Lake Powell

Lake Powell was created when the Glen Canyon Dam was built on the Colorado River at Page, Arizona. The water backed up and flooded hundreds of miles of deep canyons. While this created an incredible recreational paradise, it also flooded and drowned hundreds, if not thousands, of natural rock formations and Anasazi ruins.

These days the lake supports houseboats by the dozen, fishing and other recreational boats by the hundreds. There aren't that many marinas but they look to be very busy at certain times of year. In the midst of all that dry and barren red rock, Lake Powell makes quite the oasis.

These photos were taken in 1997. Since then we've had several years of drought conditions in Colorado and Utah, the water level in Lake Powell is quite low and some of these natural wonders have been exposed again. If you are interested in seeing what the Army Corps of Engineers drowned so many years ago, I'd get there soon while some of the tour operators are still able to offer visits to some really incredible places. As the snowpack in 2006 is very heavy, the lake level will begin to rise again soon and many of these wonders will disappear, maybe not to be seen again in our lifetimes.