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FLOATING AND FLYING IN ARIZONA
They have all sizes of houseboats and the scenery is spectacular. You can go with just two or you can go with your family or you can put together a group of friends. You can rent a 44 ft. craft for four, a mid-size boat for 8-10, or an extra large 75 ft. boat for 12. All of the houseboats are easy to handle. You are given a lesson before you cast off, and you have a ship-to-shore communications handy at all times if you need to call for advice. Lake Powell did not exist prior to 1963. It was formed when a dam was built (the Glen Canyon Dam) to control the waters of the Colorado River and to generate hydroelectric power. Environmentalists and archeologists were opposed to it because it submerged ancient homes, wall writings and burial grounds of the ancient Puebloans. Those in favor said that it provided electric power to a large chunk of the country including several major cities. Whichever side you are on, the lake provides a unique landscape for boating with red, brown, and copper-colored towering sandstone cliffs, massive nature-painted palettes and sculptures formed by wind and water, and innumerable coves and crannies to explore. In fact, there are more than 90 major canyons and 2,000 miles of shoreline. Average depth is 500 ft. although the water level has recently gone down.
Everything is furnished, including kitchenware, towels and linens. Just bring your food, shorts and a bathing suit, a paperback or two, toys for kids, sunglasses, a hat, and sun screen, and you are set. Don’t forget a camera for memories of the spectacular scenery. You can rent a kayak, wakeboard or ski tube and other water toys at the marina to take with you if you wish. Boats have a waterslide to keep the kids of all ages happy. Cabins each have a queen-size bed. Larger boats are wheelchair-accessible. The marina supplies you with maps, suggested itineraries, and directions to anchorages, beaches, and exceptional places to see such as Rainbow Bridge, a sacred place for Native American nations. A boat to sleep 6-10 runs about $820-2,780 for three days, depending on the season and the boat. A boat to sleep 12 for three days is from $1,780 to 4,395. Always carry water with you. This is a lake in the middle of a desert and it gets hot. Our group stayed at Lake Powell Resort, formerly known as Wahweap Lodge, and a good place to stay the night before your boat rental, or you can combine several days in the lodge and several on a houseboat. AIR TOURS AND FLOAT TRIPS TOO There are two other wonderful ways to see the area. For awesome vistas take a Lake Powell Air Tour. Flying over the red rock formations, the canyons, the desert, the lake, you see them from the eagle’s perspective. Then for a closer-to-earth perspective take a Colorado River float trip. You board a motorized raft with a guide, going from the base of the Glen Canyon Dam, and glide down the river between towering cliffs and canyon walls rising a thousand feet. What a historical and geological view! You are looking at the earth’s history, some of the canyon formations being 200 million years old. One stop is to see petroglyphs drawn by Ancestral Puebloans some 1,000 years ago. The float is a calm 15 miles with no rough rapids, although there are other river trips that you can take that do have rapids.
OTHER HAVE-TO-SEE PLACES IN ARIZONA In Flagstaff (Route 66 goes through it ) is the Lowell Observatory, founded in 1894 and still the seat of important astronomical research, and the Museum of Northern Arizona with more than 5 million Native American artifacts. In this area you can visit pueblos in the desert that were once home to the Anasazi and Singua people, or Hisatsinom, as their Hopi descendants living in the area today call them. At Wupatki you can actually walk among 800-year-old pueblo ruins. In Sedona you will
see red rocks and great vistas, big sky views, and sunsets that make the
desert come alive. The red color is iron
A great side trip is
to take the old Grand Canyon Railway (established in 1901) down to
Williams, a town on Route 66 that is a step back in time with an old
west museum, street shows, and an old tyme soda shop. Arizona is an Indian word, and there are now 21 Indian tribes here. To better understand the history of the area, go to the many museums and to the trading posts to see pottery, rugs, baskets and other art works and artifacts. More than 150 Native American languages are still spoken, one reason the codetalkers were able communicate in World War II for the U.S. without the code being broken.
One Navajo guide quoted J.R. Lowell “A wise man travels to discover himself.” And this trip with its grand and awesome sights and the insights into Native American culture does just that. For more information see these websites:
www.lakepowell.com
-- by Shirley Linde
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Also
in the area if you have time are slot canyons, with narrow pathways that
twist through high canyon walls. We went to Antelope Canyon, where if
you go at high noon the sun’s rays shine dramatically through openings
overhead beaming down in bursts of light.
Navajoland
is the land, 16 million acres of it, owned by the Navajo. Well worth
seeing is Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park where striking red
sandstone formations, naturally carved, push up from the flat open
desert floor into the brilliant blue sky. Be sure to include