Lake Powell Kayak Trip

RT Mileage: 50 miles
Total paddling time: 16 hours
Average Speed: 3.1 mph
Lake Elevation: 3619 feet
Water temperature: 56º F
 

Pre-Trip:
March 30, 2010

Before spending 5 days in a kayak on a pretty big body of (cold!) water, we thought we should know how to safely make a “wet exit” from our boats, and get back in with the paddle float self rescue technique.

Goran and Sarah had taken a kayak self rescue course on Lake Superior, where Goran now holds an international speed record for getting out of and back into a kayak in 38F water.

Sarah and Goran

With celebrity instruction and amused onlookers, we perfected our technique in the Golden pool in 80F water.

Day 1
Thursday, April 15, 2010

After working 10 days straight, I was pretty stoked to be driving up I-70 with 2 kayaks and a weeks worth of gear. The double takes at the giant boats from folks with skis on their roof racks was a source of occasional I-70 amusement.

Abby and I left Westminster by 5:45AM, while Goran and Sarah got a head start leaving from Frisco that morning after picking their boats up from Matti at Ten Mile Creek Kayaks the night before. We finally caught up to their Subaru in eastern Utah. Their boats made for easy identification from over a mile away!

It was weird not to turn off for Moab but we soon reached the “bustling” city of Green River. Pretty depressing place, really, with lots of boarded up restaurants and gas stations. You know it’s bad when the local Arby’s doesn’t serve shakes!

Soon after Green River we left I-70 and headed south on UT24 for Hanksville. Here we found the Hollow Mountain “beer, bait, and ammo” store. Parked outside was the local sheriff’s truck, complete with a box of 12 gauge on the dash, SWAT seat covers, and an “I’ll keep my guns, freedom, and money… you can keep the ‘change’” bumper sticker. We’re not in Boulder anymore, Dorothy! And, I must admit, I do miss rural small towns!
 

The roads (UT95 and UT276) from Hanksville to Bullfrog were pretty interesting. As the driver, I couldn’t gawk too much at the scenery though because much of the land was open range for cattle and we saw one recent unlucky bovine victim.

Arriving at Bullfrog, we got to drive down the biggest boat ramp I’ve ever seen. Semi-trucks were being used to put house boats in the water.
 

We spent over an hour unloading boats and packing them full with five days of gear. Paddling trips are great because you can load a lot more gear in a boat than you could in a backpack. Officially our Wilderness Tsunami 145 boats can carry 350 lbs (including the engine/paddler).
 

By 3:30PM we were pretty well loaded and we set out “upstream”, heading generally east. Our goal was to find a campsite somewhere near Moqui canyon or whatever looked like a good campsite at ~6PM.

I think Abby was trying to take a picture of the birds, but I liked the way she accidentally focused on her paddle's "adventure" logo

By 5:40 PM we had covered 7 miles and were directly across from the entrance to Moqui. We found a nice campsite with a small but sandy beach to get the boats out on the inside of the big bend in the river.

There were several nice tent sites available on packed sand, and a pre-established fire pit. I had brought Omaha Steaks’ burgers and dogs for the first night’s meal. Their individual vacuum packing is pretty nifty for transportation in a wet cooler.

Goran had cleverly brought a 6x8’ tarp which made a nice porch to lounge and cook on near the fire.
 

Day 2
Friday, April 16, 2010

Despite having soft sand and two thermarests, I didn’t sleep super well the first night. I was the first one up, so instead of waking everyone with the roar of Jetboil coffee I decided to take a stroll up to the nearest most prominent point. From there I got a sneak preview of our day’s paddle and a neat vantage of our camp in the morning sun.
 

Breakfast consisted of breakfast burritos with sliced deer hot sticks for sausage and ketchup for salsa. Pretty good, actually.
 

We packed up our camp and set out for Forgotten Canyon, which was about 7 miles to our north.

We stopped at Crystal Springs Canyon for lunch on the way up. We didn’t really see more than the first turn of the canyon, but it was pretty exciting to get out of the main river channel and explore a bit. We didn’t see much of Crystal Springs, but I think it’d be a worthy detour on a future trip.

Upon reaching Forgotten, we were glad to see the Park Service floating restroom. With Lake Powell being a water source and seeing 2 million campers every year, they ask you to minimize impact by packing out human waste. The restroom was a little awkward to board from a kayak, but well worth it. Not only was it surprisingly clean, it even flushed with water at the press of a button. Seriously!

After the pit stop we explored an arm of the canyon we knew would dead end pretty quick, hoping we might find a campsite. The steep rock walls we found were certainly scenic but not conducive to camping!
 

Heading back out we figured we could certainly find a good place up the main canyon. After a couple miles we had passed one nice, but occupied, site and started to notice large, now dead, trees protruding from the water. I think these would be a real concern in a motor boat but they just made for interesting paddling in our kayaks. Soon after the trees we reached the end of the water. There was plenty of flat ground, however all the ground was pretty soft and the stagnant green water had a pretty strong swamp smell. I pioneered the first boat landing site and got shin deep in sticky, stinky mud.

