2008 West Vacation -- Southern Utah and Colorado, Day 9

Day 9, Glen Canyon Dam to Rainbow Bridge National Monument

Sunrise. Very nice. Get's bright in a hurry though.

We have a 8:15am date with the dam. Out the door, and to the dam. Get there a couple minutes before the visitor center opens.

A lot has probably changed since 9/11, they have metal detectors at the door, and don't allow any sort of bag into the facility. We pass muster and are allowed in. We have time, so we look at the exhibits, and browse the bookstore.

Our tour starts at 8:30, and it takes one hour. Pretty good dam tour. The first elevator takes you to the top of the dam, and a second elevator to the power generators. (A few levels below that is where they're keeping the Decepticon...) No stairs. I like that.

But if you want to take the tour, go there first thing to get a reservation. There aren't that many tours per day, and at 20 people per tour, so they only take 160 to 200 people per day.

Sunrise / Glen Canyon Dam

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Dam tour over, we head on down to the Lee's Ferry unit of GCNRA. We find the rock we took pictures on in 1997, and...take some pictures. We then head for the boat launch, and to John D. Lee's house when he ran the ferry. Before he was shot by a firing squad. But that's another website.

Went out to the balanced rocks, and took pictures, then sped back to Lake Powell Resort, where we had a date with a boat ride to Rainbow Bridge.

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Day 2) / Lees Ferry

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Boat was a large tour boat, which slows down when passing houseboats due to the wake. We can go through the cut, since the water levels have risen, but the lake is still 70 inches below full.

We get some amazing views from the boat of what was Glen Canyon, but is now Lake Powell. Believe it or not, we will travel 50 river miles to get to Rainbow Bridge. What we didn't know, was this was the nice leg of the trip.

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Day 2) / Lake Powell

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Rainbow Bridge, is BIG. 290' high, 275' span. I studied Google satellite maps to determine when we should go there, and the way the bridge is situated, we should go in the afternoon. Even though it was a mostly sunny day, it was cloudy when we were there. Go figure. When the hell does it get cloudy in Southern Utah?

The walk from the boat dock to the Bridge wasn't too bad, maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile. You can see how the walk could get up to a mile when the water level is really low.

After doing your normal stupid human tricks and talking with the Ranger with the T-Rex, we notice most of our group is gone, and we head back to the boat.

Boat trip on the way back was miserable. High winds, with the sun in your face most of the time. Clouds were a blessing. Jo was beat up by her hair. Well, I did offer her my hat, and she turned me down. Well, too bad. I can only be chivalrous once per day.

We were pretty tired when we got back, we decide to go to the pizza and pasta joint right next door. Pretty good., but question all the taxes added on. We'd find the big whammy tomorrow when we left, and I could examine the bill.

The boat ride really fatigued us, more than we imagined it would. Probably from fighting the wind, trying to keep your body level on a moving boat, and just having the sun beating on you most of the day.

Long day, we're beat, and the shower is mediocre. Oh well. Moon rise is 9:48 tonight. We didn't last that long.

Rainbow Bridge

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End Part 5, Day 9.
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