Hello to the Colorado Plateau

The following blog was just the first in a series I did on Y!360 about my beloved Colorado Plateau. I am doing a copy paste of this one here but I think I will not transfer the whole series. It is obviously some place I will re-visit in person or on these pages or posting photos on Friday. I revisit this area in my paintings always and probably forever.

Up a lazy river - or down

The Colorado River across the plateau is not a lazy river except where it is dammed. The Glen Canyon Dam was one of the first built on this majestic waterway. It flooded the awesome Glen Canyon and created Lake Powell which is huge.

My sister and I decided to do a houseboat vacation because the lake was lower than it had been since initially filled and exposed more canyon walls previously underwater. Our trip heralded the temporary suspension of the drought and raised levels on the lake almost three feet. The above picture was taken as we motored out of the marina at Bullfrog. This is the shallow area of the canyon. Water is only about 200 feet deep at this point and walls a lot lower.

This is the view from the back deck of the houseboat on our first night on the lake. If you enlarge this you can see a tiny houseboat in the center of the shore line. It is twice the size of the one we were on. Our first neighbors on our eight day trip. It was not any more crowded than this.

It rained that first night and we could hear the roar of falling water but with absolutely no light except for a flashlight we had not a clue as to where the water was falling. We awoke in the morning to this waterfall just across our tiny cove. It was just a hint of things to come, but fortunately the rain was abated by days of fantastic sun and views.

View from the cliff overlooking our second mooring. We spent 3 days in this wonderful spot in part because of the great hiking trails along the rim.

My sister in typical photo trek regalia. We figure with film and digital camera and lenses and required water and emergency supplies in event of being lost we hiked with about 10 to 15 pounds on a regular basis.

Sunset on the last day of our adventure. Houseboat had to back, refueled, and clean of all our stuff by noon so we moored just one cove over. We thought it would all be easy from there but we still had a night of adventure because of the ever rising water to deal with. More about that in other posts. For more information on our houseboat rental see Lake Powell.

My sister and I are currently plotting our next Thelma and Louise Roadtrip but I think there is another houseboat trip in our future.

NOTE: These are just a few of hundreds of pictures I took and Debbie took more. I can bore you for a very long time.