Goran and I agreed we could put up with the ambiance; however we had our doubts about our female companions’ approval. By this point I was getting a little nervous; I had listened to my NOAA weather radio and knew that today we had a chance of thunderstorms. Sunset wasn’t too far off and watching the sky cloud up and darken gave us extra motivation to paddle as we headed back for the mouth of Forgotten. We knew if nothing else we passed some acceptable sites in the main channel just before the mouth of the canyon.

As the floating KYBO appeared, I noticed what looked like flat ground pretty high up above the water. There was no sandy beach but I was pretty sure the slickrock was low enough angle to land the boats and haul them out of the water.

After paddling 14 miles, we were glad to see that the spot was indeed a pretty nice campsite and came with a pre-built fire ring. Near the campsite was what we soon dubbed the Anasazi Yoga Bench, a neat overlook with 270º views. The only downside of this camp site was that the boats were several hundred yards away and all that gear I raved about bringing on the voyage took many trips to haul from the boats to camp.

Goran and Sarah cooked salmon burgers which tasted pretty great after our long day. We made a small fire but everyone was pretty exhausted from the day and we retired soon after dark.

Day 3
Saturday, April 17, 2010

We planned to spend another night at our same camp site and it was nice to leave our camp intact and paddle with light boats. We started off Saturday morning for the south branch of Forgotten which we knew would dead end quickly. This turned out to be a really cool place with probably some of the steepest and most overhung rock walls of the entire trip. It was a calm, quiet morning, the water was like glass, and a sense of awe fell over our group.

After our detour, we headed back for the Forgotten Swamp intending to hike to the Defiance House. Goran and I found a much drier and sandier boat landing site. After hiking up the canyon and crossing the small stream a few times the Defiance house ruins came into view. The heat of midday in the canyon was quickly becoming oppressive, so we agreed to find some shade for a quick lunch before visiting the sun baked ruins.

I was a little skeptical of visiting NPS-restored ruins, but they turned out to be pretty cool. I couldn’t help but poke a little fun at the Anasazi Quikrete used to make the trail up to the dwelling and the Anasazi Plywood used on the roof of one of the dwellings. Oh, and I almost forgot the Anasazi Lag Screws from 1300AD. The petroglyphs were certainly neat and it was surprisingly cool in the shade of the dwellings.

After paddling back to our campsite, we all took a little swim in the lake to freshen up. Dinner of Bangers and Mash was served by Goran and Sarah. Knowing we had only one more night of camping ahead of us we weren’t shy about using fire wood. Abby prepared Raspberry Crumble for dessert by the fire.

The evening sun was still pretty hot.  Here, Goran has used his tarp to create the only shade around!

Day 4
Sunday, April 18, 2010

We knew Sunday would be another big paddle day. We had to cruise back down the main channel to Moqui. We had hoped to camp in Moqui, however the canyon was pretty busy and we ended up exploring all of Moqui and returning to our first night’s camp site.

Moqui was definitely a neat place, with a maze of canyons, however the accessibility/proximity to Halls Crossing/Bullfrog was apparent. The human impact here was obvious and at times disgusting. Moqui was the only place on the entire trip I saw “TP flowers”.

We had lunch in a pretty cool cave, saw a house boat and a dozen swimming kids, evaded a few speed boats, and felt like we had the quintessential Powell experience.
 

It was with some relief that we finally paddled across the main channel and back to our first night’s quiet camp site. Abby and I made pepperoni pizzas and pasta with chicken and alfredo sauce for dinner.

Day 5
Monday, April 19, 2010

We got an early start for our last day, knowing that we’d be pretty much unable to chase the shade of steep walls on our way out. Monday turned out to be cooler anyway and I was comfortably cool in a short sleeved shirt

We had a 7 mile paddle to get out, so we broke it up by stopping at one of the camp grounds close to Bullfrog. Because the water levels of the lake can fluctuate (by at least 80 feet), all of the restrooms were portable welded steel structures. Once again, I was amazed to learn they flush with water at the push of a button. I have to say that Lake Powell has the cleanest outdoor restrooms I’ve ever seen, at least in April!

I think we were all pretty excited to make it back to Bullfrog. We loaded our boats onto the Jeep in the midday heat while enjoying some pretty high quality boat/people watching. I think my favorite sighting was the homemade house boat with a family with 4 little kids under the age of 5 and 2 dogs.

Despite leaving a reflective sun shade in the window, I get the impression things got pretty hot in the Jeep over the 5 days it was parked. My new NPS park pass actually melted enough to warp while resting in the window.

All in all it was a pretty great trip! I didn’t lose weight like I would have on a climbing or hunting trip but we did eat pretty well every night!

I think a kayak is a pretty ideal way to explore the side canyons of Lake Powell. I’d liken the experience to that of riding a motorcycle instead of driving a vehicle. Only in a kayak can you glide over undisturbed fish, take the time to notice the texture of the vertical rock walls, or really get a proper perspective of how big the place is.