Lake Powell

About this spot

Lake Powell is what you get when you dam the Colorado River inside Glen Canyon — a 186-mile reservoir that snakes through Navajo sandstone walls 500 to 1,000 feet tall. The shoreline is 1,900 miles long, more than the entire west coast of the contiguous US, and the canyon geography means you can foil all day without seeing another boat once you're past Antelope Point or Bullfrog Marina. The water is famously warm in summer (75-82F July-August) and famously deep — over 500ft in the main channel, with side canyons like Forbidding, Face, and Dungeon Canyon offering glassy flat water surrounded by vertical sandstone. Launch points are Wahweap and Antelope Point near Page, Arizona on the south end, Bullfrog and Halls Crossing in the middle, and Hite at the far north (water levels permitting — Hite has been intermittently dry since 2003). The early-morning window is the prize: glass-off in the side canyons before the desert heats up and the afternoon valley winds funnel through. Plan to be off the water or in protected canyons by 1pm in summer. The critical seasonal hazard is the North American monsoon, July through mid-September, which produces fast-developing thunderstorms with 50+ knot microbursts and lightning. NPS strongly advises checking the NOAA forecast and watching the sky to the southwest — you have maybe 20 minutes between a building cumulus and a hard storm. Glen Canyon NRA is NPS-managed and motorised craft including eFoils are permitted lake-wide, but enforced 5mph (4.3-knot) wakeless zones cover all marina basins, the area within 100ft of shore, and inside designated coves. Anchor and beach respectfully — much of the shoreline is Navajo Nation land where you cannot land without a tribal permit, and the Rainbow Bridge approach has special rules requiring you to stay below the bridge.