour.

Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the dam in 1966. She looked down from the top and saw an area of dirt. She recommended flowers be planted in the area. It was decided that flowers would take too much maintenance so grass was planted instead.

One thing we noticed at Mesa Verde, Goosenecks and Glen Canyon--tourists from Europe spending their hard earned Euros on an American vacation! We saw British and Italians at Mesa Verde.

At Goosenecks, Joyce talked to a couple from Czech Republic. They were touring the southwest for 3 weeks. They flew in to Las Vegas, rented a car and will leave from Las Vegas.

As we filled the rv in Page, there were Germans filling their rental car. On the dam tour we were with two couples from France.

Lake Powell is not full. In fact, it is at 46% volume right now. It is expected to gain quite a bit this year due to the heavy snows in the Rockies. So far this month (April), it has already gained 2%. You can see where the water level has been in the past--the white rock showing below the red.We inquired in the visitor center about camping in the area and were told there was a campground about 5 miles from the center. We decided to stay a couple of nights. The campground has excellent view of the lake. This is a view from Bob's seat in the rv (camped at our site).
And here is the view from my seat!
If it is warm enough, we may try kayaking here!