Belonging

Lone Hiker in the Grand Alcove, Fifty Mile Canyon

"The Colorado Plateau selects it's people.  If chosen, you know; this landscape speaks to your emotions and spirit; you belong."  -Stephen Trimble

These adventures always begin with the mundane; food, sleeping bags, spare camera batteries.  Once we pull out of the dock at Wahweep Marina, though, the thrill starts to build. It felt like coming home.

Lake Powell is a place of contrasts.  Creating nearly 2,000 miles of coastline, it has flooded some (according to the old-timers) spectacular, mostly dry landscape.  I avoided the lake for years, thinking only of what was lost when the lake began to fill in 1963.  Five years ago I boarded a houseboat there for the first time and had a chat with the Navajo captain.  He made the point that it would be impossible to see much of this terrain without the lake to travel on.  In the end I decided that everything is a trade-off, and that since this water-hoarding, electricity-producing tarn isn't going anywhere any time soon, I ought to enjoy it.  Besides, water creates reflections, color and drama.

The houseboat experience is interesting, to say the least.  As camping goes, it's pretty cushy, with a bedroom (though a bit small at 7 X 7 feet for two of us and our stuff), bathroom (two shared by eight travelers) and kitchen on a 50-foot craft.  Speaking of the kitchen; our Captain, guide and chef Danny Woods (This Side of That Guiding Services) took such good care of us that we needed only to concentrate on the landscape.  Spoiled indeed.

 The dazzling lightshow in Clear Creek (Cathedral in the Desert)

Last light on the ridge above Padre Bay.

It never hurts to look down, at the tumbled cobbles delivered from distant mountains.

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water." -Loren Eiseley

Welcome Home.

More Lake Powell Images are here.